Can I run hard drive utilities on a RAID-1 setup?

[Guest]

I'm running Windows on a RAID-1 setup using a 3ware controller.

I'm wondering if the RAID-1 setup will affect whether or not I can run
certain hard drive utilities, like chkdsk and defragmenter? If I run
chkdsk to scan for bad sectors, would the RAID controller just scan one
of the disks? And if I run the defragmenter, is it possible that one
of the disks would be fragmented differently from the other disk, in
which case my data would get totally corrupted during the defrag?

Also, if I ever want to resize my partitions, would it be OK to use
PartitionMagic or BootItNG, or would the RAID-1 setup screw up the
operation of those programs?

 

[lonely_fairy_queen]

Well, I can't say that I'm that great RAID guru, but here's what I
think:

RAID 1 makes second drive to be absolutely identical to the first one,
so using either checkdisk, or defragmenter you'll get the work done for
both of the drives. Also please note, that checkdisk doesn't fix bad
sectors. It's supposed to work with file system errors, and to handle
bad block (or faulty sectors) you should use a special low-level
diagnostic utility from your HDD's vendor.

As to partition resizing: I've had some experience with Paragon
Partition Manager and it works perfectly with RAIDs. By the way, the
deal is more about Windows drivers. You can look here
http://www.partition-manager.com/ Nice interface, a lot of useful
features, prompt delivery ang good support - I'm pretty happy with it.

Cheers,
Queen.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Well, I can't say that I'm that great RAID guru, but here's what I
think:

RAID 1 makes second drive to be absolutely identical to the first one,
so using either checkdisk, or defragmenter you'll get the work done for
both of the drives. Also please note, that checkdisk doesn't fix bad
sectors. It's supposed to work with file system errors, and to handle
bad block (or faulty sectors) you should use a special low-level
diagnostic utility from your HDD's vendor.

I think you have that completely correct. Unless you want to do
something below filesystem level (e.g. a SMART check), it does not
matter what the actual drive is. Bad blocks can some times be
handles on the filsesystem layer, but with a RAID array, better
check what your contoller manufacturer tells you to do.

As to partition resizing: I've had some experience with Paragon
Partition Manager and it works perfectly with RAIDs. By the way, the
deal is more about Windows drivers. You can look here
http://www.partition-manager.com/ Nice interface, a lot of useful
features, prompt delivery ang good support - I'm pretty happy with it.

Resizing again does not care about what the actual physical storage
device is. A free possibility (does not do NTFS) is GNU parted
(=> Google). Made good experiences with it for FAT32 and Linux
ext2.

Arno

 

[Guest]

Well, I can't say that I'm that great RAID guru, but here's what I
think:

RAID 1 makes second drive to be absolutely identical to the first one,
so using either checkdisk, or defragmenter you'll get the work done for
both of the drives. Also please note, that checkdisk doesn't fix bad
sectors. It's supposed to work with file system errors, and to handle
bad block (or faulty sectors) you should use a special low-level
diagnostic utility from your HDD's vendor.

Yes the 2 disks should be identical, at least initially. But if a hard
drive detects a bad sector in one of the disks, doesn't it move the
data in that sector into a good sector? So after that happens, the 2
disks wouldn't be identical anymore. So if you ran defragmenter,
wouldn't one of the disks get screwed up?

 

[Arno Wagner]

Yes the 2 disks should be identical, at least initially. But if a hard
drive detects a bad sector in one of the disks, doesn't it move the
data in that sector into a good sector? So after that happens, the 2
disks wouldn't be identical anymore. So if you ran defragmenter,
wouldn't one of the disks get screwed up?

This is done transparently. The externally visible sector numbers
are not affected.

Arno