Adding drives to existing Raid 5

ericepp

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I have four 2 TB drives in my PC. They currently have about 5.5 TB of data on them. I want to move them to a server and build a raid 5 array. If I buy 2 more drives and move all my data to 3 drives. Can I build a raid 5 with three drives, and add the other three drives to it after migrating the data to the new array?

Also, Is raid 5 the most efficient and economical route to go?
 
Solution
If you're looking for something like a home server the yes just use the integrated controller, its probably better than a cheap fake raid controller.

Step1 for me is to make a backup of your existing data.
I would install the 3 new disks into the server, set them up in raid5 thru the bios, and install your OS, hopefully to a separate drive. From there copy your data over (over the network?) and when done you can expand the existing raid volume using the old drives.

Both current Intel and AMD's Chipset raids support expanding the raid.

popatim

Titan
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That depends on the controller used. See your owners documentation for raid expansion.

As for raid5 being the most efficient way to go. Probably not and depending on the quality of the drives being used it might be a recipe for disaster with drives of that size.
 

ericepp

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I don't have a raid card yet. I actually do, but it's only a 2 port Asus I bought for an old EVGA motherboard I had with no AHCI. I didn't think when I first asked the question that I was pushing the envelope on the number of volumes. I don't know who makes a raid 5 cards with more than 4 ports. I could use the software raid on my Gigabyte motherboard. It has 6 ports. I want to use raid 5 for the parity feature in case of a drive failure, but not have pure mirroring. That's too expensive. What would you recommend? Is it possible to span an array over more than one controller card?
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
If you're looking for something like a home server the yes just use the integrated controller, its probably better than a cheap fake raid controller.

Step1 for me is to make a backup of your existing data.
I would install the 3 new disks into the server, set them up in raid5 thru the bios, and install your OS, hopefully to a separate drive. From there copy your data over (over the network?) and when done you can expand the existing raid volume using the old drives.

Both current Intel and AMD's Chipset raids support expanding the raid.
 
Solution

ericepp

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Newegg had 2TB Seagate EXT drives on sale with Email code for 69.99. I knew I would need two of those to relieve the current drives of their data, so I bought 3. They have the $100 ST2000DM001 drives in them. I also bought windows home server. I read up on sas/sata cards this weekend. I think I might invest in one of those. How many sata drives can you run off one of those controllers' ports? I saw some crazy deep sea monster looking cables for sale for those things. Also there is debate as to certaion cables not being SATA 6 GB/sec compatible. Can you help a guy out with a bit of understanding of what I might need to run about 6 drives? Thanks for all your help.
 

popatim

Titan
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Cards can run from 4 to 256 drives depending on the card. A sas port typically breaks out to 4 sas or sata connectors, so a 2 port card could physically connect to 8 drives. To increase beyond that you would connect one of the cards ports to an expander and keep daisy chaining expanders until you reached the cards limit.

What raid card are you looking at?
 

ericepp

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I replied last night, but it didn't send for some reason...

I was looking at "Google Shopping" and there were some Dell and HP branded Adaptec cards on there. I recognize them as old school. I am 45 and really only got introduced to PCs as a hobby in the early 90s. I am not familiar with commercial hardware as much as consumer grade, so I am not "in the know" on what is the best deal for Raid type equipment. For Example, I can tell you that "for the money," Verbatim has a 120GB SSD that can't be beat as a retail item. However, I don't know one SAS/sata card or cable from the next.

What are your thoughts on different types of cables. I read somewhere on Newegg that there are different types of cables for sata II and sata III speeds. Thanks again for your help.
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
You haven't made it clear if you want raid 0, 1, 10, 5, 6, 50, or 60
LoL

Again, for a home user - motherbd raid 0,1,5, & 10 is often good enough and often better than many fake raid cards. Which motherbd do you intend on using?
If you want a real raid5 card, whats your budget?
 

ericepp

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I plan on using a raid 5. The Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 rev 1.3 board I have has an Intel Controller with 2 Sata III ports and 4 Sata II ports. It also has a Marvell controller with two additional Sata III ports. I can move my boot disk over to the Marvell controller, and run the Raid-5 on the six ports of the Intel controller. I was interested in a controller card because my board's Intel doesn't have all six ports running Sata III speeds like the new ones.

I am thinking of putting this computer in the closet with Windows Home Server on it (which I just bought), and getting a CuBox for an HTPC.

Critical info request:

Is the array movable to a different machine? If so, am I tethered to this Motherboard, or can I use any Raid-5 controller? If my board dies, is my data gone?
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
Sata2 or 3 makes no difference for HDD's, only for SSD's (so far)

Since this is going to become a media sever then booting from the marvell controller is fine and using THe 6 intel ports for your raid5 is a good start. It does make adding more drives an issue but not increasing the drives size. I mean that you can increase the size of the raid by increasing the size of the drives one at a time.

6 2T drives in raid5 will get you 10Tb of space in the end. 3 drives would get you 4Tb initially. I hope this is enough room for you to start migrating the data.

Is this data backed up already?
 

ericepp

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No, not backed up yet. I will have 7 drives to work with. If I can get all my data on 3 drives, then I can make an array with 4.

So, you are certain I will not be able to add more drives to this array on the Gigabyte board? That is unfortunate. Perhaps I should try to invest in a hardware raid solution. I might be able to find one on ebay that I can afford. I don't want to limit my storage options, or take a chance on losing my data. The entire reason I am creating the Raid5, is because right now, I have all my data on four 2TB drives, and I would lose data if one of the drives crashed. I plan to use the Raid 5's rebuild feature as insurance against this. Is there a conteroller out there, or a motherboard that would let me add drives to an existing Raid5? I am not against upgrading to a newer Motherboard. But, couldn't I get a decent raid card for about the same price? What is your suggestion?
 

FireWire2

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Most likely your RAID is not portable, If your MB die, you need to get same MB, otherwise it's a trial and error.

Your best bet is use the old door stopper computer with SPM393 hardware raid controller. If the MB die just get ANY MB with a SATA port, load WHS, then your server's data is back
or plug that SPM393 into ANY SATA port of ANY Windows system to access your data.

You may able to access your data via USB2.0 or USB3.0 port even, if you connect that SPM39 raid controller to U3eSATA adapter

 

ericepp

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I need at least six ports, preferably 8. I have 7 total drives, and may add more eventually. That particular device only has 5. I appreciate your comments, though.