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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: nms on June 20, 2011, 06:09:40 pm

Title: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: nms on June 20, 2011, 06:09:40 pm
I currently have a raid 5 setup with 3 drives.  I bought a 4th drive and want to add it to the existing raid.  I have the UD7 mobo.  Is this possible?  Do I have to erase everything and start over or can the new drive be added without losing or writing over the existing data files?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: Aussie Allan on June 20, 2011, 11:20:23 pm

 NMS

 Raid 5 is infinitely and definitely extendible.... depending on the controller........ there will be small implementation differences depending on chip controller you do it on......it's probably the best Raid solution out there regards, parity, volume efficiency cost, speed and implementation, ....in fact the more drives you add, the better the overall efficiency of the array, especially read/write speeds to parity ratio .... your best bet if the manual is vague,  is to "Goggle" ....Adding a drive to raid 5"...Intel is a great source...... if there's lots of hits .....add your controller and or motherboard........I ran 4 x 500 Gb drives for two years then added a fifth and a month later a sixth, all by just adding the drive into the array on INTEL ICH9 then....the Intel ICH10R or ICH10DO should be just better!

 From memory I just Added the drive/s into the existing array and rebooted........it was Matrix raid then (Now Rapid Raid)..... popped up with the information of the new Drive/s added and what do I want to do? .... Use the wizard if you're not entirely comfortable but don't choose "Hot spare"unless you want a hot spare, ... it adds this data to the MBR (Master Boot Record) and is a pig to remove if you change your mind later on.....Choose "Extend Array" and follow the prompts .......it'll then go off and rebuild the array across the new extended array..... be warned, this can take a long time, but you will still have access to the machine while it's rebuilding but performance will be like a snail........or ........you can clone.........but that's a whole new story!

 Aussie Allan
Title: Re: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: nms on June 21, 2011, 12:39:25 pm
I was using the BIOS raid system which didn't allow me to resize.

This PC is a new build with little data on it so no big deal.  However I have encountered another problem.

I have four 1TB drives.  The BIOS said my RAID5 volume has 2794GB available.  When I go to Windows 7 disk manager, I see the 2794 partition.  A box pops up and says I have to initialize the drive to use it.  When I click OK it breaks the drive into one 2093GB partition and a 735GB partition.  I'm only able to format the 2093 partition and the other 735 says unallocated and I can't format that one.

What am I doing wrong?
Title: Re: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: Aussie Allan on June 21, 2011, 01:10:43 pm

 NTFS  supports up to 2 TB partitions......over 2 TB .........Well read this.....http://carltonbale.com/how-to-break-the-2tb-2-terabyte-file-system-limit

 Aussie Allan
Title: Re: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: nms on June 21, 2011, 07:47:29 pm
Aussie Allan,

Thank you very much for your help.  I did see the option for GUID.  I'll try that when I get back home from work.
Title: Re: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: Aussie Allan on June 21, 2011, 08:34:30 pm


 My pleasure......... 8).........call back if you have problems!

 Aussie Allan
Title: Re: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: nms on June 22, 2011, 03:40:33 am
worked like a charm.  Thanks again. ;D
Title: Re: Adding a hard drive to existing raid 5
Post by: Aussie Allan on June 22, 2011, 07:17:52 am


 Good!......leave the money under the milk bottle .......or a karma ;D

 We redeem the karma's for food vouches, I have 17 kid's ;)

 Aussie Allan