SATA on Linux vs. WinXP WAS Help me to get rid of windows forever

Robin Laing Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Fri Apr 30 17:18:36 UTC 2004


Guy Fraser wrote:
> Robin Laing wrote:
> 

> 
> 
> It depends on the hardware.
> 
> On Compaq Servers, the SmartRaid Controller has a significant advantage 
> over software raid. If you loose a drive, it will rebuild the new drive 
> transparently to the OS. The compaq controllers also have a commandline 
> admin utility. When do a fresh install, you setup the arrays first, then 
> install and no additional steps are required.
> 
> Most SATA raid controllers are not true hardware raid, most are standard 
> SATA controllers with RAID in the BIOS, and it uses the systems cpu to 
> do the RAID. 3Ware and a few other vendors make true hardware RAID SATA 
> controllers that have their own processor to handle the raid on board, 
> but as one would expect they cost more.
> 
> We use both hardware and software RAID at work for different projects. I 
> have had drive failures on both types and the hardware RAID systems were 
> easier to diagnose and fix {Hot Swap}, but both types recovered without 
> loss of data.
> In the last 10 years I have had to replace a number of drives on various 
> operating system platforms, and running various operating systems. Linux 
> and FreeBSD were both about the same and by far the best at recovering 
> from partial or complete drive failures. I used a linux machine to make 
> a forensic copy of a hard drive from a Windows XP machine that would not 
> recover from a partial drive failure. I duped the copy to a new drive 
> and then Windows XP was able to recover. Goes to show the flexability of 
> linux over most other operating systems. I still have the 20GB image of 
> the drive from the XP, and have mounted it with a loop device to grab a 
> few files, that XP broke while 'repairing' it self.
> 
> Good luck.
> 

Thanks for the info.

I have onboard SATA with RAID and I decided to use Software raid. 
Looks like I made the right choice.  Asus MB with SI controller.


-- 
Robin Laing





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