Raid(1) Installation strategies...

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Hi there,    My first experiance this week with raid yielded some whacked consequences(more on that below). If you don't mind bearing with my explanation, this should be a cut and try problem. Here is my setup:   /dev/sdb:(1st 2.1G SCSI) /dev/sdb1 - SWAP - 100Mb /dev/sdb2 - / - 800Mb /dev/sdb3 - /home - 600Mb /dev/sdb4 - /var - 600Mb   /dev/sdc:(2nd 2.1G SCSI) /dev/sdc1 - SWAP - 100Mb /dev/sdc2 - / - 800Mb /dev/sdc3 - /home - 600Mb /dev/sdc4 - /var - 600Mb   RAID(1): /dev/md0 = sdb3 & sdc3(/home) /dev/md1 = sdb4 & sdc4(/var)       Now the first time I tried to get RAID running, I installed Slackware fresh with the 1st SCSI drive mounted. I utilized all partitions(/home, /var). Well when I looked into setting up raid, I realized that the construction of a RAID device would wipe all four involved partitions clean and sync them. This presented a problem because I was already using /home and /var. So I shutdown to runlevel1(administration mode), backed up those two partitions(with TAR), and unmounted them. From there I ran mkraid which wiped all the involved partitions. Long story made short I mudged the partitions and raid because of failing to recompile the latest raid into my kernel.       I have no problem with reinstalling now that I know what's involved. I feel uncomfortable running a 'bandaged' installation anyways. From pointers from this mailing list, I have secured definate patches for getting raid running. But before I go through another long re-installation of Slack. on an old SCSI 2X cdrom, I'd like someone to review my 'plan of attack'. (hehe).   1-Install slack as normal, utilizing /home and /var partitions(I'm using these partitions because I have very little 'play' in free space in my root dir) 2-install patches, recompile kernel 3-tar the entire /var and /home to a backup file 4-install raid(wipe /var and /home partitions) 5-ensure both raid mirrors are functioning 6-untar /var and /home backups to their new raid partitions I guess my concern is wether /var will be used at all when recompiling and if it will cause any 'damage' not being there. Any suggestions? Thanks! -Jamie "To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing which makes us human"