Doug White wrote:
I need to get a new desktop machine, and I'm planning on getting a card
to support RAID mirroring in case of a disk crash. My wife has a 6 month
old Dell that she bought with some brand of card & 2 drives, but Dell
didn't install the card. We discovered that the first thing the card
wants to do is reformat your primary drive, which is absurd. We sent it
back and got a card from Promise. It took a few tech support calls to
get it installed & working properly. Even now, it wants to go to the
setup menu every time you boot.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good RAID card? I'd like to get
one that is reliable, and won't trash the primary (or remaining good)
drive if something crashes. I've read too many horror stories of RAID
systems that do stuff like reformatting the good drive when a bad drive
is replaced & other such nonsense.

I'll be using this with XP Pro, so Vista isn't an issue.

Thanks!

Doug White

With RAID-1 (mirroring) you still should do regular backups. RAID-1
only protects against failure of a HD, and supplies no protection
against failures of any other piece of hardware, or glitches due to
software or environment or fumble-fingers. IMHO, since the HD is one
of the most reliable pieces of a PC, RAID-1 has very little value
for a home.
--
Cheers, Bob