Sharing Raid-1 array between Linux and XP???

edbrooks · 01-22-2006, 05:12 PM

Hi, I'm putting together a new system on which I'd like to set up a small drive for XP OS and apps, a small drive for Linux OS and apps, and storage on an independent RAID-1 array. I don't need to be able to see or talk to the Windows OS+apps drive from linux or vice versa. My mobo has an onboard RAID controller with 4 x SATA so I'd like to use that for the two OS drives and the two larger storage drives. (Alternatively I could get a controller card if that is needed). Is this a bad idea? I've recently received the following feedback about this question on toms hardware forums.

Quote:

Having one giant array for storage (be it 0/1/5/10/etc) then expecting it to "just work" with Linux AND Windows is a mistake. Linux won't natively read/write NTFS without considerable levels of risk, and Microsoft will demand FAT16/FAT32 support also be removed from Linux now that they won the patent on FAT recently (Jan 2006 - After how many years of using FAT).

Also Linux support of RAID is going to be your major problem if you haven't done this before, especially as the file systems Linux uses (Ext2/3, ReiserFS, XFS, etc) can not be read by Windows XP, and soon vice-versa will be the case (Linux reading/writing FAT16/32 and NTFS). Using over 64 GB FAT32 volumes in Linux is a dumb idea anyway, and soon people won't be able to do it.

The board doesn't have RAID, it has what many call RAID-lite. If you want hardware RAID under both Linux and Windows then look at Adaptec, LSI, and others RAID controllers.

and

Quote:

Linux CAN read reliably to NTFS, but I've never trusted it's ability to write to it. So the solution I've come up with is to use a program called explore2fs to read files off of my ext3 partitions and write them to the NTFS partitions inside XP. Then when you want to transfer items back to the linux partition, just copy it off the NTFS partition from within Linux. The only pain is that I have to re-boot if I want to do this. Another way I do this is to have a fileserver(333 AMD K6-2, running slackware) and it shares the disks with samba, which is seen my XP as a mapped network drive.

Once linux is up and running, Hardware raid arrays shouldn't be a problem, but if you plan on runnin LVMs in linux or a dynamic disk array in XP, then you won't be able to use them in both OS'

acid_kewpie · 01-23-2006, 01:48 PM

the fact you want it on hardware raid is totally irrelevant, all you're reading about there really is that NTFS support sucks. so use fat32 instead.

edbrooks · 01-23-2006, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acid_kewpie

the fact you want it on hardware raid is totally irrelevant, all you're reading about there really is that NTFS support sucks. so use fat32 instead.

Gee, thanks for summing it up for me, but, actually, I also was reading about how FAT will be irrelevant (see quotes above). Is that not true?