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Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology built-in?
Basically, we need a system which will write to two drives at a time so if
one drive goes down we can automatically read the data from the other drive
immediately.

Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of pounds?

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In news:,
ºoºfizzyºoº <> typed
|| Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology
|| built-in? Basically, we need a system which will write to two drives
|| at a time so if one drive goes down we can automatically read the
|| data from the other drive immediately.
||
|| Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of
|| pounds?

There are dozens of mainboards being sold these days with on board RAID
controllers.

Do some research on RAID and also on different brands of mainboards, so you
get an idea of what you're getting into.



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What's that supposed to mean??





"Robert de Brus" <de_brus@h o t m a i l.com> wrote in message
news:QGj9b.3044$...
> X-No-Archive: Yes
>
> In news:,
> ºoºfizzyºoº <> typed
> || Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology
> || built-in? Basically, we need a system which will write to two drives
> || at a time so if one drive goes down we can automatically read the
> || data from the other drive immediately.
> ||
> || Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of
> || pounds?
>
> There are dozens of mainboards being sold these days with on board RAID
> controllers.
>
> Do some research on RAID and also on different brands of mainboards, so
you
> get an idea of what you're getting into.
>
>
>
> ---
> Message has been scanned and is, to the best of my knowledge, Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.518 / Virus Database: 316 - Release Date: 12/09/2003
>
>

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 16:29:45 +0100, ºoºfizzyºoº wrote:

>What's that supposed to mean??
>
>
Could be www.google.com possibly.
>
>
>"Robert de Brus" <de_brus@h o t m a i l.com> wrote in message
>news:QGj9b.3044$. ..
>> X-No-Archive: Yes
>>
>> In news:,
>> ºoºfizzyºoº <> typed
>> || Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology
>> || built-in? Basically, we need a system which will write to two drives

<snip>

Me

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 14:50:19 +0100, ºoºfizzyºoº wrote:

>Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology built-in?

Yes, 'some sort' is the operative phrase. A lot of mobos have 'Lite
RAID BIOS' limited sometimes to only 2 RAID levels and 2 drives.

>Basically, we need a system which will write to two drives at a time so if

www.google.com for 'raid level' or 'raid tutorial' or even the 24HSHD
archived posts http://groups.google.com/ .

<snip>
>Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of pounds?

Depends on how valuable your data is.

Me

MSI make good RAID boards. KT3Ultra2 come to mind. Also the KT4. What
processor are you using?
Mirrorfolder 2.0 can mirror your drives or folders drive to drive or over a
network. 30day trial, $34 bucks to buy.

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"ºoºfizzyºoº" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology built-in?
> Basically, we need a system which will write to two drives at a time so if
> one drive goes down we can automatically read the data from the other
drive
> immediately.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of pounds?
>
>


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ºoºfizzyºoº wrote:
> Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology
> built-in? Basically, we need a system which will write to two
> drives at a time so if one drive goes down we can automatically
> read the data from the other drive immediately.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of
> pounds?

The answer is yes, but Raid doesn't work that way, if one hardrive
goes down you've effectively lost everything as the data is shared
between the 2 drives, not duplicated on both...

--
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Life is pain.....
Deal with it!!

Kraftee wrote:
> ºoºfizzyºoº wrote:
>> Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology
>> built-in? Basically, we need a system which will write to two
>> drives at a time so if one drive goes down we can automatically
>> read the data from the other drive immediately.
>>
>> Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of
>> pounds?
>
> The answer is yes, but Raid doesn't work that way, if one hardrive
> goes down you've effectively lost everything as the data is shared
> between the 2 drives, not duplicated on both...

That isn't exactly right Kraftee.. it applies to some levels of RAID
implementation but not all of them.

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"ºoºfizzyºoº" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Is it possible to buy a PC with some sort of RAID technology built-in?
> Basically, we need a system which will write to two drives at a time so if
> one drive goes down we can automatically read the data from the other
drive
> immediately.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to do this without spending thousands of pounds?
>
>

If you are using windows 2000 or higher, there is a "mirroring" function
built into the drive controllers.

With two reasonably identical drives you can mirror the data drive with
Windows. (Though I would put them on separate IDE controllers).

Only the cost of the extra drive is there.

Otherwise, a set of IDE drives, hot swappable and so on is not all that
expensive. ~$400 american including the drives, rack and controller.

Though, if your stuff is that important spend some cash on it, a good backup
drive or tape drive an a few creative batch files can do wonders.

To answer your question directly:

Yes, RAID motherboards are available. (Note they require SCSI disks) IDE
mirroring may be the way to go for you though.

If your stuff is that important also consider:

- a professional to do the stuff for you
- tape backup such as Jazz (good for home users, but small)
- redundant hardware, keep drives, memory, (maybe) CPU and a power supply on
hand so if something blows up you have a part to pop in quick

JabberSmith wrote:

<snip>

> Yes, RAID motherboards are available. (Note they require SCSI disks)
> IDE mirroring may be the way to go for you though.
>

<snip>

There are plenty of motherboards on the market nowdays that offer at least
RAID 0/1 using IDE and/or SATA drives..

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Stevo
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