Re: Off topic--Raid volumes
From: Tumbleweed (tumbleweednews_at_mysockshotmail.com)
Date: 06/03/04
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Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 21:17:44 +0100
"Old Geaser" <old.geaser@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:OAJvc.32225$oh7.5854@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
> I recently bought a Dell XPS desktop. When starting windows xp
> home, it goes thru something about Raid volumes. If I click CTRL
> I, It stops and has something called Raid volumes. There is 4
> things to check.
> 1 Create raid volume
> 2 Delete Raid volume
> 3 Reset disk to non raid
> 4 exit
>
> On startup as it goes by I can see it says something about non
> raid disk defined, or the like. When I stop at the setup I
> opened # 1 and it said ERROR not enough non raid disk savable to
> create a volume.
>
> I have searched everywhere I could think and cannot find anything
> about Raid. I have no idea what it is all about.
>
> The only thing I can find on the hard drive is something about
> Intell Raid. In the Dell manual there is a part page saying Dell
> uses # 0 or # 1, but really does not tell what raid is all about.
> Does anyone have this and if so can you tell me what it is all
> about or where I can go to get information? Thanks in advance.
>
> Old Geaser
>
Sounds to me like you bought a Dell with two disks and they have factory
configured it as RAID, ISTR seeing that option on their web site when I was
considering buying a Dell.
Most likely they have striped the two disks, which means that any given file
will be spread equally over both disks. This is better for performance, and
you dont lose any disk space, but IMHO it is a PITA because if either disk
fails, you lose all data on both disks. So its 1/2 as reliable !
Now for the next PITA....if you dont want RAID and want to have two separate
disks instead, it is not easy to undo. If you break the RAID volume (go back
to two separate disks via your option 3) , then you will not have a workable
system disk, so the system will not boot, and you will need to recover from
a restore DVD which Dell may or may not provide. Either that or reinstall
XP assuming they gave you an XP CD?
I know all this because I went through the same issue with my new PC, which
the vendor (not Dell) had 'helpfully' set up as RAID even though I didnt
specify it. Also, after the restore, you will also need to format the second
disk since it will be invalid (as it will be just a random selection of 1/2
of what was on the disk before.) Thats easy to do, it just helps to know you
need to do it :-)
Note, it is also possible to have both disks setup for RAID as mirrored
rather than striped, this would mean everything is written to both disks
(for reliability). I think it is unlikely that Dell would have configured it
like this because you only get 1/2 the disk space. But breaking the mirror
is much easier in this case because the disk remains valid after the mirror
is broken.
HTH
-- Tumbleweed Remove my socks for email address
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