>>Hardrives...stringging...mirroring....HELP
I'm not familiar with the specific term "stringing" but
it sounds like reference to NT's ability to make two
(or more) physical drives appear as one large logical
drive. ("String" them together.) This isn't a good
idea; if one drive fails, NT will probably have a problem
retrieving data on the others.
Mirroring is writing two identical partitions on different
physical disks. If one disk fails, the data can be accessed
from the other, and the failed disk can be replaced to
restore the mirror. This is the simplest full fault
tolerance for disk data. Done right, it can also perform
better than a single, unmirrored disk. Naturally, NT
doesn't do it just right, so it costs you a bit in
performance (or so I read). I run mirrored disks on a
server where I keep my critical data. NOTE, though,
that NT workstation will not support mirrored disks; it
requires NT server. Also NT makes it hard for you to
recover the mirrored data if the system partition is
mirrored. There's no reason for this except general
unfriendliness, but I'd avoid mirroring the system
partition. Trouble is, disk failures often take
a critical system component with them. Be sure you
understand boot sector backups and have the disk tools
and boot backups on floppies for emergency repairs, or
all you're saved data is at risk after a failure. This
is ESPECIALLY true if you mirror the system partition.
Mirroring is a form of RAID; NT Server can also do
higher-level RAID. Also, some disk controllers can
do RAID (including mirroring), both IDE and SCSI.
I have no experience with controller-based RAID.
NT server mirroring saved
a disk full of data for me once.
Your rough table is more or less correct, with the
caveat that these are theoretical maximum. Your
actual mileage will vary (vary way below these).
I've never been able to talk myself into the extra
expense of SCSI over EIDE.
I'd rather have 8 gigs of mirrored IDE for my 600 bucks.
SCSI's potentially faster, but the later EIDE drives
are F.A.S.T. too. Used to be IDE took a significant
CPU resource, but that's old news too for today's
screaming processors.
However, many knowledgeable people swear by the
overriding advantages of SCSI. I can't speak to that. |
