breaths in
For your first question:
Answer Yes
General info
http://www.sunstarco.com/Education/What is .....htm
Yes technically you could create separate "array sets" using one drive per array set.
Generally you define the individual drives as raid 0,
which normally consists of more than one drive per array.
That stated..
You do not want to do this because raid adapters are not optimized for running single disk "arrays".
Raid 5 is you better choice.
Go into the raid bios setup and select the 2 drives, choose raid 5 for the raid type. Initialize the newly created array set. Depending on the adapter the initialization may run in the background and allow you to actually start a Windows install before it's complete.
I would recommend you allow the process to complete before a OS install.
Forget about creating partition from within the raid setup, just create one large logical disk in the raid setup. Makes no sense attempting to create partitions before the OS install.
With WK2003, you can easily create the first partition for the install, then go into Disk manager after the initial install, and created the remaining partitions.
You will need to press F6 to install drivers for the raid when prompted at the very beginning of the Windows 2003 setup.
Familiarize yourself with the raid options before proceeding, many options can be reconfigured anytime such as caching choices, others can not.
Having the OS and data on separate partitions is a wise choice. I have had corruption due to the OS rendering the system partition useless.. deleted the OS partition on purpose.. but in all cases I have never lost the secondary data partitions due to damage to the system partition. Generally go with the raid adapter default, as far as "stripe" size, which is not the same as stripe width, which refers to the number of disks in an array set. If your in Disk Manager, do not even think of making the array a Dynamic disk.
2nd Question
Answer Yes
General info
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/
OSL2000 Boot Manager
Home page
Http://www.osloader.com/
or
Http://tinyurl.com/64tow
List of features
Http://www.osloader.com/features.htm
It lets you have independent copies of Windows. It even lets you have multiple copies of the same Windows. It lets you boot Windows (all versions) from logical partitions, second hard disk, etc. It has tons of advanced features and does not require any manual configuration. In fact, it is so advanced that it does not even have a configuration screen!
* Lets you have up to 100 independent operating systems.
* Lets you have completely independent copies of Windows.
* Lets you even have multiple copies of the same Windows.
* Lets you boot Windows (all versions) from logical partitions.
* Lets you boot Windows (all versions) from the second hard disk.
* Supports Windows (all versions), Linux, DOS and most others.
* Supports boot from hard disk, cd-rom, floppy, usb, zip & more.
* Supports command-line mode, batch files, desktop shortcuts, etc.
* BootMenu sports a elegant, customizable yet powerful interface.
* Has tons of advanced features like Stealth, AutoBoot, AutoScan, AutoSense, SafeBoot, AutoHide, MenuLock, Self Timer & more....
* There are no feature limits. All features are available to users.
* Absolutely no configuration required! Simply 100% automatic.
* One click install. 100% automatic (takes only a few seconds).
* Does not require a FAT or NTFS partition to install.
* Uses the state-of-the-art UltraIOboot engine to operate.
* Can be installed from Windows (all versions) and DOS.
* Uninstaller gives you a clean uninstall, if required.
* Has excellent HTML based documentation.
Hope this helps
