Is it possible to configure RAID 0 without formatting HDD?

[djjd47130]

I'm still fairly new to the concept of RAID, never had to do it before but I do now. I have a PowerEdge R200 with a single TB hard drive is running the system. I'd like to add an additional identical TB drive and tie them together - only without cleaning everything that's already on there.

Any suggestions?


JD Solutions

 

[technome]

Yes you can migrate from raid 0 to raid 1 either though the raid bios setup or through Dell Openmange Server Administrator without
losing data.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/PERC3sc/en/ug/chap5.htm#1067590

Always create a backup before any raid migration.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[technome]

Sorry for the above, I was working on another post reply, pasted it, saved it...wrong reply for this post.


........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[technome]

Had a little more time today...
Assuming Windows OS, and you have important data to maintain.

Considering how unreliable Raid 0 is with multiple disks and considering larger disks are inherently more dangerous then disks of smaller disk capacity,I will not get into extending your present raid 0. Personally I have not used even a single disk raid 0 in many years for data, as the chance of data loss is just to high.

If you raid controller supports raid 5, you could migrate your present drive to that level, requiring at least 2 more drives, with no data loss. If you search the linked Dell site, the procedure has been discussed before

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/906.aspx

If you raid adapter does not support raid 5....
The incorrect post I gave is a fairly safe disk setup (create a raid 1, no more space but gaining raid 1 safety) for your original disk. To add more space, if you have more disk slots (total at least 4), purchase two more disks, create another raid 1 then implement Windows DFS to create a DFS Namespace which would allow both raid 1's to be seen as one directory structure.

DFS

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc787066(WS.10).aspx

as stated before always backup your data.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[rclarke250]

He doesn't have any raid setup, just a 1tb drive, he wants to setup raid, but doesn't specify which raid array. some raid adapters support creating a raid 1 (mirror) and retain data, as it will just copy the data from drive 1 to drive 2. but a raid 0(striped) is another thing, you will lose the data during the array creation i think, you would have to look up your specific perc card.

 

[djjd47130]

I don't necessarily care how it's configured. The important thing is that I already have 2 1TB HDD's, and it can't support a 3rd or 4th. They were *supposedly* on a RAID 0 already, but someone didn't do it right and the other 1TB HDD is completely unused. It already has tons of data on it with Windows Server 2003 (it's a file server) and all I care about is setting up the other HDD to be mirrored in case one or the other fails at any time. If it requires backing everything up (obviously a good idea anyway) then I might as well wipe it clean anyway. I just didn't want to have to do that.

JD Solutions