question 13 xp exam on this site?

itdaddy

hey dudes
question 13 on this site for exam XP 70-270 states
that Server 2000 or 2003 is needed for RAID1(mirroring)

this is not true is it? i think XP can do raid1? with two scsi disks?

itdaddy?

sprkymrk

Check this out:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314343/

Specifically:

Basic Disk Storage
Basic storage uses normal partition tables supported by MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Windows XP. A disk initialized for basic storage is called a basic disk. A basic disk contains basic volumes, such as primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives.

Additionally, basic volumes include multidisk volumes that are created by using Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, such as volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, and stripe sets with parity. Windows XP does not support these multidisk basic volumes. Any volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, or stripe sets with parity must be backed up and deleted or converted to dynamic disks before you install Windows XP Professional.

and

You cannot create mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes on Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition-based computers.

Danman32

XP can handle dynamic disks, but does not support redundant disks.
So basically all you can do is striping.

sprkymrk

Keep in mind that this is specifically pertaining to software RAID. If for instance you have a mother board that supports RAID in the hardware, you can do it. Just not from Disk Manager in Windows.

itdaddy

okay let me get this straight:

xp cant do reduntant disks(mirroring) at all

xp can do dynamic disk (striping) as long as the MOBO is RAID cable?

so the question is valid due to no mirroring at all (no redundant disks)

wow! did i get it straight or am i still cracked??
tanx

Danman32

OK, there are two ways one could implement RAID. One is through hardware, where the disks are RAIDED through one or more disk controllers. The resultant logical disks appear to the OS as physical disks.
One usually calls this hardware [based] RAID.

Then there is software RAID where the OS provides the RAID function. It knows about the individual disks, and RAIDs them through its drivers and config information. Often, as in the case with MS, it isn't the disks that are RAIDed but the partitions on the disks as if the partitions were themselves disks. This in turn creates OS logical drives that you can assign drive letters or make part of a mount point. For Windows 2000 and above, you have to have dynamic disks to support RAID of any level. Dynamic disks is a new way of mapping the partitions on the disk and labeling the disk.

XP supports dynamic disks, but it is limited to only supporting striping. That's a limitation that MS enforced on the disk managment since they felt that you aren't entitled to redundant disks with the price you paid for XP.

Now MS can't control what hardware RAID supports or doesn't support. To it, the RAID results is just a plain old physical disk, though a driver may be needed to properly talk to the RAID controller. Some cheap RAID controllers only support RAID 0 and 1, some will support them all. Sometimes the controller itself can support RAID 5, but the physical implementation on the supporting hardware doesn't allow for enough channels or room to allow for enough disks to support the minimum of 3 drives for RAID 5.

itdaddy

in other words; RAID1 is possible on XP but just DiskManagement
will not be able to do manage these disks or perform mirroring
but if the mobo has RAID and/or get a RAID controller with other software then it is possible to have Mirroriing with XP it is just XP
doesnt support it at all and can only support striping with dynamic disks!
right or??

itdaddy

sprkymrk


i guess i just repeated you sorry!

Keep in mind that this is specifically pertaining to software RAID. If for instance you have a mother board that supports RAID in the hardware, you can do it. Just not from Disk Manager in Windows.

maybe it should be itdummy not daddy hahaah
thanks dudes
software raid cannot support it raid0 in a nutzhell

Danman32

itdaddy wrote:

in other words; RAID1 is possible on XP

I suppose you could say that if the hardware supports the RAID 1, but in the context of this thread, I find that misleading. XP can't do the RAID 1, but if the hardware does RAID 1, it would be transparent to XP. It would also be transparent to Win 95. Well, only if you can get a driver for the controller that works on win95 anyway.

itdaddy

but in the context of this thread

in my infintile mind, that is what i mean; thanks danman!
i guess in the context of the question 13 Disk Management cannot
manage RAID1....i think i got thanks foryou help

RTmarc

*** The following is not part of the 270 Exam ***

Software RAID 5 is possible with Windows XP. This is not part of the 270 exam. By the way, don't ever go with a software RAID configuration when you can do it with hardware.

Tom's Hardware did an article on configuring XP to run software RAID 5 configuration.[/i]

itdaddy

SORRY i was just reading question 13 and said stuff about RAID
but thanks about article; i agree hardware RAID much better.

tanx

RTmarc

itdaddy wrote:

SORRY i was just reading question 13 and said stuff about RAID
but thanks about article; i agree hardware RAID much better.

tanx

I was saying that the software RAID 5 was not part of the 270 exam. In fact, Microsoft won't acknowledge it's possible for this to work. RAID is very much part of the 270 exam and you could see several questions regarding it.

I edited my post to make more sense.

itdaddy

cool beans
thanks man!