Is it possible to setup Software Raid with Parity?

[theEmbark]

Hey guys,

I have a bunch of 500gb drives that I am trying to use in a RAID with some parity. RAID 1+0 would be preferred but I would settle for RAID 1. My controller is not a hardware RAID.

I am having trouble and getting a lot of errors with Windows RAID setup. When I try to setup a Mirrored pair it says "There is not enough space available on the disks to complete this operation" any advice getting by that? I know windows raid kind of sucks in general since I am confined to a software RAID is there a 3rd software out there that is better?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[reedo_43]

Have you formatted the drives?

 

[boosted1g]

Are you trying to raid a drive that already has data on it? You cant software raid your OS drive.

Also you seem to be confused about RAID versions. Neither RAID 1+0 or RAID 1 is parity: Raid 0 = striped, Raid 1 = mirror, Raid 1+0 = stripped mirror, Raid 5 = 1 drive parity, Raid 6 = 2 drive parity.

For Raid 1+0 you can probably use the built in raid controller of your motherboard. Otherwise getting a cheap raid card is preferred because software raid is not good for using as a boot drive or anything else with a lot or random access/reads and writes.
I use software raid for a Media Server that has TBs of movies on it, which is fine for a bunch that remains static once written to the drive.

 

[theEmbark]

Have you formatted the drives?

Yup