Third party software RAID for windows?

LeperousDust · 23 Sep 2007 at 23:46

Does this type of software exist? I've got a spare XP licence flying around and i want to put that to use as a general backup server thing. I've got loads of similar hard drives laying about and i'd like to mount them as a RAID 5 array. I know windows XP can setup a RAID 5 array, but it's not expandable, and i definately need this. Is there any software out there that will do this for me? I can run windows and the software off another stand alone hard drive, maybe mirrored for security...

I know i can go down the Linux road, but i'd rather not it confuses the hell out of me, and if i did lose data i'd never manage to recover it!

LeperousDust · 24 Sep 2007 at 00:25

Hardware RAID is expensive, i don't really want to spend any cash, and software will do me just fine

For the amount of work the PC will be doing. Why is hardware safer anyway? I've heard if hardware cards fail they can be a right PITA to recover because they can be expensive and proprietary. Whereas software can be emulated?

LeperousDust · 24 Sep 2007 at 01:44

I'm not after a card, thats why i'm looking at possible software solutions, i don't mind he CPU overhead, it wont be doing much else!

LeperousDust · 24 Sep 2007 at 11:28

I don't need it now, but i'd rather like to throw hard drives in when and if i can afford them later down the line and keep the same RAID 5 array, that is expanding right?

LeperousDust · 24 Sep 2007 at 13:15

I suppose but how would i keep redundancy if i were just to buy one more drive? When i'm already running 3/4/5 drives in a RAID5 array?