Using Knoppix with a RAID 0: Could be dangerous?

**jhoropopo** · 01-28-2005, 11:27 PM

Hello,

I have once used a 3.1 Knoppix on a computer, and now I wanted to try with mine. But I have a RAID 0 with two drives, and I fear, that if I try to mount my windows ntfs-partition, then the raid will be broken and I will lose the whole data in my hard drive. I also fear, that even without trying to mount the disk, knoppix could try to access the hard drive and then I could lose everything. Do you know, if I can try knoppix without danger? I would be really thank you if you could help me here.

For additional information: I am using the integrated Promise Controller from my ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe, with two SATA-Drives from Samsung.

**jhoropopo** · 01-30-2005, 10:31 PM

Nobody can help me with this matter?

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-30-2005, 11:12 PM

Well, when you raid a set of drives, particularly with a raid "solution" that depends on drivers in the OS to do a lot of the work, you petty much accept that you are not going to be able to see these drives with other OSs, with many recovery programs, and the like. Knoppix should not write to your disk. But to be safe, why risk it? You have 2 SATA drives. The connect by very small easy to disconnect plugs attached to your motherboard. Since you say you want to try Knoppix on CD but already know that it isn't going to even read that raid set of drives, why not just unplug the drives and try knoppix, then plug them back when you are done? (hint: it might be helpful to note which plug goes where when unplugging them, they may look a lot alike and raid will not get the joke if the plugs are reversed) Otherwise you can wait for someone else to come along and reassure you that nothing will go wrong when you boot with the drives still attached, but in the end it's you who take the risk and you who can do something to protect yourself.

**jhoropopo** · 01-31-2005, 02:18 PM

I didn't really think about this possibility, but in fact it is a good one. Just a little umconfortable to plug out and then plug in the drives each time I want to test something, but perhaps the easiest one. Thank you very much for your

Jhoro

**firebyrd10** · 01-31-2005, 11:43 PM

I do know that the 2.6 kernel has total support for Raid 0. However, I do not know if knoppix has this feature built in or how to access it.

Sata from what I know only has limited support in linux however.

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-01-2005, 12:35 AM

Originally Posted by firebyrd10

I do know that the 2.6 kernel has total support for Raid 0. However, I do not know if knoppix has this feature built in or how to access it.

Sata from what I know only has limited support in linux however.

I would approach this very cautiously. Having support to produce a RAID drive set can be very very different than being able to properly support a RAID configuration that was created by other software. Even if it looks like you can see the RAID set, you might end up damaging something if the two RAID implimentations do not match perfectly. Everything should be completely backed up and the system tested extensively under both OSs, swiching back and forth frequently, and being sure that the disks were filled nearly completely (not just a small number of files that would reside near the front of the disk) and lots of tests for data corruption were done before trusting this.