Is there a way to Software raid on Xp ? And where shold I look ? Do the Hdisks have to be the same model / Size in Software Raid ?

it depends what type of RAID you want. using Disk Management, convert your drives to Dynamic Disks, then you can Stripe, Span or Mirror. in a stripe and a mirror they don't have to be the same size, but you'll get the capacity of the smallest drive to stripe or mirror. you can span 2 or more different sized hard drives into 1 large drive, also.

In a RAID array HDDs used should be identical. Two unlike drives of different sizes may be used, however the array will take the characteristics of the smaller drive. Example: Two 60 GB HDD will apear as one 120 GB disk in a RAID array. A 60 GB with a 40 GB HDD will apear as one 80 Gb disk. Software RAID is controlled by the mobo or a RAID controller PCI card, not XP per se. Yes, there are software RAID cards, the "Promise Fastrak100 TX2 RAID Controller" card for one is a software RAID.

you've got your definitions backwards. using a RAID controller, is by definition, a hardware RAID. using XP's Disk Management without a RAID controller is a software RAID. in a RAID 0, two 60GB drives will look like one 120GB drive, and will increase the performance of both drives. in a RAID 1, two 60GB drives will show as one 60GB, but that drive will be mirrored to the other, with little to no performance in crease. in a spanned volume, a 60GB drive can be combined with a 40GB to create one 100GB drive. this is example is done through software.

I was thinking of this for my Web server Where do you guys sugest i start looking ? My mobo dose not suport raid Is there somthing I can do from with in windows ? I have 2x80Gb seagate Thank you for your replay

for web server application, i would use RAID 1 which is mirroring. this will allow for the loss of one drive without any data loss. i work for Seagate, so i know about the issue with the ST380021A in a RAID 0, but there is no problem running these drives in a RAID 1 environment. this can be done from Disk Management with in XP. convert your drives to dynamic disks, the use the utility to creat a mirror.

Hey Dan, You said, "using a RAID controller, is by definition, a hardware RAID." By definition it would appear to be so, however not technically so according to an article on Anandtech.com. Read here: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=1491&p=6 and here: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=1491&p=7