RAID 1 newbie question - non identical disks

[Matt Fletcher]

Hi,

I have a 120GB IBM Deskstar and after being concerned that it might bite the
dust in the future (heard some dodgy stories about deathstars)
I want to set up a RAID 1 array.

I bought a Seagate 120GB drive since I didn;t want another IBM.

My question is would I be able to use this Seagate disk to mirror the IBM as
the BIOS reports the IBM size as 117XXX in size and the Seagate 114XXX in
size.

Is there any way theyre gonna work together?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

[the gnome]

Probably, the raid will be set up dependant on the smaller of the drives.

But why not ghost your data etc across and use the older drive for
non-essential stuff, like games apps etc.

the_gnome

 

[Thomas Wendell]

IIRC it will build the RAID array using the smallest disk in the setup....
Any extra space on the bigger disk is just lost....


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[Matt Fletcher]

IIRC it will build the RAID array using the smallest disk in the
setup.... Any extra space on the bigger disk is just lost....

Thanks for the reply

That would be superb if it did. Is this a standard feature on all raid
cards?

 

[the gnome]

I believe it is. They both need to be formatted the same, not able to have
one as FAT and the other as NTFS

the_gnome

 

[Matt Fletcher]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Think is im lazy when it comes to back up. Id love to have all my data
instantly copied without thinking about it.

 

[Toshi1873]

217.32.252.50>,
(e-mail address removed) says...

Thanks for the reply

That would be superb if it did. Is this a standard feature on all raid
cards?

Yes, because the RAID controller will present the
mirrored drive pair to the operating system as a single-
disk. (Windows won't even see the two disks as separate
units.)

If you were talking about Linux Software RAID, it's
possible to do some more advanced things, like using the
extra space on the larger drive for a scratch partition.

 

[Toshi1873]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Think is im lazy when it comes to back up. Id love to have all my data
instantly copied without thinking about it.

I know it was said elsewhere but it bears repeating:
RAID is not a substitute for backups.

As for those of us who are lazy about backups...
secondary hard drives, removable hard drives or external
firewire/USB drives are the best thing since sliced
bread. I'm sure I recommended Second Copy 2000 earlier
(which I use in conjunction with removable drive bays
holding 160GB 5400rpm drives, swapped out weekly).

 

[Matt Fletcher]

At the moment I have all my data on the fractionally larger drive.
Would you recommend I shrink the last partition a little to match the other
drive?
And if so would they have to be exactly the same size down to the
kilobyte/byte.

Or do I just let the raid card take car of it and follow its manual (when I
get one)