How to add disks to array

[MeanJim]

I have 3 18GB drives to add to a Win2k server. It has a RAID5 array as the C:drive, and another RAID5 as D:drive. I would like to add these new drives as another RAID5 and span them with the D:drive to add another 36GB to D.

I tried to span them in disk management, but found out I had to upgrade D to dynamic disk. I upgraded it, but when I tried to span, it then gave me the message that D had to have been set up as dynamic disk in the first place.

Is there any way to force this at the hardware level without losing the current contents of the D:drive? D contains an SQL database, and I've been afraid to try it. It's a megaraid Express 300 controller card.

 

[technome]

Have done raid for many years and never knew the answer to this until a a year ago.

On Mark Minasi's wegsite there is a thread which is in depth

http://x220.win2ktest.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2127

try this also

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_20587424.html

This might allow the resizing, I have not tried it

http://www.powerquest.com/volumemanager/#2

Sure would be nice if you could directly add space to a raid volume.

I have asked AMI a couple of times about flexraid and they always recommend to leave it disabled,. By the tone in their voices, you know they have listened to more than a few unhappy flexraiders.

 

[MeanJim]

Thanks for the help. We decided to go ahead and make the new drives another volume. Better than taking a chance on losing a customer's critical data...

Thanks again.