Raid 1 for System Disc?

R

rhmclay

n00b
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Oct 7, 2009
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Everyone,

I was getting ready to purchase my equipment for my WHS, when I read another post and found out someone uses RAID 1 on their system drive, so that the OS is continually being mirrored and reduces the chances of losing the OS.

Does anyone here actually do that? If so, how would I set this up? I know nothing about RAID. I am assuming I can just make it my OS drive and then the drive that will mirror it. I don't want to mirror all the storage pool drives also - that seems like a waste of space.

Any suggestions on whether it is useful, and then if it is, on how to set it up would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Again!!!
 
Google is your friend. Google "RAID 1" and I am sure you will find your answer.
 
I actually did google RAID 1 and that's how I found out what the differences between the RAID configurations are, etc... But never found much on RAID 1 and WHS, other than a lot of posts about WHS not supporting RAID. If you found it, I must have been using different key words.

And trust me I am still trying to find it using google, and the search functions at a few different sites. Just not a lot of luck. Just thought a quick post might save me hours of searching, sort of a needle in a haystack, and only take a few moments of someones time to explain. But if this has been answered ad-nauseum here than I apologize - because I know that gets irritating too and I apologize for the re-post then.

Although using the search here hasn't really been "friendly" in finding the answer either.
 
I dont think it will work, and heres why. If you raid your C: partition you are also raiding the part thats C:\fs\XXXX that points to your shares....But then again, it MAY work, as when you open WHS and do a "properties" on C: it shows as 20 gigs......hard to say unless you try it.

A couple of things to point out. People have used cards/mobo built in raid setups ala raid 5 that I think have worked. And also raid 0. I think the problem you MAY have will be if the raid controller/logic sees drive C and all the shares its pointing to also. I do know that traditional "imaging" software supposedly doesnt work as you C drive and the tombstones and system files on it are changing constantly. IE< if you try to restore a lost OS drive from an image, it wont be the correct image.


As for grumpy people here who have nothing constructive to say and are basically looking to up their post count dont worry about it. I have read everything I could get my hands on about WHS for the last month and dont recall ever seeing anything about Raid 1 on a C; drive so I am not suprised a search turns up nothing.


Your best be, try it, and be sure to let us know the results. Install WHS, play with it a few days, and then try to recover with the backup C; drive from youre 1;1 raid. I would certainly be interested.


Also, if youre willing to be the guinea pig, post up your system specs and someone will help you get that raid up and running.
 
We're not 'grumpy' and looking to 'up our post count'. The OP never made any mention that he/she did a Google search for their issue. We do like to help here but it is assumed that one would try to help themselves first. The OP never linked us to the other post where someone else uses RAID. That may have been helpful.
 
Pretty much every motherboard with SATA ports can do fakeraid RAID 1. Set it up in BIOS (change SATA mode to RAID), configure the array (usually a tool pops up after POST but before OS boot) and just install to it normally.

RAID 1 is a little different than all the other levels because it is a true mirror, and the fact that it's a RAID (should) be completely transparent to the OS.
 
I hope I haven't angered anyone, that wasn't my intent. Old Hippie, I am sorry, I did use a variety of ways to look for it on google, but hadn't seen that one. Funny thing is, I know I searched on raid 1 on whs and i just redid that one, and it was the first one there as well - so not sure.

So it looks like no matter what size of the drive that is used in the mirror, it will only use 20GB of it. Hmmm, so there doesn't seem to be much use for it then, I guess. I am just a little nervous, because I read Jay's post about his system going down and him pretty much losing everything, and it scares me to death.

So does most people just "hope" that nothing happens to their system drive, and then if it does they plan on just using the DVD to "recover"?

I may still do it, and if I do, I will let everyone know what the outcome is.
 
So does most people just "hope" that nothing happens to their system drive,
Click to expand...

My "hope" is a 1.5TB external drive that mirrors my data. :D

I still wanna see you do the RAID thing.

If it works well, I might try it. :)
 
I think the killer if it is gonna work or not is the fact of trying to raid 1 JUST the os drive. If you do raid 1 on the whole system, I bet that will work, but doing JUST the os drive is gonna be the wrench in your works. But hey, give it a try man, if it works, it would be awesome. If my server wasnt tied up for the next few days transferring to a new backup system Id try it, and still may. Id LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a backup of my C:.

Edit : FWIW, I googled also, and pretty much all of it was doing a raid across the whole system , not just the C; drive.

Oh, and one more thing, I lost a few pics, not a huge deal, but the potential was/is there. Now, I am not saying I couldnt retrieve those few files, I have in the past pulled all my drives out and went thru them and got all my stuff when a C; drive borked out ( even the data on the c: drive was recovered) And I did NOT try to reinstall ( WHS's recommendation for pretty much anything, lol ) and that MAY have gotten it back in order. I was mainly peeved that here I am spending tons of money on spare drives to have WHS duplicate, and a simple lost tombstone screwed me out of data that was on 2 spindles......;( Also note, that raid 1 may not have helped in my situation, because if its not on the first drive of a 1;1 I dont know if it would have been retained on the second drive.
 
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Cavediver,

You beat me to it. I was the one that actually asked the question over at AVS Forum as well, and the answer from MiBz was very good.
 
Wow, this ( to me personally) is awesome news about WHS. I knew how raid 1 worked basically but didnt realize the second disk just basically took over on the fly. My WHS mobo supports Raid 1 too, and I happen to have an identical drive as my os drive free. I wonder, since this doesnt actually build an array by merging space like raid 5 or 0 or 6 if I can just pop the other disk in the system and set the bios for raid 1. My mobo allows IDE raid and the Os drive is the only drive on IDE, so I dont think Ill have any conflicts as far as it being on the right controller path..............heck, now that I think of it, I got 2 80 gigs and a 160...... raid 0+1 maybe :D Off to do some research,
 
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