RAID on Windows XP Pro

[Guest]

Hi there,

I want to implement RAID on my new system.

Will Windows XP Pro support a combination of Software and Hardware based
RAID?

I will implement 2 x 200GB SATA drives for the OS in Software RAID (don't
know which one to select yet, RAID0 or RAID1). The hardware based RAID
drives will be 4 x 400GB SATA II drives in RAID5.

My motherboard is the ASUS P5WD2-E Premium
(http://za.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=248&model=981&modelmenu=2)

Is it also true that one needs to edit the Dmconfig.dll, Dmboot.sys and
Dmadmin.exe so that RAID 5 works without problems in Windows XP Pro
(according to an article in PCworld)?

Thank you for any feedback!

 

[DL]

Software raid can be problomatic

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I want to implement RAID on my new system.

Will Windows XP Pro support a combination of Software and Hardware based
RAID?

I will implement 2 x 200GB SATA drives for the OS in Software RAID (don't
know which one to select yet, RAID0 or RAID1). The hardware based RAID
drives will be 4 x 400GB SATA II drives in RAID5.

My motherboard is the ASUS P5WD2-E Premium
(http://za.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=248&model=981&modelmenu=2)

Is it also true that one needs to edit the Dmconfig.dll, Dmboot.sys and
Dmadmin.exe so that RAID 5 works without problems in Windows XP Pro
(according to an article in PCworld)?

Personally - I'd avoid software RAID. You will more than likely lose
performance and add a risk you just don't want as well.

The choice between a RAID0 or RAID1... Well - it comes down to do you want
to mirror everything on the hard drive or do you want to double the amount
of space you have available but have not redundancy in case of a failure?

I am unfamilar with the PCWorld article. Please give more tdetails (link to
it, for example, etc.)

I did a quick search and found this:
http://www.controlshiftescape.com/tech_WXPraid5.php

And looked more carefully and found an article I would trust here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/using_windowsxp_to_make_raid_5_happen/index.html

Which led me to the conclusion that I was leaning towards anyway - that's a
software RAID5 in Windows XP Pro... Neato.

Okay - I am just not into software solutions where hardware can come in and
take the burden off a possibly already overloaded system. (If not
overloaded - well - why give it something to do that a $80 card can already
do for you - and do it better, safer, faster and without using up your
precious CPU cycles?)

But - that's *my* opinion. The Tom's Hardware article walks you through
everything. If you *have* to setup a RAID5 without a proper controller - go
for it. You'll save some money and sacrifice a little performance - but at
least it is a RAID5 - which is a good compromise between safety/performance.

 

[Guest]

Personally - I'd avoid software RAID. You will more than likely lose
performance and add a risk you just don't want as well.

The choice between a RAID0 or RAID1... Well - it comes down to do you want
to mirror everything on the hard drive or do you want to double the amount
of space you have available but have not redundancy in case of a failure?

I am unfamilar with the PCWorld article. Please give more tdetails (link to
it, for example, etc.)

I did a quick search and found this:
http://www.controlshiftescape.com/tech_WXPraid5.php

And looked more carefully and found an article I would trust here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/using_windowsxp_to_make_raid_5_happen/index.html

Which led me to the conclusion that I was leaning towards anyway - that's a
software RAID5 in Windows XP Pro... Neato.

Okay - I am just not into software solutions where hardware can come in and
take the burden off a possibly already overloaded system. (If not
overloaded - well - why give it something to do that a $80 card can already
do for you - and do it better, safer, faster and without using up your
precious CPU cycles?)

But - that's *my* opinion. The Tom's Hardware article walks you through
everything. If you *have* to setup a RAID5 without a proper controller - go
for it. You'll save some money and sacrifice a little performance - but at
least it is a RAID5 - which is a good compromise between safety/performance.

Thank you Shenan, for your reply!

The article on tomshardware was the same information I read in the German
edition of PCWorld called "PCWelt", I just have one more question.

Do I still have to edit these (Dmconfig.dll, Dmboot.sys and Dmadmin.exe)
files when I am going to implement RAID5 through a hardware controller, so
that Windows XP recognizes the RAID 5 setup?

Cheers,
Markus Kucken

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Markus Kucken wrote:

Thank you Shenan, for your reply!

The article on tomshardware was the same information I read in the
German edition of PCWorld called "PCWelt", I just have one more
question.

Do I still have to edit these (Dmconfig.dll, Dmboot.sys and
Dmadmin.exe) files when I am going to implement RAID5 through a
hardware controller, so that Windows XP recognizes the RAID 5 setup?

Shouldn't.

Hardware should handle it all for you - it will be configured in its own
utilities - many of which you will use before ever loading Windows.