Disk Spanning

[Wulf]

Kind of a hardware question, but more of a software one.

I have three 250GB drives in my PVR machine. I would like to be able to have GB-PVR record to all of these. The easiest way in Linux is to set up the LVM so all the disks looked like one big one.

Windows XP PRO has this capability, but I am only running XP Home on my PVR machine. Is there another way to set up disk spanning using a third party program?

Thanks in advance!

[Wulf]

I should have also mentioned that it says Windows 2000 also supports disk spanning, and I think I have a copy of that. Is it worth swiching over?

[Spartan]

XP has this support and I currently do this. Load up the Disk management console, and.....

http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/harddrive3.htm

[Wulf]

Well maybe it is worth switching to my copy of 2000 then.

Only XP Pro supports it, and I do have a copy of it, but it is installed on my main rig. I only have ther Home version on my PVR machine.

If I do blow away my current operating system to put on 2000, what files do I ahve to backup to keep the database intact?

[Spartan]

Well maybe it is worth switching to my copy of 2000 then.

Only XP Pro supports it, and I do have a copy of it, but it is installed on my main rig. I only have ther Home version on my PVR machine.

If I do blow away my current operating system to put on 2000, what files do I ahve to backup to keep the database intact?

At the least you need to backup the database and the config.xml. Be sure to export your recordings via the config app first, just in case.

[SniperDude]

Best bet is probally going to 2000 (lots of ppl use it)...
A friend of mine took the drives out his XPHome system and put them into his XPPro system... and created a dynamic volume and then put them back into his XPhome machine... but it only worked with non-system drive... so if you want everything on 1 drive - wont work in XPHome... someone once said you can copy the diskpart.exe and fsutil from XPPro to your XPhome.. and manually convert to Dynamic disk as well...
Good luck with your venture..

[Wulf]

someone once said you can copy the diskpart.exe and fsutil from XPPro to your XPhome.. and manually convert to Dynamic disk as well...

That interests me a tad. I would be apprehensive only because it is not built into the operating system, so would it be able to handle any errors.

I think I will switch to 2000 since I have a copy of it laying around. I am used to setting up LVM in linux so I am new to the whole dynamic disk thing.

In linux you would create your primary partitions for the boot, root and swap drives. The remaining space on that drive could then be partitioned and the type of partition set for LVM support. The other hard drives were set up with one partition and also had the type set for LVM support. Then you just combined the one partion of the main drive with the other drives to create one huge volume.

My PVR machine has three 250GB drives so this is how I want to partiton them. Someone tell me if this will work, or if I have to change something.

Drive #1
10GB for Windows 200 and programs.
150GB for storage of home movies.
90GB storage for GB-PVR. (set up as a dynamic partition)

Drive #2 & 3
250GB storage for GB-PVR. (set up as dynamic partitions)

I could then combine the 90GB partition from the first drive with the other two drives to create a 590GB logical drive to store my recordings on.

[onestar]

I thought about spanning disks as dynamic volumes under w2K/XP. But I understand that if one disk fails you've lost the lot. Seems a touch harsh. So I use archive to move stuff to the second/third drives, and record on one.

[antistrange]

Im fairly new here so I dont know if theres an issue with gbpvr, but it seems like the easiest thing to do would be to use a RAID controller to make a JBOD array. Though if your motherboard doesnt already have one its probably not worth the cost.

Let me know if there are issues with that because I may try it.

[Jeff]

You can also use the archiver utility included with the video archive plug-in to copy files off of your main disk to the other two. It is not exactly a spanning disk, but the end result is the same.

Jeff