Expand Raid 5 Array - Add another drive to existing array

traceyg

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Sep 29, 2009
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Hello all,

I have 3 1 TB sata2 drives in raid 5 utilizing the software controller on the asus crosshair 3 mobo. I would like to add another 1 Tb drive to the array. I have to mention that current the array is partitioned for a 150GB OS partition and the remainder for DATA. I am also adding a 300GB velociraptor to the PC as the new OS drive. I will be deleting the current OS partition on the array and merging it to the DATA array.

Can this be done?

If so, detailed information on how to do so would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
As far as I know, for RAID 5 you have to delete the array (which destroys the data) then rebuild the array. This has to do with the way the stipes & parity are distributed across the array. Although I think on some higher end, dedicated hardware systems there might be a way around this.

Personally, I'd copy the system partition to the velociraptor, I think Ghost can do this. Then, back up the data, rebuild the array, and good to go.

gtvr

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Jun 13, 2009
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As far as I know, for RAID 5 you have to delete the array (which destroys the data) then rebuild the array. This has to do with the way the stipes & parity are distributed across the array. Although I think on some higher end, dedicated hardware systems there might be a way around this.

Personally, I'd copy the system partition to the velociraptor, I think Ghost can do this. Then, back up the data, rebuild the array, and good to go.
 
Solution

traceyg

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Sep 29, 2009
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18,510
Thank you for the quick reply! I guess it's best to backup while the array is still relatively empty otherwise I'd have nowhere to fit everything.

Thanks again.