RAID Lv 1: Grub fails to install!

[Rigved Rakshit]

>
> > Hi,
> >
> > My friend also has a similar problem. His laptop came with fakeRAID, with
> > the drivers installed in Windows. This fakeRAID setup can be controlled
> via
> > BIOS. The solution suggested in this thread requires installing Linux
> using
> > mdadm. But, will that cause a problem with the Windows install? My friend
> > does not want to lose his original Windows install. Is there a way to
> > install Ubuntu to such a system?
>
> Wrong tool.
>
> `mdadm` is for administering Linux software RAIDs. These are not
> compatible with firmware fakeRAID, at all, ever.
>
> There /is/ a Linux tool, `dmraid`, which is used to manipulate
> firmware fakeRAIDs. I have not tried it.
>

Ok. Got it!


>
> I *really* would not recommend it.
>
> FakeRAID is a hack designed to get around manufacturer-imposed
> restrictions in Windows and Mac OS X workstation editions. Both these
> OSs are perfectly capable of creating, using and managing software
> RAID arrays but the vendors block you from doing this because that is
> a feature of the expensive server editions.
>
> FakeRAID works by lying to the OS' disk device driver, or by
> installing modified disk device drivers. This is not an approach that
> plays well with dual-booting. A small change on one side could well
> completely erase the arrays of the other OS.
>
> It's there. Use it at your own risk. I use RAID a lot and I would not
> touch it myself. You /might/ - I emphasize MIGHT - be able to get a
> separate Linux install on an actual disk to mount and read a Windows
> fakeRAID array. I suspect that trying to *install* Linux onto such an
> array is an exercise that will result in long days of repartitioning,
> reformatting, and reinstalling multiple OSs over and over and OVER
> again... and that the end result would be about as stable as an
> elephant balancing on a traffic cone on one foot.
>

Thanks for the info!


>
> Since the entire objective of RAID is stability, this seems extremely
> self-defeating to me.
>
> Buy more disks, or break the array and use one disk for Windows and
> one for Linux.
>

Yes, that would be only solution. Break the RAID array. The advantage this
will give is that I will get two hard disks from this. I can have Windows
on one (along with it bootloader) and Ubuntu on the other (along with
GRUB). This way, removing one disk in the future will not affect the other
OS.

I will have to investigate whether this is possible without re-installing
Windows. Maybe, I will only need the Windows recovery CD to re-install it's
bootloader.

Last solution will be to run Ubuntu in VirtualBox inside Windows.

Best Regards,
Rigved Rakshit
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