SATA Raid 5 and Rebuild

[mrmoneymatters]

I am building a box and want to run raid 5. I can either buy a raid card or use windows to control my raid 5 for the data drives.

My question is this: if I run Windows on one drive, then build a raid 5 set using six drive hooked to a conroller card, what happens if windows fails? If I replace the first drive that Windows was on, rebuild Windows, can I get my raid set back with all the data on it, how do you restore a raid set when it is software based?

Also, how much of a perfomance increase is running hardware raid over software raid?

Thanks,

Network Admin
A+, Network+, MCSA 2000, MCSE 2000

 

[SeanAIX430]

I'd go with Hardware based for sure. Then if one drive fails you throw the new one in there and wait while the raid rebuilds it for you and you lose no data.

 

[mrmoneymatters]

I agree that it would be easier, but its a lot more expensive to implement. I just want to know how to restore a raid 5 set if I have to reinstall windows.

Network Admin
A+, Network+, MCSA 2000, MCSE 2000

 

[mrmoneymatters]

Does anyone know, is the raid information in the system state?

Network Admin
A+, Network+, MCSA 2000, MCSE 2000