Hi, i've been doing abit of reading on the subject, can't find anything that exactly matches my scenario so wanted to check before i tried it!

I run Ubuntu Jaunty and have set up a raid-1 array using mdadm to use as storage only. My system dual boots alongside Vista and was wondering if i used a software controller in Vista for the RAID disks, would this corrupt the data in anyway or make it go 'out of sync'?

My mobo does have raid support so i guess i could use the built in feature (think its fake raid anyway) but either way, will it be ok or could it cause problems? i can't afford to lose any data!

many thanks

Did the board come with a driver disc for RAID setup? If it's a desktop board then yeah, it's probably fakeraid.

Don't know if SP1 fixed the issue but last time I checked Vista didn't handle mirroring very well.

I got so fed up with making mirrored drives play nice in a dual-boot setup (ArchLinux/Hackintosh in my case) that I just built a file server out of some leftover parts. Don't even need a board with fakeraid, doesn't have to be 64-bit or anything exotic; just slap a stripper Linux install on a spare IDE and do it all with mdadm. Manage it via SSH and you won't need a 2nd mouse/monitor/KB. My desktop board has the fakeraid as well and it's pretty much pointless. I know that doesn't answer your question, just my .02.

You can use the firmware raid on your mobo to dual boot with ubuntu in RAID-1. You have to use dmraid, not mdadm, though, and that means backing up and reinstalling etc.

Unfortunately, whether you use the software RAID in Vista (Dynamic Disks) or the firmware support on the mobo, you'll probably affect the mdadm partitions and cause your array to be at least temporarily out of commission, as both those solutions work on the whole partition table, typically.

You can have either one (Dynamic disks or firmware) work independently of mdadm, so that they coexist peacefully, but I'm pretty sure you'd have to setup Windows first, then put mdadm in the unused space later. (and that means backing up and reinstalling etc. too)

Thanks for your advice folks, i'm glad i asked now as i probably would have corrupted my existing data.

I've nowhere to back the data up to at the minute so i think i'm just going to set up a network server using some old parts, could do with a 24/7 FTP/Web server anyway so this is a perfect opportunity to get one set up.

Thanks again.