Moving Documents and Settings to RAID1

This section involves moving data from the default RAID0 Windows partition over to the RAID1 partition and serves more as a guide - for those that are not setting up systems for RAID at this point may want to move on to the next page as we take a look at the performance.

The problem with the current setup is that data files by default are still stored on the Windows drive meaning that in the event of a hardware failure, user data is still lost which is contrary to the goals of the Matrix RAID philosophy. The Documents and Settings folder needs to be moved from the default folder to the RAID1 partition. Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this - we chose to use TweakUI. Install it and log out.

For Windows 2000 users using the Administrator account, a second account will need to be created. For Windows XP users, there is already an Administrator account created by default through XP. After the Win2k user creates the second account (which needs to be an account with Administrator access also), log on with the account that you do NOT plan to use.

Windows XP users who are using the default login screen will need to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, let go of DEL and hit DEL a second time - this will give a login prompt where the end user now can log in as Administrator. This needs to be done because some files cannot be accessed while the same account is being used.

Open Control Panel -> Administrator Tools -> Computer Management -> Local Users and Groups -> Users. Highlight the relevant user, and right click and choose properties. Click on the profile tab which should bring up a form. The relevant field here is the profile path which should be blank and defaults to %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\%username%. This can be changed to any directory. I suggest Documents and Settings\ for simplicity's sake.

Copy everything from the contents of the entire folder from the RAID0 partition to the RAID1 partition. For those that do not have Show Hidden Files and Folders enabled, it would be easiest to just copy the entire user directory and paste it in the path that was chosen above.

Log out of the current account and log into the account that will actually be used. Fire up TweakUI. Expand My Computer and click on Special Folders. For each item listed under the Folder list, click on the new folder on the RAID1 partition (maybe with the exception of CD burning which I believe is just used as a buffer).

It may help to enable hidden files and folders as I am not positive that they will show up while browsing otherwise. For the ultimate test, open up Internet Explorer and save a picture or webpage into My Documents. The file should show up on the RAID1 partition and NOT in c:\Documents and Settings\%username%. If it shows up in the RAID1 partition we're sailing smoothly and documents will automatically be mirrored through the magic of RAID1. Applications and things that can be lost should now be dumped onto the RAID0 partition.