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Hardware raid question (do I need a 4-port card)
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| godfatherofsoul@yahoo.com 2006-01-31, 6:40 pm |
| I've got 4X60 GB identical drives that I'd like to use for home office
RAID in an XP server box. I've looked on eBay and found a ton of cheap
2-port IDE cards that claim to support up to 4 IDE devices. I
understand the RAID levels, but I don't follow how a card with 2 ports
can support 4 devices. Does it somehow detect and use the existing IDE
ports on the motherboard (which would suck for me since I already have
the OS on one of those ports)? Or does make use of two slave drives
(which sounds slow)? Any help or direction to a good resource is
appreciated!
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| Steve Cousins 2006-02-01, 2:47 am |
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godfatherofsoul@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> I've got 4X60 GB identical drives that I'd like to use for home office
> RAID in an XP server box. I've looked on eBay and found a ton of cheap
> 2-port IDE cards that claim to support up to 4 IDE devices. I
> understand the RAID levels, but I don't follow how a card with 2 ports
> can support 4 devices.
The same way most motherboards with two IDE interfaces can support four
IDE devices. Each one can have a master and a slave. One ribbon cable
with three connectors on it; one for the motherboard and two for the
devices.
> Does it somehow detect and use the existing IDE
> ports on the motherboard (which would suck for me since I already have
> the OS on one of those ports)? Or does make use of two slave drives
> (which sounds slow)? Any help or direction to a good resource is
> appreciated!
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| Maxim S. Shatskih 2006-02-01, 7:48 am |
| > understand the RAID levels, but I don't follow how a card with 2 ports
> can support 4 devices.
Master/Slave.
--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
maxim@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com
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