From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Hans Reiser Subject: Re: Promise raid controller writes to disk, anybody know where? Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 20:54:20 +0400 Message-ID: <3E9D8ABC.8050601@namesys.com> References: <3E9D88FB.6090109@namesys.com> <1389382.20030416185111@tnonline.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: Errors-To: flx@namesys.com In-Reply-To: <1389382.20030416185111@tnonline.net> List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed" To: Anders Widman Cc: bscott@ntisys.com, ReiserFS Mailing List Anders Widman wrote: >>bscott@ntisys.com wrote: >> >> > > > >>>On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, at 8:24pm, reiser@namesys.com wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>>I just bought this motherboard with a promise raid controller builtin >>>>whose manual mentions that it writes information to disk (volume and >>>>config info I believe). >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> Some RAID controllers write information to the disk, but never expose it >>>to the host OS. For example, say the RAID controller writes information to >>>the last block in the disk. The disk it then presents to the host OS will >>>be one block shorter. I don't know if your Promise "RAID controller" is >>>one of those. >>> >>> I put "RAID controller" in quotes because most Promise "RAID controllers" >>>are simply a more-or-less standard IDE interface, with RAID done in software >>>on the host (the software either comes from the BIOS, or the device driver). >>>You're likely better off using your OS's native software RAID in that event. >>> >>> Also, AFAIK, support for Promise RAID controllers under Linux (I assume >>>you're running Linux) is poor at best. You way want to avoid using it at >>>all. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>Ok, I'll not use it then. I was thinking of mirroring, but I was >>assuming it was all done in hardware.... >> >> > > You can still use the controller, but I would do the mirroring > natively in Linux than depend on the Promise BIOS to do it. > > > > > >-------- >PGP public key: https://tnonline.net/secure/pgp_key.txt > > > > > It is for my Mom, I want both windows and Linux, and I was hoping the whole drive would get mirrored by the hardware. It is okay though, I will have mom use dd once a week to do it, and this will protect from viruses better than a synchronous mirror. -- Hans