RAID on a laptop

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 11:03 am

I just started a new job working for a company that contracts technical support for a major computer manufacturer. One of our agents got a call the other day from someone who claimed to be running a RAID on their laptop. Without calling the caller a liar, the agent told them that it simply was not possible and said that he needed to call whoever set up his RAID.

A couple of days later, I got to thinking about how someone could run a RAID on a laptop. For one thing, none of the laptops my company supports have RAID controllers built in. Some of the docking stations have SCSI controllers, but even the docking stations lack RAID controllers. Is it even possible to run a RAID off of a laptop?

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 12:25 pm

I've never heard of RAID controllers in laptops, but it would be possible to have 2 HDD's using software mirroring. That would need NT4 or 2K server, so it seems a bit unlikely.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 12:56 pm

I was just trying to think of how many HDD bays there are in most laptops and all of the ones I've seen only have one bay, so if you were to use multiple HDDs, you'd either need to hook them up through the SCSI controller on a docking station or have some sort of custom-built IDE RAID controller to mount internally.

It also seems to me that the people who use laptops (students, travelling businessmen, etc.) are more interested in convenience and portability than reliable backups, so I find it odd that someone would want to run a RAID from their laptop. Of course, he may just be looking for extra geek points.

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 1:24 pm

Some laptops can have a modular bay for either CD-ROM, floppy or a second hard disk. The extra power usage would basically kill the battery within half an hour though, but considering the difficulty in backing up a laptop it's not such a bad idea. Still, fire, theft or user stupidity will still win there

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 3:28 pm

I would have just called them a liar and hung up. Good thing my job doesn't require phone support for end users. I wouldn't be employed for very long in such a field.

The only scenario in which I would think one could conceivably run RAID on a laptop would be to have a second HDD connected by an adapter via the PCMCIA port. Then, IF the laptop were running NT4 or 2k server, they would be able to configure disk mirroring.

So, in retrospect, it is possible but I still would've called them a liar.

btw, @flibble regarding my troubles with migrating the Visual Source Safe code database storage software from one machine to another are now over. I threw Microsoft's white paper out the window, copied the entire share, and hacked all the ini files to point to the new database. My methods showed 100% success with no database corruption nor connection problems for in house or remote users. If I would have just the nads to throw the Microsoft solution out the window, I'd have been done weeks ago.

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Mon Oct 28, 2002 4:11 pm

Originally posted by Ned Flanders
btw, @flibble regarding my troubles with migrating the Visual Source Safe code database storage software from one machine to another are now over. I threw Microsoft's white paper out the window, copied the entire share, and hacked all the ini files to point to the new database. My methods showed 100% success with no database corruption nor connection problems for in house or remote users. If I would have just the nads to throw the Microsoft solution out the window, I'd have been done weeks ago.

ROFL.. That often happens with Microsoft procedures