Re: Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen

["john nye" <wajcn50@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just checked and mine has been running since 1 May and for 49 days since
the
last reboot.

Do you know if there is any way I can check whether I have been having any
disconnects/reconnects/rebuilds?

It would be a pain if I lost the data, but not a disaster as I have all the
films on DVD's and the music and pictures are backed up elsewhere.

Guess I need to investigate other strategies -:(

John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 11:01 PM
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen



Tell you more?

OK ...

... You *WILL* lose your data if you try RAID5 on firewire ... Simple as
that.

As Li (of Laser fame) will attest I have been plugging away at getting a
media server up and running using a rather silly number of firewire drives
(currently 20) originally with Windows and then with Linux.

I did try using RAID5 across the firewire drives but one of the things that
happen with firewire drives is that they disconnect and reconnect pretty
much at will and as soon as a drive disconnects then it makes the array
inconsistent and so it starts to rebuild. Then if another drive disconnects
whilst rebuiilding then it's bye-bye data. And I don't mean disconnect as
in
"unplug" - it seems that they software disconnect and reconnect
quite
frequently.

Thankfully what you will probably find is that simply formatting your
firewire-RAID5 array will be enough to send it into spasms and that should
convince you not to risk any data to it.

I have also tried using Linux and UnionFS (Li and his nephew have spent
many
many many frustrating hours trying to support my feeble efforts) to do the
same - and whilst UnionFS is a superb tool - Linux firewire support is
still
very very flaky and - really - should be considered unusable for anything
"serious". (I have been getting *MAJOR* corruption of the
firewire drives -
usually fixable by fsck but not always.)

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of john nye
> Sent: 04 August 2005 22:37
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen
>
> Yep, that got my attention Phil.
> I've got an enclosure containing 4 x 160GB, connected by
> firewire. Tell me more.
>
> John
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxx>
> To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 9:10 PM
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen
>
>
>
> Just whatever you do for Gods sake don't try doing it across
> firewire or USB drives!
>
> Take my word for it - you don't want to try it...
>
> Phil
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
> > Of john nye
> > Sent: 04 August 2005 17:09
> > To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> > Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen
> >
> > I did the hack on my media server - been running for a few
> months now
> > without a problem.
> >
> >
> > John
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mark McCall" <lists@xxxxxxx>
> > To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 2:01 PM
> > Subject: [ukha_d] Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen
> >
> >
> > > http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20041119/index.html
> > >
> > > M.
> >
> >
> >
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