jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Fri Jan 22 07:46:18 CST 2010
> With drives getting so cheap, and SATA Raid Controllers becoming more standard on motherboards, One caution is that raid controllers created by motherboard hardware can cause a disaster if the motherboard dies. At best you will need to get the same raid chip set (intel, or AMD or ...), at worst your raid array can be unreadable. I use a hardware co-processor raid array and have never had that issue. I have moved the entire raid setup from one box to another with an entirely different motherboard, and in fact even a different OS and the raid array just turned on and ran (after driver installs of course). For critical data, a hardware controller is highly recommended. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Drew Wutka wrote: > Preach on Brother John! ;) > > VMWare and VPC aren't like the great bound/unbound debate. There are > advantages to both. I started with VPC 2004, and that was ok. It > brought my 1 ghz pIII to it's knees trying to run a Windows XP box. Now > on my laptop, 2.2 ghz duo core, with 3 gigs of RAM, I can run several > machines (I've run three 2003 servers and a client XP machine at the > same time) and the performance wasn't bad at all. Virtual Server let's > you run each machine in it's own thread. And the two apps are both > completely free (though I think you have to pay for the absolute latest > Virtual Server) and interchangeable. VMWare performs better, (even now, > from what I've read about 6 months ago) and it is simple to run any OS, > even non-MS stuff. I have a ubuntu Linux VM in Virtual PC, but you kind > of have to jump through some hoops to do it. VPC will get closer and > closer to VMWare, as far as performance, but it will always be slanted > towards running Windows based OSes. I'd probably play around with > VMWare a bit when I have some time (LOL, who has that?), but I took the > time to create a base hard drive with every MS OS from DOS 6.22 to > Windows 7. (Though I've tossed the Vista and 7 one, cause they are > pretty big, and unnecessary right now, and I never touched ME, couldn't > pay me enough to have the .iso image of that install on any of my > machines! LOL) > > Couldn't agree more on RAID drives. It's one of my favorite preach > points when people ask me about machines. With drives getting so cheap, > and SATA Raid Controllers becoming more standard on motherboards, it's > almost a crime not to be using a RAID. (Though I use RAID 0+1's more > then anything else.) > > As for the ISO images, try this: > > http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm > > Get the 106 version, behind the Windows 7 link (and one of the others I > think). I can install that version on anything (just put it on a > netbook running XP pro the other day, and it runs fine in Windows 7 64 > bit and Vista 32/64 bit). In vista and 7, you'll be prompted about an > unsigned driver, but it works great. You can add as many Virtual > CD/DVD-Roms as you want. (one of my favorite games is FreeSpace, and > old 'space' game I got with my first PIII. It needs the DVD to play, so > I usually have a drive specifically housing that iso image all the time > on my laptop. Fun to play when I'm bored). It runs in your system > tray, and is very user friendly. It'll even make ISO images for you > (and other formats if you want). I stick with ISO. Did you know > another feature of Windows 7 is that it will natively burn an ISO image > to a blank CD/DVD with no other software? > > With the 'working' VM machine on standby, I use it a lot, cause Access > 97 is a little finicky on a windows 7 box, if you use another version of > Access, Access 97 tries to right to the registry and fails, so you have > to restart it 'As Administrator', which is a pain. I use 97 > periodically, still have a lot of working .mdb's still in 97 format. > Easiest way is to use my XP box (which has Office 97 and 2003 installed > together). But another big reason I keep that, is that when I setup a > dev machine, I do a few extra things, which are just time consuming. > Like setting up file extension special commands (like when I right click > on an MDB, I make it so I have the option of what version of Access I > open it with, and if I open it with a secured mdw.). > > Drew