Do RAID-5 drives have to be the same model?

[snake77]

I am adding some new drives to a PERC3i RAID-5 array. It has three U160 80-pin 18.3 GB Seagate drives right now. My question is, what is people's opinion whether the new drives have to be exactly the same model as the old ones? I am looking at some Seagate drives that are also U160, 80-pin, 10,000 RPM but have different buffer size, and are slightly larger in capacity (18.4 GB), and so have different cylinder size and number of tracks, etc.

How big a deal is this?

 

[NickFerrar]

It should work fine, ideally you should match them exactly but you don't have to. I recently had to install a 15k drive into a RAID5 10k drive array (it was a left over so cheaper than ordering a new 10k drive...). Works fine just runs at the same speed as the others. I've also added mis-matched drive sizes into RAID5 arrays with no problems.

 

[pikk]

Any Dell/RAID experts out there?

Have a real problem. My Exchnage server blew a 9 Gig SCSI drive last week and it was one of the RAID 5 drives. However...the system is 3 yrs old and 9 Gig SCSI's are no longer available. I may have to resort to buying a 36. My fear is that the 36 won't jive with the 9's that are already in there and I may have to replace all of them. Worse still is the fact that there's a chance it won't be recognized at all.

Any ideas??

THNX

P'

 

[snake77]

Hi:

New 9 GB drives are still available and they go for almost nothing. Try

http://www.driveguys.com

or go to

http://www.pricewatch.com

and type in your drive manufacturer and model number. Just make sure to call before you order and verify you're getting a new drive, not a "reconditioned" one.

 

[pikk]

Excellent tip on the HDD's!

Thnx Snake!

Pikk

 

[pikk]

Another question...

Given that I am only able to obtain a larger SCSI drive for my Exch box...will I have a problem with popping that drive into the RAID array and having it recognized? What I mean is will it actually function as a 9 gig when I add it to the array? I would hate to have to re-do the entire system because of one drive.

Thnx in advance

P

 

[NickFerrar]

My experience is the drive is recognised fine (as long as the BIOS can deal with large drive sizes etc), I've only used a 36GB instead of an 18GB though.