Re: RAID 1 drives and mirroring of data for backup question

From: Frank McCallister SBS MVP (anonymous)
Date: 01/08/05 

Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 08:23:55 -0600

Hi Nick

Your RAID is setup properly - Your Install Isn't. Dell does this (other OEMs
also) poorly. Go into Computer Management and Under Storage, Disk Management
Format the unused partition. If you want it D you will need to change your
CD letter first. Then see
http://msmvps.com/bradley/archive/2004/09/26/14417.aspx for moving data. I
disagree with Bryant on having Dell do this. The Technician Dell sends most
likely knows the Hardware and basic Windows. You don't want him messing with
Server!!!! 

-- 
Frank McCallister SBS MVP
COMPUMAC
"Nick Dee" <caprice24 at yahoo dot com> wrote in message 
news:R8WdnW4P29cFCELcRVn-3w@comcast.com...
>I have a question about RAID 1 drives.
>
> I recently ordered a Dell server that had the following configuration 
> recommendation:
> Dell recommends at least a RAID 1 configuration for all servers in order 
> to protect your business data. RAID 1 requires 2 hard drives and "mirrors" 
> your data, so that in the event of a crash the 2nd hard drive 
> automatically takes the place of the original hard drive without any loss 
> of performance, data or time.
>
> After I ordered and received the above mentioned Dell system, I looked at 
> it under My Computer to see how it was configured. There are two 80 GB 
> drives, but I am puzzled about the way the first drive is partitioned. On 
> the the primary drive, there are two partitions, one partition of 12 GB 
> which has the sbs system on it, and then an extended NTFS partition with 
> nothing on it. The secondary drive is configured as one gigantic 80 GB 
> partition.
>
> Now I am worried because in my setup of the sbs, all the user shared 
> folders and exchange mailboxes were by default installed in the system 
> partition, with its puny 12 GB of capacity. Already, I'm pushing 6.5 GB 
> with the present data, and quite soon I'm going to fill up the primary 
> partition.
>
> Shouldn't the user shared folders and exchange mailboxes be put onto the 
> extended partition?
>
> Also, I don't see how mirroring of data from one drive to another is being 
> accomplished. Is there some software component that is missing that needs 
> to be installed in sbs to get it going? It is obviously not happening 
> right now.
>
> And what about the fact that the two drives are not the same size anymore, 
> due to the primary drive having two partitions of 12 GB and 68 GB? Don't 
> both drives, if they are mirroring each other  have to have the same 
> partition size?
>
> Since I am a novice at this, I would appreciate some insight about how to 
> accomplish data mirroring. Ideally, I would like the second hard drive to 
> mirror the data as Dell quotes in their online literature to keep the 
> system online in the event of a hard drive failure, or at least in a state 
> where data recovery is possible.
>
> It's all very confusing.
>
> Nick Dee
>

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Loaded SP2 now Im in a boot loop...Things to try.
    ... and missed that it would load XP on the highlighted partition. ... had windows install the driver off of the creative ... Windows only cares about windows getting on my drive.. ... then I will swap the drives.. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Boot Problems
    ... partition on the 1st drive to E: Data partition on the 2nd drive. ... course having to download all the Windows Updates including SP2. ... The way I would install Windows XP is as follows: ... for backing up and recovering files, drives, system etc ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Using partimage and virtualbox
    ... does not like plain old DVD +R disks and insists on DVD +RW, ... My question is -- should I be breaking the WinXP partition up into DVD ... It seems that virtualboxOSE will only install an OS from either a DVD, ... either two drives or a bootable Win on it's own partition and later SP ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: Using partimage and virtualbox
    ... does not like plain old DVD +R disks and insists on DVD +RW, ... My question is -- should I be breaking the WinXP partition up into DVD ... It seems that virtualboxOSE will only install an OS from either a DVD, ... two drives or a bootable Win on it's own partition and later SP levels of ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: Hard Drive Partition
    ... let it format the HD and then install XP as a new install ... frontal USB drives ... Legacy Video Capture Devices (WDM Video for Windows Capture Driver ... used until it has it least one partition on it. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)