Talk:Dual-boot Gentoo and Windows 7 with BIOS-powered software raid

Software & Hardware Raid Clarification
Just a quick note on the differences of software and hardware raid -- which quite a bit elsewhere already.

If I'm not mistaken, many motherboards, including recently within the past five or so years, do have raid controller chips within the motherboard, hence, they're hardware raid.

Software raid has been something implemented within the kernels at the software level to utilize two or more disks within a raid configuration. The big negative with this software raid implementation, software raid uses other resources such as CPU to compensate for not have hardware related raid chips. I'll guess software raid is probably best used for mirroring or backup exclusively versus looking for any performance improvements.

Now, what you're citing within your opening paragraph about seeing the BIOS raid setting and assuming software raid, I'm guessing you're implying the BIOS raid setting is for a software raid implemented within the BIOS firmware or within the EFI/UEFI BIOS. Some motherboards seem to have hardware (or fake) raid chips which are likely far superior to software implemented raid within kernels.

I'm just piping in here as I noticed a slight lacking of detail concerning discerning the differences. As for my opinion on raid, eh as you already mentioned in your last paragraph, I too think raid is a waste for most users. I think only database centers could implement & maintain such redundancy and avoiding the risk. It wouldn't be sensible and cost effective for normal users. But I still see it done, but I can't seem to justify the cost here even after 15+ years of having a computer around.