Configuring storage with Disk Management

[Tom]

Hi, One of the servers in my company is being moved to a
different department to operate as a file and print
server. I want to configure the storage.

I have already found out that I will have to configure the
disks through the Disk Management tool.

1. The Windows 2000 machine has a disk configuration
as follows:

C: partition fills one of the 2Gb disks, but there are two
additional 2Gb disks and one 1Gb disk available.

I would like to create a striped volume with these
available disks, but am not sure what is the largest
striped volume I could get using these 3 disks? It would
also be useful to know the reasoning behind this
calculation.

2. How would I (step-by-step, please)create a striped
volume in the Disk Management tool?

3. If I were to decide to create a spanned volume using
these disks instead, how large could it be?

4. What advantage does a striped volume have over a
spanned volume? and why is this?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Tom

You could create two striped volumes on the 2+2+1GB disk combination. One
that uses 1GB from each disk (3GB), and one that uses 1GB from two of the
disks (2GB). A striped volume must use the same amount of space from each
disk.

A spanned volume could be 5GB.

A striped volume is faster than a spanned volume, as it accesses the disks
simultaneously, while a spanned volume will - more or less - use a single
disk until it is full, and then continue with next.

This MS Knowledge Base article, detailing the steps needed to create a
striped volume is written for Win2003, but the steps are the same with
Win2000:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=323433

Best regards

Bjorn

 

[Guest]

Bjorn,

Many thanks for your extremely helpful answer.

Kind regards,

Tom

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In addition to the other reply, I strongly recommend hardware RAID (SCSI)
over software RAID for a server if you can swing it. Far more robust - and
the OS never has to know anything about it.