Help, my disk array has one dead member

[Liam Proven]

On 5 April 2017 at 09:29, Xen <list at xenhideout.nl> wrote:
>
> My attempt was to give a speed boost to Windows without using SSD for it.
>
> Ideally hardware raid is something Windows can't see (or Linux).


I must admit that I did not understand all of your answer. It is very
long and rambling and I can't see a clear conclusion.

You won't get much of a performance boost from RAID0 -- striping --
and it doubles the risk of a disk failure, so I would not recommend
it. SSDs are cheap now.

I am not trying to be bossy, no. I am being brief.

If you want slow, caring, careful, polite deferential assistance, that
is one of the services that I offer. It starts at GBP 75/hr and
contact me offlist to discuss your issues and how I can help.

This here, this is a conversation. It's free. For that, you get brief.

Look, in summary, it works like this:

[1] Desktops and servers are different things. Remember this.

For playing with OSes, multibooting, etc., desktops are quick, easy
and cheap. Here, sure, you can mix-and-match, play around. But don't
store anything important on such systems.

Windows software RAID is a Windows Server feature. Windows Server is
expensive. So, I don't tend to play around with it. I use it, not
play.

Servers should use proper hardware-controller RAID. Then the OS does
not need to care. Hardware RAID is expensive.

Servers have a job to do. I do not play with software on my servers. I
get them working, maintain them and leave them alone.

Eventually they get replaced.

Part of this means that servers don't dual-boot. So it's academic if
Linux can read Windows' latest disk-management system or vice versa.
It's like asking if a bicycle can be used on water. It's not relevant
to its purpose. Asking is pointless. Trying is a waste of time. Don't.

Today, server OSes don't run on bare metal, they run on VMs. The
underlying fabric manages the storage. So, some of the software RAID
stuff is historical now. It's not getting much maintenance or
development. Disks are cheap now.

So the roles are changing. Your server fabric lets you provision and
provide lots of storage; the OS needs ways to manage it efficiently.
It's not doing striping and partitioning and RAIDing any more. Now
it's managing something that is already redundant at a lower level.

Desktop storage is a bit of fun. But today, here's how it works:

You want speed? OS on an SSD. You won't have a lot of space.

You want space but have no money? Buy a big HD.

You have some money and need space? OS on SSD, data on HD.

Your data is important and must be safe?

Store it on mirrored drives in a NAS box.

And we're done. Easy, right?

Server storage is serious work, not to be played with. The questions
are about performance, reliability, scalability, manageability, etc,
and dual booting is as irrelevant as the colour of the box it shipped
in. Who cares?




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