Re: [gentoo-user] Duplicate identical Hard Disk

[Dan Cowsill <danthehat@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 10:09 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> With only 2 disks I personally think you're on the right path. With 3
> disks I'm personally planning on RAID1 using 3 copies.
> ...
> My comment about RAID was that I am learning the hard (alas expensive)
> way that not all disks can actually do RAID, at least not Linux
> software RAID, and really be usable.
>
>

From what I understand of software RAID in linux, it works on block
devices, not disks.  This means if some endeavoring soul was brave
enough to RAID even partitions on a device, it would work as normal.
Perhaps you mean that not all properly functioning disks can do RAID?
What sort of trouble are you running into?

I've successfully deployed both RAID1 and RAID5 on my home media
server for quite some time now.  While the initial time investment in
reading documentation was considerable, since that time I've had no
cause for trouble.  I keep smartmontools looking at the array member
disks and regularly read through monthly smart reports of my drives.

Also, if you have three disks, why not go for RAID5?  It is much
quicker and I believe you'll end up with more space.  It is a bit of a
pain to get mdadm to convert your RAID1 to a RAID5, but it is doable.

DC