Replacing Drives in a RAID Array

[BigEd1977]

I have a Windows 2003 Server with 4, 36GB SCSI Drives. It is partitioned into two logical drives. Both drives are filling up. The second, the drive we use for data, is filling up weekly. I move SQL backup and TRN files to another server to keep it up and running. I would like to increase the drive capacity, most likely by installing 4 larger drives. We use Backup Exec for our backup solution.

What would be the easiest, most effective method for doing this? I have setup Servers from scratch, but have never had to rebuild a server from a backup. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Roadki11]

Lots of ways to handle this, this is how I have done it in the past. Attach an IDE drive internally big enough to handle both logical drives. Use ghost to image both logical drives to images files that you store on the IDE drive. Label and pull all 4 old drives, keep handy just in case something goes wrong you can put the old drives back in and be no worse off. Install your new bigger drives and setup your new arrays. Use ghost to restore the image files to the new array, you can on the fly increase the old drive size to the new bigger size you created. Pull the IDE drive and you are done. Shouldnt even take an hour and a half from start to finish.

RoadKi11

"This apparent fear reaction is typical, rather than try to solve technical problems technically, policy solutions are often chosen." - Fred Cohen

 

[technome]

Roadki11's method is the way to go, safest, goes pretty quick, with the same setup you could also clone to the IDE/SATA, then setup the new array and then reverse clone to the new array. Run chkdsk on the old array before imaging or cloning, imaging software hates chkdsk errors.


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