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Thread: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

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    Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    Hi:

    I have a Thecus 4100+ with a 4 disk raid 5, but am running low on space. I'd like to incrementally upgrade my disks. BUT, there are issues. For one thing, I don't have a simple way to back everything up. I may have to use DVDs and with 700+ GB of stuff, I'd like to avoid that.

    What I'd like to be able to do is replace the disks, one disk at a time, increasing the space. But, with raid 5, that may not be possible. I don't know. Can anyone help with this? Suggestions would be great.

    I have 4 disks 250GB each. I'd like to replace them, one at a time, with larger disks - say 1 TB disks.

    Along these lines, what is really possible with RAID 5 and disk changes? What happens when you pull a 250GB disk out and put in a 500GB disk as a replacement? Can 4 different size disks be used to create a raid 5? How does that work? Does the raid array just use the lowest drive size as the size for all disks in the array? Can anyone post some RAID 5/6 overview info?

    KFF
    Last edited by KidFunkyFried; 30-04-2008 at 06:42 PM.

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    Re: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    Quote Originally Posted by KidFunkyFried View Post
    What happens when you pull a 250GB disk out and put in a 500GB disk as a replacement?
    General rule: All disks in the (RAID5) array will adopt the capacity of the smallest capacity drive. In your example, adding a single 500Gig HDD will not change size of your array.

    Quote Originally Posted by KidFunkyFried View Post
    Can 4 different size disks be used to create a raid 5?
    Yes, but see above for limitation.

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    Re: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    OK, right. This is what I assumed. So, three 250GB and 1 500GB is the same raid array size as 4 250GB drives.

    But, what happens when all of the drives are replaced, one by one, until they are all a higher capacity? Let's say that all of the 250GB drives were replaced with 500GB drives, one at a time. That would result in a RAID 5 array that was approximately 750GB (4 x n - n where in = 250) but with 2TB of raw drive space. What then? Could the array be expanded to include the unused drive space without loss of data or would all data have to be removed, the drives reformatted, the array rebuilt, and the data rewritten to the new array?

    KFF

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    Re: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    Quote Originally Posted by KidFunkyFried View Post
    Could the array be expanded to include the unused drive space without loss of data or would all data have to be removed, the drives reformatted, the array rebuilt, and the data rewritten to the new array?

    KFF
    Good question, not sure off the top of my head. Anyone else?

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    Re: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    I got the same question here. I'm in raid 5 on a n5200 br pro, currently using 5x 500GB. I want to go to 5x 1TB. Figured the same tacktics as discribed here.

    Changing disks one by one to come to the situtation that all disks are at 1T and my raid5 is still at 500GB. THE question is. Can I allocate the unused "new" space without losing my data?

    Searched a while now but not found a clear anwser yet? And I'm not gonna just take the risk of losing my data!

    A clear anwser is wanted (maybe a staff answer ?)

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    Re: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    On the N5200pro it is definitly possible to do a raid expand and then a space allocation after You have exchanged all discs. If everything runs through then Your data are safe - BUT - if something goes wrong during the expansion or during the disc replace then Your data are goine. Possible problems are: power loss, a 2nd harddisc goes down,........
    A Raid device never replaces a backup.
    br
    Peter

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    Re: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    Yes, on my 7700, I replaced disks 1tb to 2tb, one at a time after making a full backup to USB

    As soon as the last drive was done, the system showed about half free, so I did a raid expand, which also took 16 hours, but it worked fine and all the extra space is showing fine

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    Re: Raid 5 disk size and upgrade questions

    Dear KidFunkyFried,

    N4100+ does not support RAID expansion or RAID migration. Therefore, to upgrade your hard drives, you will need to first backup all your files and then create a new RAID volume from new drivers.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Official Thecus Support Representative

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