== FAQ == ---------- 1 . Q - Why do I need raider? I can also convert a single disk to a raid 1 system without it. A - You can do it. But it's rather complicated, you almost need a manual to do it and there are some differences and limitations between distros. Raider will do everything for you with only two commands ("raider -R1" and "raider --run") 2 . Q - Does raider converts a windows partition to a raid system? A - No. Raider only support linux partitions. 3 . Q - Does raider converts linux encrypted partitions to a raid 1 system? A - No. Maybe a later version will do it. Only ext2, ext3, ext4, xfs, jfs, reiserfs, swap and LVM2 partitions are supported by raider. 4 . Q - Why do I need to swap disks in the slots? Raider should take care of everything without swapping disk. A - It's only a safety measure. Swapping disks allow you to check if the new disks are working with raid arrays. If something went wrong, we could always revert the situation and reboot with the old disk safely. Only after being sure about it, we will start raidsync adding the other disk. 5. Q - My linux distribution does not need a initramfs file to boot. Does raider support it? A - Booting to a linux software raid system always needs a initramfs file. So, a generator is always needed to create a initramfs. (Initramfs generator examples: dracut, mkinitrd, mkinitramfs, mkinitcpio, genkernel) 6 - Q - After using raider, I noticed that LVM volume name changed from "VolGroup" to "VolGroup__raider". What happened? A - In systems using LVM partitions, raider creates new volume groups in the raid devices. But the names must be different from the original one, so, it adds a suffix "__raider" (with two underscores) to the original name. 7 - Q - Why has raider created a separated /boot partition in the raid system? A - Raid 4, 5, 6 and 10 in a system with Grub Legacy, is not able to boot. Only a non-raid partition, or a Raid 1 partition will do it. To overcome that limitation, raider creates a new small raid 1 /boot partition in all disks to allow booting the system. Grub 2 (older versions) are able to boot in these raid types, but not if the raid array is degraded. So, only Grub 2 latest versions don't have this limitation, and don't need to create this separated boot raid 1 partition. Raider is clever enough to know what to do in each case.