dynamic disk mem loss

[exitnow]

can i recover the memory from the mirrored disks if my primary (third) drive with the operating system fails? i was concerned because it is a software raid through XP Pro.

 

[montag451]

Which drive is being mirrored?

The OS drive [usually C:], or another one.

 

[imported_JFG]

What do you mean by recovering the memory? If it's mirrored can't you boot in to the mirrored drive. Maybe you have to copy the 3 boot files from another machine and modify the boot.ini file to boot from a floppy

 

[RadiclDreamer]

You wont LOOSE anything. And you wont LOOSE memory.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Let me try to understand. You have 3 drives. The OS is on one drive (not mirrored) and your data is on a software RAID mirror correct?

To answer your question yes and no.

You have no mirror of your OS so if the OS drive crashes you can be in a pickle unless you've planned ahead.

Right now if your OS drive crashes, you're dead in the water. You would have to re-install the OS, which can be an all-day affair if it's a server with a lot of users and complicated shares.

Moreover, if your data is password protected and you lose your usernames and passwords during the crash (you DO have a hard copy somewhere, right?) you won't be able to access the data on the mirror even if you re-install the OS or put the drives in another computer.

I would STRONGLY recommend you make a backup image of your boot drive using Norton Ghost or a similar product to avoid the hassle of re-installing the OS if the OS drive crashes.

The whole point of disaster recovery is to get back up and running as quickly and painlessly as possible, with the most recent copy of your data possible.

I would recommend you make a Norton Ghost image of your boot drive, save it on CD or DVD and keep it in a SAFE place (fire safe on site or somewhere off site - multiple copies would be prudent). Make a new Ghost Image any time you make any major changes to the OS, or at least once a year (if this is a server, nothing should change much except for Windows Updates).

Even better would be to buy a spare drive for the OS and clone the OS drive to the spare on a regular basis (this can also be done with an imaging program like Norton Ghost). If the OS drive crashes then you can just swap it for the spare with your last clone on it.

Alternately you can mirror the OS drive, but I'm not a big fan of software mirrors for the OS. A better alternative would be a hardware RAID mirror - ideally with an add-on controller card (and you should buy a spare controller card) so that if your motherboard fries you can still access your data when you install a new mobo with a different chipset (using onboard hardware RAID mirror is suicide unless you have a spare identical mobo for a backup).

Are you making regular backups (daily or weekly?) to either tape or DVD (preferable). DO NOT rely on you hard drive mirror as your only backup! I recommend a daily backup to DVD+RW discs and using a DVD+R on fridays to make permanent weekly archives.

 

[exitnow]

i am trying to save my projects on 2 mirrored drives. so i was thinking of mirroring 2 200gb drives, and using my 160seagate for windows. but i thought that i read somewhere that if you loose the operating system, by loosing the drive it is on, then i loose the information that can seek and find the info stored on the other drives because they are DYNAMIC and not BASIC. or according to flyingpenguin, i can just make a back up image of my os, and that will have the needed info for seeking the software mirror if my primary drive dies. is this sound right?

 

[imported_JFG]

Are you worried about losing data or being able to boot in to the OS? You could make an initial image which will bring you back to the point where you image. You could just use ntbackup to copy files from one disk to another. If for any reason you can't boot in to the OS, you can simply repair or reinstall the OS, assuming that the disk isnt bad

 

[exitnow]

i am worried about loosing data. i was concerned that a hardware raid and software raid were different in the fact that hardware disks have all the info stored on them so if you break the raid, or loose the origional os, then you just put, in this case, one of the mirrored disks into lets say, a differend computer, then the new computer will recodnize all data right away, where as i was wondering that with a software raid with dynamic drives, that if i took one of the mirrored drives and stuck it in a different computer, the new aperating system wouldn't know where anything on the drive was because that information was kept by the origional os in a file, because it was infact a software raid, which depended on the software to find that data on the drive. am i bonkers or is this really an issue. i just can't remember where i was reading about dynamic disks, and their problems. for one thing i have heard that switching a dynamic disk back to basic will cause all data to be lost. i am just concerned because 100gbs is too much to loose. really this question is about dynamic disk problems and raid, if there are any.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

The big difference between hardware and software RAID is that you can't read a drive from a hardware raid array on a system that doesn't have the same RAID hardware controller. That's a valid concern.

If your RAID array was created on a Promise RAID controller chipset (for instance) the drives cannot be read on a standard IDE controller or any other manufacturer's controller. All RAID controller chipsets use proprietary RAID array configurations. There is NO standard. They're not even compatible within the same manufacturer - newer cards CAN'T always access arrays made by older cards, so buy TWO cards at the same time and check them to make sure you have two identical cards with the same revision and install the same firmaware in them.

This is why, in my recommendation for a hardware RAID array, I recommend using an add-on card instead of the onboard controller AND buying a spare card in case the something happens to the original card.

With a software RAID array, you can read the drive on ANY computer BUT if the files are saved by a user account with password protection you CANNOT read those files unless you log onto the other system with the same user account. I have seen this happen so many times it's absurd.

No matter what you decide to do, you would be foolish not to make a Ghost image backup (or whatever image utility you want to use - I happen to prefer Ghost) of your boot partition (OS drive). No matter what happens, you can ALWAYS slap a new OS drive in there, and restore the Ghost image and the OS drive is back EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS when you made the image - with all user accounts, passwords, permissions, file shares, printer shares, whatever EXACTLY as they were on that day.

I do computer repair work and consultation. I NEVER work on a client's server, or mission critical workstation (I won't even defrag it) without making a Ghost image of the drive first.

 

[exitnow]

thanks alot mr. penguin. i think i will buy 2 cards and do that; they are fairly cheap. thanks for your time.