Karaoke Forums

Raid 0 is stripping. It's done for speed.

Raid 1 is mirroring. It's 2 discs - with them being mirror images of each other. It's supported in Windows Pro and the Server editions of the software, but not the home and media editions.

Raid 5 is stripping with parity. It's normally done for speed, requires a minimum of 3 drives, and provides some 'failure resistance'.

Note: Raid 0 and 5 software sets cannot be used for booting a windows machine. Raid 1 can.

There are other forums of raid available but they're not supported in software. They require special controllers that you set up to handle the RAID configuration.

As for the ability to pull and replace a hard drive without shutting down a machine, that functionality is referred to as hot-swap. Not all controllers/computers support it, so it's best to check. In the case of software raid set ups, it's best to shut down the machine to replace the drive because I've yet to see a machine support hot-swap using software RAID implementations. Even some of the entry level hardware RAID implementations don't support it. As for software implementations, the rebuild doesn't happen automatically. It requires you to go in, specify the new partition to be used to restore the set manually.

HARDWARE based raid on the other hand, typically rebuilds automatically when you install a new drive to replace the filed one. This would apply to both raid 1 and raid 5 setups - as well as 0+1, 5+1 and other RAID implementations done in hardware.

Guess what I used to teach? (Hint: I have/used to have the initials like MCT, MCSE, A+ and a bunch of others somewhere after my name)

And guess what I do for my 'day job'?

I've done it many times, but not with Windows. My opinion is still, after all of these years, that Windows is not an appropriate operating system for commercial server applications, but I would have to go too deep into a subject that would bore most people to explain why.

-d

Minor detail but it's "Striped"...like a tiger, not stripped as the data is distributed (striped) across all the available drives instead of filling up one drive first before moving onto the second disc.


Not true with hardware RAID, I see it done all the time. The drives present themselves to the OS the same way regardless of type. Now whether or not it's a good idea is another subject.



I still do.

Sorry, for the typo with regards to striped. It happens... especially when I'm in a hurry.


RAID 0/5 - SOFTWARE implementations under Windows cannot be used to boot.

Typically, hardware implementations are simply viewed as a single volume and CAN be used to house the boot partition. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear.

I still have lots of initials... they've just changed... Now they're more like ESE (Enterasys Systems Engineer) and other network and phone related. My original MCSE was on Windows NT 3.51.... things may have changed a little since then.

I think it all depends on how you define software. Pure software RAID 0/5 can not be made in to a bootable volume, at least in Windows. What the original questions was using it as non bootable so that doesn't matter.

Also, you can make RAID 0/5 bootable if it's a BIOS based RAID. I am pretty sure, it's been years, that I have done this on my old Windows machine. Hardware RAID to me is an ASIC based RAID so BIOS falls somewhere in between.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

I'd consider BIOS as hardware based. When the operating system sees a single volume built from a group of discs - then the processing for the RAID is happening outside of the software.

However, most BIOS based implementations of RAID that I've seen do not allow hot swapping.

Personally, I consider hardware RAID (outside of mirroring/RAID 1) to be a fun thing to 'play around with' but not worth the headache to use on a production system. I've personally experienced the headaches and nightmares that result from software RAID and sequential failures. After spending 36 hours straight rebuilding and restoring a server you learn to not trust software RAID 5...

Particularly when you're forced to maintain a server that you didn't build.

Hmmm.

Raid 5 is the industry standard.
Always in the BIOS of a server.
Always hot swap.

Would not be worth implementing on a PC.
The added speed we couldn't use.
Far cheaper just to have a backup drive.

Well, UPDATE. I'm doing a "happy dance" now, copying is complete and working. Don't know anything about RAID, you guys lost me a LOOOONG time ago. What I did was a simple copy and paste of the complete harddrive from one to the other. AND IT WORKED. I just hooked it to my karaoke computer, turned on Compuhost, did a song search, and voila, it worked like a charm. Thanks to all for your input.

Rosario

I've been trying to decide how best to back-up my Hard drive too. I keep buying new songs. I often forget to copy the new songs to my other drives. What happens when my Hard drive dies? I just built a new desktop computer. The motherboard supports RAID. Windows 7 will support RAID. I think RAID 1 would be the perfect solution for my situation. The hardrives are mirror images of themselves using RAID 1, so if one drive dies, I will have the other one to use, until I get another hard drive to set-up using RAID 1. RAID works in the background and don't have to do anything once it is set-up. The original "post" did not say what kind of a computer was being used. With Windows 7, the computer must have the right Hardware that supports RAID in order to use RAID.

I use a simple program called File Synchronizer from Latshaw Systems.
It checks files against files on different drives (or same drive if you want)
to make sure that what you have on one drive is what you have on the other one.
I rip all my music to a internal HD then use the program to copy it to the external HD
thus making the both the same. Easy to use and best of all it's FREE!

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

Thanks for that.
Like it.

I use Allway Sync. You can set it up to automatically sync when you plug the drive in. I use this on my music collection with excellent results (about 880 GB or so) and for my karaoke library. You can sync specific folders or the entire drive.

There's others - including Microsoft's SyncToy - part of the Windows XP Power Toys. Not as fast as Allway Sync but it does work.

On the mac you can use rsync to accomplish the same thing.


BTW, All of the above programs are FREE. Allway Sync only costs money if you are syncing a large amount of data, but the license is pretty inexpensive.

Me too...love it. And it is a free program with free updates as well.
Excellent program!

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Music speaks to the heart in ways words cannot express.