RAID 1 newbie

[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

 

[Arno Wagner]

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?

If you don't need/use the last 4GB od]f disk and your RAID admin
software (the message during bootup if it is a hardware-RAID?)
allows you to add a smaller disk to a larger one, you can do this.
You could then e.g. shorten the last partiton on the IBM by 4GB
using, e.g. the notoriously dangerous PartitionMagic.

If you don't have a problem with the larger disk being overwritten,
you can create the RAID-array on the smaller disk and then add the
larger disk. That allways works.

Arno

 

[Ron Reaugh]

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.

Well, from what you said above what you want to do is keep good backups.
RAID 1 is NOT a replacement for a good backup. After you have a good backup
scheme in place then if you want to PARTIALLY cover the period from the last
backup to current then consider RAID 1. That's all RAID 1 can do for you.

 

[Matt Fletcher]

Yes I back up over the network from time to time but as nothing is really
really essential on my Pc RAId would be better than nothing for a reasonable
price and effort.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Yes I back up over the network from time to time but as nothing is really
really essential on my Pc RAId would be better than nothing for a reasonable
price and effort.

And it saves you the effort of recreating your installation in most
cases. While RAID1 is not a complete backup, it does protect you
against disk-failure in most cases.

Arno

 

[Matt Fletcher]

Thanks that sounds great just need to buy a raid pci card

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

And it saves you the effort of recreating your installation in most
cases. While RAID1 is not a complete backup, it does protect you
against disk-failure in most cases.

Ah, could it be that that is what the R in RAID stands for?
Thanks Arnie, you are always such a flurry of information.

And no typos this time.