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Bob.. I have a Promise controller installed in one of my machines. It's
running W2K Professional with two 30 gig IBM drives. It is setup for RAID 1
( mirroring). I purchased the machine about 3 months ago and had the
controller installed as part of the original configuration. I use a local
"custom" shop to build/purchase my computers. They installed, ran, and
tested several of the promise controllers before installing mine, all with
no problems ...mine has also run flawlessly.
Keep in mind that RAID 1 protects you from a HD failure, but is not a
substitute for regular backups. Example... let's say you contract a virus or
hose-up some files. Guess what... now you have a nice mirror of two drives
with viruses or hosed file ;-) Now.. if you have a tape/zip/CD/disk backup,
you can restore your system/files from a time before they became toast.
Also.. if you value the many man hours of work you've invested in creating
systems, data, whatever, and this data is stored solely on your HD(s), then
you'll also want to store a copy of this valuable data ( on some sort of
removable media) off-site. Fires and theft happen. Don't have all your eggs
(data) in one location.
----- Original Message -----
From: "BobR" <bobrabcd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <code-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <systems-only@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Omega List"
<omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: CL_off topic / image or mirror drive software needed
> Try http://www.promise.com and Raid 1 configuration. I have been
> considering this, but would like feedback from anyone already doing it.
>
> bobr
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> -------
>
> This article offers a quick overview of RAID and RAID terms.
> a.. RAID Levels
> What is RAID?
> to top
>
> In a standard PC, each hard drive is seen as an independent disk
designated
> by letters like C,D,E, etc. In a RAID system, multiple hard drives are
> placed into one or more "arrays" of disks. Each array is seen as an
> independent disk, though that array may include upwards of two, three,
four,
> or more drives. This is why RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent
> Disks. In an IDE RAID array, of course, the drives are low-cost IDE.
>
> Promise IDE RAID also uses advanced data handling techniques that takes
> advantage of the fact that multiple drives are performing the work of a
> single drive. This includes tagged command queuing/scatter-gather/elevator
> seek which basically re-orders requests for data depending on their
location
> on the hard drives. This provides more efficient use of the read/write
> heads, particularly in retrieving data.
>
> RAID Levels
> to top
>
> Using RAID arrays inside a PC offers much greater flexibility, depending
on
> application usage. Different RAID levels perform different functions.
>
> RAID 0 (known as "striping") basically links each drive in the array as
one
> huge drive. Storage capacity is determined by the smallest drive in the
> array. That capacity is then applied to format all other drives in the
> array. If using a 4GB, 6GB, 5GB drive in a RAID 0 array, your system will
> see one huge drive of 12GB (4GB x 3) versus 15GB. RAID 0 offers double or
> more performance under sustained data transfers when one drive per IDE
port
> is used. In such a configuration, unlike SCSI, IDE drives are always
> available to the system. SCSI requires more management of the SCSI bus.
>
> Spanning: If a user wishes to obtain all the capacity of the drives in an
> array, he may also choose to "span" the drives. Unfortunately, there are
no
> other benefits except capacity with the spanning solution.
>
> RAID 1 (known as "mirroring") makes and maintains an identical image of
data
> from one drive to a second drive or from multiple drives to a second set
of
> multiple drives. Should one drive fail, the working drive or drive set
> continues operating. To the system, such an array is still seen as a
single
> drive letter. While RAID 1 is the least efficient use of hard drives to
> provide data protection (since the user does not see any of the additional
> storage capacity of the mirrored drives), low-cost IDE makes it
acceptable.
> If performing 1-to-1 mirroring with two 4GB drives, the system only sees
one
> 4GB drive. IDE RAID 1 represents a significantly lower cost than SCSI RAID
> 1.
>
> RAID 5 uses a mathematical expression that compares data from two drives
and
> calculates a third piece of data called "parity". Should one of the drives
> fail, parity data can be used to rebuild the failed data. Under RAID 5,
> parity data is stored across all drives in the array. This maximizes the
> amount of storage capacity available from all drives in the array while
> still providing data redundancy.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bilo Selhi" <citadel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <systems-only@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Omega List" <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>;
> "Code List" <code-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 9:29 AM
> Subject: CL_off topic / image or mirror drive software needed
>
>
> > list,
> > i need a pointer on the following matter.
> >
> > i need to be able to make a back up or image or
> > mirror copy of
> > my master drive, say once a week or a day...
> > in case of failure of the main drive or corrupt
> > operating system i want to be able to
> > plug in the mirrored drive and boot to it in
> > a matter of minutes.
> >
> > so, i got me a second drive and i the removable
> > tray and all.
> > but i lack good software to be able to do it.
> > i have dos based "drive copy" and "drive image"
> > but those don't work real well ( i get errors
> > while copying drive, etc ) and i don't feel comfortable
> > using it.
> >
> > the question is:
> > - is there a reliable way to back up or mirror or
> > image your hard drive onto another hard drive
> > so that in case of sudden failure for whatever
> > reason i can just plug in the back up drive, boot
> > up to it and i am ready to go in under say
> > 10 minutes...
> > needs to be ***reliable, fast and simple to use
> > and win2000 compatible or dos...?
> > - is there software that does that reliably and
> > specifically designed to do that on win or dos
> > operating system?
> >
> > i want to be able to make the exact copy of
> > the master partition which contain the operating
> > system every day or at least every week
> > reliably?
> >
> > maybe drive duplication software or something like that?
> >
> > so far i have found novabackup and xactcopy but
> > was wondering if there is anything else out there that
> > will do it.
> >
> > thanks.
> > bilo.
> >
> >
> >
> > The Code List -
> > Subscribe/Unsubscribe
> > http://www.markbrown.com
>
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