I am thinking of purchasing a new computer with two hard drives of the same type and size. I am interested in implementing a Linux software RAID0 (striping) setup. I have a few questions on this.
Firstly, can I still have a multi-boot configuration? For example, if I wanted to allocate some space towards Windows and a few other OSs would I be able to place the remainder into the Linux RAID0? In other words, must I fully dedicate both devices to the RAID, or can I allocate what disc area I want in the RAID? I assume that I would have to ensure that the disc space made available for the RAID is identical on both drives. Secondly, can Mandrake configure a RAID for me, for instance through Diskdrake? If not, then can it install to a RAID? Thirdly, I've read the Software-RAID HOWTO (http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html); is this the best way to go about things? Fourthly, what should I do with my other IDE peripherals, namely a CD-RW and a DVD drive? I don't want to spend any extra money on an IDE controller card unless it is absolutely necessary, particularly since I don't use CDs often (although I realise that speed is important when burning CDs). Is it alright to leave them as primary and secondary slave devices (with the HDDs being the primary/secondary masters)? TIA -- Sridhar Dhanapalan "I actually think that Linux with the stuff that is going on in 3D, desktops, etc., has a chance to become the first real user-friendly UNIX." -- Linus Torvalds
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