Hi all! I'm finally back after getting a nasty project on my back, and I have a question... I'm thinking about buying a hardware RAID controller for my desktop. The main reason I don't want to go with software RAID is that my mobo IDE controllers are allready full with other stuff, and one of them may have a problem. So, I would need some kind of controller anyway. I'm not doing it for performance, just for reliability. Yeah, I have additional backup, but I like the idea that the data will be accessible even if a disk crashes. So, that's main priority. Now, what I was thinking: If I buy a four channel RAID card now, and two S-ATA disks (which is what I want), set them up in RAID 1, can I add a third disk later, and convert this system seamlessly to RAID 5 without a reinstall? Every Linux geek I know says "no, I don't think so", but I think my old sysadmin did that routinely on Tru64 years ago... If a disk blew up, he'd just throw it away and replace it, no worries. I'll go with a HW RAID even if I can't do exactly this, but then I think I'll go with a 2-channel controller. Can I have your recommendations, please, for a controller for a simple desktop system, with the main object of having redundancy in case of a disk crash? I think I'll go with the cheapest there is for the task. I've seen a 2-channel RAID 1 Adaptec AAR-1210SA, that's a really cheap one, I can go a bit higher than that. The cheapest 4-channel RAID 4 I've seen is HighPoint RocketRAID 1640 S-ATA. Same range is a number of Promise FastTrak cards. Then there's the Adaptec 2410SA, which I have seen recommended, but I think that if I go that high, it should be able to do the RAID 1 to 5 seemlessly thing, or have a good reputation for taking good care of my data. I've heard that some HW controllers can make it really painful to access the data, even if just one disk crashed. Is this a problem with any of the mentioned? Finally, would you buy disks from the same or different manufacturers? I would guess that similar disks are easier on the controller, but OTOH if there is a flaw in one, it is likely to be in the other too.... Your recommendations are most welcome! :-) Cheers, Kjetil -- Kjetil Kjernsmo Programmer / Astrophysicist / Ski-orienteer / Orienteer / Mountaineer kjetil@kjernsmo.net Homepage: http://www.kjetil.kjernsmo.net/ OpenPGP KeyID: 6A6A0BBC
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