On 1/18/08, Andrew Zbikowski <andyzib at gmail.com> wrote: > Fake RAID doesn't refer to software raid, but to the raid controller > cards (Most commonly Promise cards) that are really multi-channel disk > controllers combined with special BIOS configuration options and > software drivers to assist the OS in performing RAID operations. This > gives the appearance of a hardware RAID, because the RAID > configuration is done using a BIOS setup screen, and the operating > system can be booted from the RAID. i know what you referred to, that still does not make it fake: from wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake) fake means not real. so fakeraid would therefore be not real raid, or not a redundant array of inexpensive drives. which is obviously not the case here. The reason it exists is not some satanic conspiracy by the motherboard manufacturers to secretly destroy your data; but to provide those operating systems that are not able to do software raid natively with that capability. cheaply. my Wintendo at home running Windows XP Pro cannot do software raid natively, but using the onboard software raid driver i now have some protection against hard drive failure outside of Windows. > The concept is the same as WinModems...the CPU ends up doing the work > that would otherwise be done on the controller. The drivers hide the > reality of the situation from the end user, and it all works fine > (Well, in my experience with ISP phone support WinModems never worked > fine...) until the end user want to do something like run an Linux > instead of Windows on their PC. I agree, it is very much like WinModems, we should then call it WinRaid because windows is the only OS that needs it. Remember WinModems are not fake modems, they are just not as good as hardware modems.