Multi-boot on software RAID?

[cybland]

Is it possible to create multiple partitions on an nVidia software RAID for the purpose of setting up a multi-boot system (e.g. Windows XP and OS X, or XP, OS X and Linux)? I’m at the moment in a process of backing up my data and tomorrow I’ll try to accomplish this by starting from scratch (call me crazy for willing to destroy a running system just for sake of experiment). So guys, what are your thoughts?

Here is hardware info for the project:
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+
MB: MSI K8N Neo2-FX (nForce3 250Gb)
VGA: Asus N7600GS Silent 256Mb AGP (GeForce 7600GS)
RAM: Corsair 2x1GB @400MHz 128bit (dual channel mode)
HDD: 2x160GB Maxtor DiamondMax9 S-ATA drives

[WinLinMac01]

EasyBCD anyone? I know RAID is troublesome for Mac users, best bet, it doesn't hurt to give it a try. 10.5.2 Rev.2 is expected to give some multi-boot functionality without the use of EasyBCD just a chain0 method. Should work, but you would need to wait.

[gaz919]

No it won't work if the whole drive is software raid. In the software raid we use it only recognises the raid after it first boots of a boot partition. My vista os cannot see the raid part of the drive, therefore cannot be installed on raid. you may be able to make a seperate partition on one drive for vista, and use the rest for the raid leopard, but vista still won't be able to see the apple raid, not even with mac drive.

Sorry but I just don't think it will work, vista wouldn't even let me install on another drive when the apple raid was plugged in.
I needed to unplug the apple raid drives then install, go figure!

Good Luck you can still try, but my vote is with wont work.

As a suggestion, when doing software raid for leopard and still using vista or others, make the boot partition and another about 10 gig or so before you make the raid.

This will allow you to use mac drive to copy files/movies such from vista to leopard without using disks or usb drives.
if you have other spare drives don't worrie

Best Of Luck

[WinLinMac01]

Oops, wasn't aware it was software raid. Must have skipped that. :D

gaz919:No it won't work if the whole drive is software raid. In the software raid we use it only recognises the raid after it first boots of a boot partition. My vista os cannot see the raid part of the drive, therefore cannot be installed on raid. you may be able to make a seperate partition on one drive for vista, and use the rest for the raid leopard, but vista still won't be able to see the apple raid, not even with mac drive.

Sorry but I just don't think it will work, vista wouldn't even let me install on another drive when the apple raid was plugged in.
I needed to unplug the apple raid drives then install, go figure!

Good Luck you can still try, but my vote is with wont work.

As a suggestion, when doing software raid for leopard and still using vista or others, make the boot partition and another about 10 gig or so before you make the raid.

This will allow you to use mac drive to copy files/movies such from vista to leopard without using disks or usb drives.
if you have other spare drives don't worrie

Best Of Luck

[cybland]

First report after half of a day of experimenting.

Software RAID + S-ATA Drives + OS X = NO GO

I was able to create Apple raid in several configurations (all in stripping mode) but it all ends up with error while trying to fix GUID bootloader. If I use the Zephyroth’s method (http://osx86.wikidot.com/how-to-s#toc7) it gives me an "Device busy" error while trying “dd if=./guid/boot0 of=/dev/diskX bs=400 count=1” (“dd if=./guid/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1” goes through correctly) and if I make only one partition (only RAID partition) than as gaz919 said I can’t access it at all. Luckily I have two 40GB Maxtor DiamondMax8 P-ATA (IDE) drives so I’ll try a RAID setup with those. The thing that I’ve noticed is nVidia RAID bios loses all RAID Array info as soon as I create Apple RAID, so just to be able to select the RAID as a boot device I have to recreate array info in RAID Bios (without clearing the data) and mark it as bootable. I’m not sure if by doing this I’m ruining something on the partitions since it won’t boot even by using DVD and rd=diskXsY combination.

I’m off to try the IDE RAID setup. Will report later.

[gaz919]

you were doing ok, it always gives a device busy error, you need to boot into -s then do the commands.

You cannot use hadware raid with the leopard there is no kext for hardware raid support.
only software raid is supported. Don't confuse the two.

It will work with the sata drives you just need to keep trying, boot of the cd with -s and it will let you do the commands.
I had the same problems and just worked through them.

Good Luck

[cybland]

Here it is. Finally finished.

@gaz919 Thanks for the wishes and warnings. I haven't confused the two, just forgot to disable the nVidia RAID. Anyhow my final setup is WinXP on nVidia S-ATA Raid and OS X on Apple software raid, on two IDE ATA133 drives (only because I have a lot of Win software so I need to keep those 300+ GB Win accessible). For now OS X will have to cramp inside 74+ GB Apple raid. At least I'm satisfied with the results. The only annoyance that I have is every time I boot I have to bash F11 key to choose which system to boot. I'll be very thankful if you could recommend a boot-loader capable of booting GUID without having to install that Vista s**t just to get the BCD or even Linux for that matter, to use Grub.

I'm attaching a screenshot of Xbench score.