upgrading raid 5...

[Flakes]

ok, i have filled my raid array yes all 894GB of it, and would like to kno if this would work im pretty sure it will i just want confirmation.

i am going to buy 4 new larger capacity drives either 750GB seagates or 500GB seagates, and connect them one by one to my raid 5. so in summary

1) remove existing drive
2) replace with new larger drive
3) allow system to rebuild array
4) repeat until array is on all four newer larger harddisks

will this work? or will it just cause corruption or other problems?

 

[sandmanwn]

yep should work, although there are some controllers that do not support this.

When you go through the initial process of adding the drives it will continue to show the size of the first array at 894GB.
You should then, after replacing every disk in the array, be able to go into the diskpart utility and expand the partition.

 

[Dante_Jose_Cuervo]

sandmanwn... you beat me too it. Well...

@ OP: It should work, but it'll take a while just to warn you.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

If you're using the NVidia on-board RAID, I don't think this is going to work.

For any RAID controller to do what you're talking about, it must support Online Capacity Expansion, also sometimes called Migration. It allows the RAID controller to change the configuration of the logical volume(s) (either change RAID level, expand the logical volume size, add physical drives, etc.) without losing data.

High end RAID controllers like the 3Ware, LSI, & similar manufacturers will do this, but consumer RAID controllers like the NVidia or Intel motherboard RAID controllers won't.

If your RAID card supports this feature, expanding the volume is a two-step process. First, you either add or change drives, and execute the Migration or Online Capacity Expansion to expand the logical volume size. After that's done, Windows Disk Management will show a larger physical drive than you originally had, but the partition size will be the same as it was. You then use Diskpart (or Partition Magic) to expand the partition to the new size of the logical volume.

 

[Flakes]

If you're using the NVidia on-board RAID, I don't think this is going to work.

For any RAID controller to do what you're talking about, it must support Online Capacity Expansion, also sometimes called Migration. It allows the RAID controller to change the configuration of the logical volume(s) (either change RAID level, expand the logical volume size, add physical drives, etc.) without losing data.

High end RAID controllers like the 3Ware, LSI, & similar manufacturers will do this, but consumer RAID controllers like the NVidia or Intel motherboard RAID controllers won't.

If your RAID card supports this feature, expanding the volume is a two-step process. First, you either add or change drives, and execute the Migration or Online Capacity Expansion to expand the logical volume size. After that's done, Windows Disk Management will show a larger physical drive than you originally had, but the partition size will be the same as it was. You then use Diskpart (or Partition Magic) to expand the partition to the new size of the logical volume.

hmm im using the silicon onboard raid controller, for this ill have to check the documentation and see if it supports that.