UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all,
I'm about to reconfigure my system with Raid Level 0. I haven't been able to find out much about Raid and Linux through searching. I'll be multi-booting with Win 2K, XP, Mandrake 9 and Red Hat 8. I have 3 drives (2 X 60GB and 1 X 80GB) and want to use Raid 0 to configure the drives into 4 partitions of a little under 50GB each. Will Mandrake and Red Hat accept this Raid configuration ok, or should I config differently: leave 2K & XP on drives of their own and partition the 80 for the Linuxs, for example? Any recomendations would be appreciated greatly.

Regards

My first recommendation would to not run RAID 0. It's not referred to as Suicide RAID for nothing.

Hi Auswipe,
Thanks for your comment. I take it you feel I'd be better just to let Mandrake partition my 80 for itself and Red Hat - around 37 GB each?

It's not really a matter of RAID or not, it's just that RAID 0 is so darned dangerous. Lose one of the drives and the data on *ALL* drives becomes useless.

I think 37 gig for RH and Mandrake would be adequate for most tasks.

Thanks for you thoughts Auswipe,
I hadn't considered the 'suicide' nature of Raid 0. At one stage I was heading toward level 5, but then I discovered Linux and bought an 80 (instead of another 60) to partition for two Linuxs.

I could use the onboard Raid controller or put in a card to control the 80. I tried a card last weekend but my system wouldn't boot past the motherboard. It didn't matter which slot I tried. The tech I bought it from has replaced the (probably) bodgy card, but I'm still undecided about the final setup (the way everything is to be interconnected and controlled). You made me realise that Raid 0 is not the way for me, though. So, back to plan Penguin!

Thanks for that.

I would also suggest that no matter what you decide to do, you give XP its own drive, or, at the very least, dont put red hat on the same drive...

Early reports from people I know is that XP and Red Hat 8 dont play any nicer on the same drive than XP did with RH7.3...

auswipe, out of curiosity, RAID 1 (mirroring?) - are there any problems with this type of RAID? I always presumed that this was the best?

Comments? Experience?