I need to get a new desktop machine, and I'm planning on getting a card
to support RAID mirroring in case of a disk crash. My wife has a 6 month
old Dell that she bought with some brand of card & 2 drives, but Dell
didn't install the card. We discovered that the first thing the card
wants to do is reformat your primary drive, which is absurd. We sent it
back and got a card from Promise. It took a few tech support calls to
get it installed & working properly. Even now, it wants to go to the
setup menu every time you boot.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good RAID card? I'd like to get
one that is reliable, and won't trash the primary (or remaining good)
drive if something crashes. I've read too many horror stories of RAID
systems that do stuff like reformatting the good drive when a bad drive
is replaced & other such nonsense.

I'll be using this with XP Pro, so Vista isn't an issue.

Thanks!

Doug White

Doug White:

For a desktop/home machine you could also consider using the built in
software RAID capabilities of XP. You can definitely build a RAID
starting from an existing disk with data on it and there won't be any
noticable difference in performance.

--

Joerg Lenneis

email: lenneis@wu-wien.ac.at

Doug White wrote:
With RAID-1 (mirroring) you still should do regular backups. RAID-1
only protects against failure of a HD, and supplies no protection
against failures of any other piece of hardware, or glitches due to
software or environment or fumble-fingers. IMHO, since the HD is one
of the most reliable pieces of a PC, RAID-1 has very little value
for a home.
--
Cheers, Bob

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Doug White <gwhite@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
Stay away from Adaptec. 3ware has a good reputation, but
the cards are not cheap. Also Linux software RAID is very
reliable, but not applicable in your case.

Arno

For me, most of the on-mobo RAIDs are notorious for such glitches, which
sometimes kill all disks.

So, probably they actually decrease reliability and not increase it.

Backups are the way to go.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
maxim@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

In comp.arch.storage Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> wrote:
can you name a single problem with an adaptec 2420SA?

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
I can name you a lot with the 2410SA. Non-functional
commandline-interface that does not allow any automatisation.
Keeps dropping drives. Takes forever to resync. No SMART support
despite claims to the contrary. Incompetent technical support.

Expensive trash.

Arno

In comp.arch.storage Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> wrote:
never had a drive drop or resync problems, and i've intentionally broken
arrays by yanking out the sata cables on a live system.

what firmware versions are you running?

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
As this thing was unusable and I had to get the storage running,
it has been disposed of by now, I expect. I bought it 4 years
ago.

Arno

"Arno FuckUp" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:664le1F2j98s4U2@mid.individual.net...

In comp.arch.storage Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> wrote:
This card didn't even exist 4 years ago.

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 21:41:36 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
<presence@MUNGEpanix.com> put finger to keyboard and composed:

Product Reviews - Hard disks - Adaptec Serial ATA RAID 2410SA:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/50553...id-2410sa.html

PC Pro ISSUE: 111 DATE: Jan 04

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:12:42 +1000, Franc Zabkar
<fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> put finger to keyboard and composed:

The YYWW date code on one of the chips suggests the card could have
been manufactured as early as week 16 of 2003:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/picture_libra...32044.jpg?2477

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Keywords:
In article <664aihF2hueb0U3@mid.individual.net>, Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> wrote:
I can't speak for their RAID cards, but the SCSI card in my old desktop
was flaky from day one. After numerous tech support equiries, driver &
firmware updates, it still bluescreens my computer occasionally.

I will never buy another Adaptec product.

Doug White

I run the Adaptec SCSI card (160MB/s, the one with Windows driver "adpu160m")
for 8 years or so. No issues.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
maxim@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

In comp.arch.storage Franc Zabkar <fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
a 2420sa isn't a 2410sa, kind of like how 3 isn't equal to 7

In comp.arch.storage Doug White <gwhite@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
why didn't you replace it then?

"look my computer is broken. I don't do anything about it though!"

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
Maybe it was 3 years. I diod nto invest a lot of time into it after
I had to rip it out of the server because it did not work well.

Arno

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:
Both are numbers. If looking at a 3 strongly suggets the people
producing it cannot count, the same is likely true for the 7.

Oh, and BTW, you have just been caught in a lie. Anything you say
now is suspect.

Arno

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Franc Zabkar <fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
Thanks. Seems some people are shamelessly lying just to give the
impression some others are wrong. Disgusting.

Arno