Re: [sheflug] HD partitioning question

["Wonkey Donkey" <wonkey_donkey [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Humphrey" <prh [at] gotadsl.co.uk>
To: "sheflug" <sheflug [at] sheflug.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: [sheflug] HD partitioning question


> On Monday 31 July 2006 18:35, Wonkey Donkey wrote:
>
>> If I was going to look at raid, I'd probably go down the raid0 route. To
>> be honest though, I have seen just so many articles on software raid
>> under linux, its difficult to know which one is right, or best for my
>> purpose.
>
> Yes, there's an awful lot of nonsense out there, much of which no doubt
> wasn't nonsense when it was written, and also considerable confusion about
> the various types of software raid. I recently set up a software RAID-0
> system on a pair of SATA drives, and I took a week or more to get to a
> usable system. Even now I can't use both the SATA and the old IDE disks at
> the same time under Linux, which I think is a problem with the BIOS.
>
> If my experiences might be useful, you've only to say and I'll do what I 
> can
> to help.
>
> -- 
> Rgds
> Peter
>

Well my most recent post explains why the job is on the shelf for a while. 
Having thought about it, I think its going to be time for a hardware upgrade 
soon. The board I have now has the ICH5 chipset, which in itself works ok.

But, I also have a shiny new Plextor SATA DVD Writer. With that connected, 
there are problems booting from it if there is another hdd on the ICH5 
connector. Being it only has 2 drive connectors anyway, ICH5 is definitely 
getting past its sell-by date for me.

By contrast, the Asus P5B has the ICH8 on top of the P965 chipset, and would 
probably suit me down to the ground in that respect. Reports I have read 
suggest the newer ICH controllers also handle 'other' sata devices much 
better. I know some folks slate Intel for processor performance, frequency 
of new releases etc etc, but one thing you can't fault them for is the 
chipsets they produce. I've always found them absolutely rock solid, and 
swear by them.

You don't mention Peter, which board and chipset you set it up on, and your 
drive configuration, but I'd definitely be interested in hearing how you got 
it all to work.

I did manage to get my 2 raptors and the older IDE dvd writer working ok on 
my current board, which is a Supermicro P4SCT+II with ICH5. But I had to set 
it in IDE mode to be able to see the drives, and then 'combined' mode to 
enable both the SATA and IDE units at the same time.

Its a shame we dont have any locally produced articles on stuff like this 
that we can refer to. Maybe from members who currently own the hardware in 
question, and are willing to produce such material. It would be a great 
resource.

Steve.




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