Re: Convert RAID1 to RAID5

Curtis wrote:
I have a client using SBS 2003 on a 50 computer network with 2 hard drives in a RAID1 array. This was orginally installed by another company. Now I need extra space and would also like to make the array fault tolerant. So I plan to add two extra drives and make it RAID5.

1. Is it possible to convert a RAID1 array to RAID5 or do I need to mirror the hard drives and build the RAID5 array from scratch?
2. Also I cannot find hard drives identical to what is in now. Is it ok to have non-identical hard drives in the array?


Id first ensure you are on a hrdware RAID controller card - software version does work but its never as good - and they aren't too much (are you SCSI or S/ATA ?.

I would advise against using the existing disks with new ones to make a new RAID 5 set. I advocate RAID 1 for everything - ine for OS one for data; you wont see any real word difference between mirroring and RAID 5 and there is just so much less to go wrong - a few years of seeing the two options work and fail in many incarnations has convinced me!
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