09/05/2011, 03:59 AM
Okay, so all I wanted was a simple solution to protect against disk failures. RAID1 should be a simple solution, right?
After my run in with Windows software RAID, I decided to try the onboard Intel fakeraid to see if it worked better. Well, it does work better, but there have been issues so far.
The following has already happened twice, and I can't really identify a reason for it. At some point, basically, all write/read requests to the RAID volume will block. This causes any Windows application which tries to read/write to the disk to freeze up. I can't kill the process either (I guess the kernel tries to put the write request through but fails, halting execution of the application, including the kill request).
What's even more annoying is that Windows seems to also block (cache?) write requests to other disks as well; when I noticed the above activity, I quickly saved all my stuff to other disks and rebooted, hoping all would be fine. Unfortunately not - all the saved files never made it to disk apparently.
After rebooting, the Intel disk management tool would pop up saying that it detected an error and is scanning the HDD to try to fix it. Fortunately, the scan can be cancelled, unlike in Windows RAID.
I'm liking Intel RAID better than Windows at this point, but this instability is a little worrying.
Have been thinking that perhaps I should just get a NAS, though they seem to expensive at the moment...
Speaking of NASes, I found this awesome deal today: HP ProLiant Microserver for ~$185 with shipping. AMD dual core 1.3GHz CPU (apparently on-par with a Pentium D 3GHz!), 1GB DDR3 (expandable to 8GB) RAM, 4 HDD ports (comes with a 250GB HDD as well), small form factor, quiet and draws 35W idle. Awesome but... just dunno what I'd do with it. I could use it as a NAS, but unfortunately, space and number of power plugs around is limited, for just something that stores data that is. Also, despite being hell cheap, cost is too much for me for just some HDD storage. Could be used as a HTPC (find a half height PCIe GPU card to slot in) but wee don't exactly have a good TV to utilise it (plus I'm rarely near the TV). If I had better internet, could possibly use it as a server. Seems so useful, but I can't find a use for it T_T
Anyone have any suggestions?
After my run in with Windows software RAID, I decided to try the onboard Intel fakeraid to see if it worked better. Well, it does work better, but there have been issues so far.
The following has already happened twice, and I can't really identify a reason for it. At some point, basically, all write/read requests to the RAID volume will block. This causes any Windows application which tries to read/write to the disk to freeze up. I can't kill the process either (I guess the kernel tries to put the write request through but fails, halting execution of the application, including the kill request).
What's even more annoying is that Windows seems to also block (cache?) write requests to other disks as well; when I noticed the above activity, I quickly saved all my stuff to other disks and rebooted, hoping all would be fine. Unfortunately not - all the saved files never made it to disk apparently.
After rebooting, the Intel disk management tool would pop up saying that it detected an error and is scanning the HDD to try to fix it. Fortunately, the scan can be cancelled, unlike in Windows RAID.
I'm liking Intel RAID better than Windows at this point, but this instability is a little worrying.
Have been thinking that perhaps I should just get a NAS, though they seem to expensive at the moment...
Speaking of NASes, I found this awesome deal today: HP ProLiant Microserver for ~$185 with shipping. AMD dual core 1.3GHz CPU (apparently on-par with a Pentium D 3GHz!), 1GB DDR3 (expandable to 8GB) RAM, 4 HDD ports (comes with a 250GB HDD as well), small form factor, quiet and draws 35W idle. Awesome but... just dunno what I'd do with it. I could use it as a NAS, but unfortunately, space and number of power plugs around is limited, for just something that stores data that is. Also, despite being hell cheap, cost is too much for me for just some HDD storage. Could be used as a HTPC (find a half height PCIe GPU card to slot in) but wee don't exactly have a good TV to utilise it (plus I'm rarely near the TV). If I had better internet, could possibly use it as a server. Seems so useful, but I can't find a use for it T_T
Anyone have any suggestions?
but i nvr really once lost a single file,.. got 6 HDD's 1 is a SSD,. i had only lost files when i tried to copy an entire HDD content's to another HDD,.... whole load of themeing stuff lost,. :( but nvr lost files just using the PC,....