Two many OS's Help

C

crewzen

Gawd
Joined
Jan 19, 2007
Messages
584
I need a little advice on new setup for hard disks. I have a large raid array and want to keep that just for critical disk storage of files, pictures, and data.

What I would like to do also is this: 1. Have 2 hotswap disk trays with only one connected to the mobo and the other for physicsl storage another drive while it's not being used.

2. 147MB HD I will install Vista 64 Ultimate on.
3. 74GB HD I will install XP x64 on.

4. I would like the raid array to be used by both operating systems one at a time of course.

But am unsure of how to set this up. Should I install the OS's on there respective disk first and then create the raid array with the other 8 drives or should I do the array first?


The other thing I do not know about is if this will work or will Vista want total control of the array and make it impossible for XP x64 to access the files?

Any and all help here will be more than welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Oh All these disks are scsi and the raid is on its own hard ware raid card where the OS's will be on there own controller by themselfs.
 
I'm a little confused as to what you want to do, but this is what I got from it

You want to have two hot-swap hard drives, one for Vista one for XP, then you want to set up any array that each OS can access independently?

If this is the case, then I'd install the OS on their respective disks, and then setup the array separately so that each operating system sees it as another hard drive.

There should be no reason why one OS would want to take over the array, as the OS would just see is as another hard drive.
 
yes 2 hotswap drive bays with a hard wire switch so I can boot from either XP x64 or Vista 64 and be able to use the same raid array for storage. I was unsure about ntfs, if the array would be compatable with both OS's.

I think you have pretty much the jest of it.

XP x64 boot disk----------\
....................................\___scsi raid array
..................................../
.................................../
Vista 64boot disk--------/
 
Both Vista and XP are NTFS, so it shouldn't matter.

The only issues you'd wide up in, is if you wanted to install programs for both XP and Vista on the array, this could lead to some issues. But as long as you're using it for storage, or even backups using restore point or whatever, you should be fine.
 
Obviously, you can not HOTSWAP your system disk. ;) Hooeee, wouldn't that be one spectacular BSOD.

If you are not going to be dual booting, then simply plug in 1 drive, install your OS and applications to that drive. Setup the array.

Then plug in your second drive, install the OS and your apps, and see if you can see the array. I think you should be just fine.

I think EQTakeOffense mentioned it before, but install your apps to the drive your OS is installed on, not the array. Just store the data on the array.

Don
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top