Hot spare on RAID I controller with 2 SATA II ports

[wilkas]

As I understand, hot spare in RAID I is a third HDD which automatically takes over the failed disc.

According to description, this controller http://www.highpoint-tech.com/usa/rr1720.htm has this feature but only two SATA II ports. If it lets connect only two discs, how is this feature even possible?

Can external RAID controller also use discs that are connected to motherboard?

 

[gtvr]

That question intrigued me so much, I went and googled the manual. Reviews of the card on newegg were pretty bad. It's only PCI, not PCIe, so your throughput will be low.

Here's a great tidbit from the manual re: status lights:

Pin 2 represents SATA Port 1
Pin 1 represents SATA Port 2

BRILLIANT!!!

Anyway, looks like this answers the "how" question:

"Many server-level chassis include hard-disk hot-swap bays. For these system
chassis, cables are attached to the chassis backplane, rather than directly to
each individual hard disk."

 

[wilkas]

If I'm following you right, then this controller do controll HDD's connected to motherboard.

 

[gtvr]

does NOT control HDDs connected to the MB, as far as I can tell.

 

[wilkas]

Then didnt understand the answer, how the third hot spare HDD is connected to a controller having only 2 ports. Hot spare is not HDD swapable manually.

 

[gtvr]

Take a look at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993013&cm_re=sata_backplane-_-17-993-013-_-Product - as best I can tell, 1 sata connection drives multiple drives.

I could be wrong on this, I've never done it before, but that's what I meant in my prior answer about "chassis backplane"

 

[sub mesa]

Port Multipliers; so a 2-port controller can also have RAID5 support; but it requires port multipliers to actually use 3 drives or more.

Note that you do not want to run these shitty solutions; use the onboard SATA ports instead not the terrible quality PCI fakeRAID chips.