Re: New PCI IDE controller or new mainboard - advice needed

Currently '\Program Files' is a junction that points to a folder on a RAID
stripe. All my programs start really fast.

The most simple way to achieve this is by using a dual-boot configuration.
If I boot OS2, I can move '\Program Files' for OS1 to another partition and
create a junction to it. The OS1 will not even notice the change, but
performance will increase.
linkd.exe "c:\Program Files" p:\programs


Installing to stripe will also allow windows to start faster and all I/O
operations to the '\WINDOWS' folder will take less time.

If I backup all information to DVDs, before testing and implementing this,
then I will be safe to make mistakes. Basically I need to learn how it`s
done only once, then it will be easy to build the system.

I know that RAID-stipes are not tolerant to disk failure, but I`ll try to
compensate with backups and an additional OS booting from a basic disk.

I guess that an expensive PCI card will be less problematic. Any
recommendations for brand and model? It`s time to explore products and
futures on the markets and an Internet (for that means Google for it).



"Bob I" wrote:
The PCI card can do hardware RAID, you will need to install the drivers, I
would NOT try installing the operating system on the striped RAID. You are
facing an uphill battle getting that to work and then marginal
"performance" increase and a lot of headache.

George Valkov wrote:
"Yves Leclerc" wrote:

There are few, and less, motherboards that have separate IDE port. Most
now
come with SATA only.

When I purchased the two new IDE disks 2 months ago, I had to maintain
compatibility with my mainboard. I also prefered to stick to the old and
aproved IDE.


The reason that you performance is low is:

1) Software RAID -- This take Windows resources and slows every thing
down,
whenever the RAID stripe is verified/rebuilt.
2) Slave Drives -- Each IDE cable can only read/write one drive drive at
a
time. So if the slave drive needs to read from /written to, the previous
request need to stop or complete, This is why when setting up a software
RAID
on IDE, most power users usually only place one drive (Master) per IDE
cable.
No slave drive used.

Yes and that`s why the two disks that host RAID stripes are the two
master devices.
I realise that and that`s the reason I wanted to have four IDE channels -
this alows four devices working as master.

The mainboard does not have RAID. A friend of mine (hardware PC
programmer), told me that when BIOS finds a PCI card, it will send
control to its BIOS and this will alow me to have a RAID BIOS for the new
PCI IDE controller, from where I will be able to build the RAID stripe.
Right?

Then windows should discover the controller and install drivers for it.

I will also be able to install windows on the RAID stripe, won`t I?



As for set up servers with RAID (mirror or stripe,) I mostly recommend
SCSI or
SATA configurations. SCSI based configurations allow multiple
reads/writes at
the same time and SATA configurations, each drive is directly cabled to
one
SATA port. No Master/Slave configurations on the same cable.


This is good to know! Soon I won`t have any slave devices, so I guess I
will be fine with IDE too. SCSI is a high performance interface for
high-end servers. A good PCI IDE card with RAID will be just enough for
my home-server.




On 12/10/2006 "George Valkov" <a@xxxxx> wrote:

When I access two IDE devices on a same channel, performance is low. I
have
four devices and only two slots, so two of the devices are slave.
Primary master and secondary master are two new hard-disks, same type,
dynamic disks with software STRIPE partitions. Primary Slave is
DVD-burner.
Secondary slave is the boot hard-disk.

What would you recomend me?
a/ Buy a new mainboard with four IDE channels?
+ it will support AGP8 (the current mainboard supports AGP4)
- is more expensive
- I may have problems activating windows 2003 ent server
b/ Buy a new PCI IDE controller?
+ it will support hardware RAID / STRIPE and I will probably be able to
boot from it (I currently use a software STRIPE on two dynamic disks).
+ It is cheaper
- I may have problems activating windows 2003 ent server

There will be 4 IDE devices and a 4 PCI devies changing its location.
Two of
which are LAN cards. Should I notify Microsoft before changing the
locations
of the hardware, so that they expect the hardware changes and activate
windows for me? I don`t care If I have to reinstall windows.



details:
/dev/hda : [0,0] Segate Baracuda 320GB 16 MB cache 7200rpm DMA5
/dev/hda : [0,1] Plextor PX-760A 2MB cache DMA4
/dev/hdc : [1,0] Segate Baracuda 320GB 16 MB cache 7200rpm DMA5
/dev/hdd : [1,1] Segate 40GB 2 MB cache 5400rpm DMA5



Thank you for any advice!





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Y.







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