[conspire] Partitioning problem

[Roger Chrisman]

Rick Moen wrote:
> In case it wasn't obvious, I've never used "md" software RAID before


Rick, you probably already know more about anything IT than I do. Just 
passing my word along in case it is relevant. Good luck:

man mdadm

cat /proc/mdstat

I think Rick Moen is competent enough to make using software RAID a sum 
gain in utility and reliability.

Myself, I am fairly inept with computers however. So for me two years 
running bootable software RAID 1 on Debian and then on Kubuntu for a 
while has convinced me that my increased risk of user error due to the 
however subtle complications of maintaining a software RAID system 
outweigh the technical advantages. I just know so little and can't 
remember much of anything.

It is prudent to regularly backup one's valuable data to elsewhere 
regardless. That is of a higher order of importance than running 
software RAID and one I have not yet accomplished myself.

So when my software RAID1 / Kubuntu Hoary (on AMD64) would not properly 
upgrade (lots of packages held back including kernel) I finally just 
stashed my /home and /etc dirs on a spare partition, did a clean 
install *without* RAID of Kubuntu Breezy (on same AMD64 box), and 
copied over from the spare partition whatever I still wanted from my 
copied /home and /etc dirs.

Software RAID is cool I should add but for me non-essential complexity 
that I grew to dislike. I also have an very little time available these 
days to do sysadmin stuff I don't understand. But I like reading about 
it here! :-)

Roger
-- 
Roger Chrisman   (650) 387-4732   Palo Alto