About RAID 1

[Guest]

My Raid 1 with two 160G harddrives. Is it possible:
1. replace ONE harddrive 160G by 320G. System will rebuild RAID and of couse
at this time Windows just see system harddrive C: only 160G.
2. Replace another 160G harddrive by 320G. Will System rebuild RAID ??? and
right now C: will 320G ???
Thanks

 

[Guest]

If you have RAID 1 installed now with 2 160GB hds,you should see 320GB For
C: Or a little less.With 2 320GB hds,you'd see 640GB Or little less for C:
If you now only see 160GB,RAID is not installed,true the OS only shows C: As
1 hd,but like with intel software (matrix storage),both hds do show in
xp.Plus,
at each pc start-up or restart,a post BIOS RAID utility must be present &
shows
both hds,being healthy & bootable....

 

[Bob Willard]

If you have RAID 1 installed now with 2 160GB hds,you should see 320GB For
C: Or a little less.With 2 320GB hds,you'd see 640GB Or little less for C:
If you now only see 160GB,RAID is not installed,true the OS only shows C: As
1 hd,but like with intel software (matrix storage),both hds do show in
xp.Plus,
at each pc start-up or restart,a post BIOS RAID utility must be present &
shows
both hds,being healthy & bootable....

:

Uh, no. With a RAID0 array of 2x160GB HDs, you would see an array of 320GB.
But with a RAID1 array of 2x160GB HDs, you will see an array of 160GB.
RAID0 is striping, RAID1 is mirroring.

As for the original Q: I don't think RAID controllers, hardware or software,
are smart enough to do what you want. You can RTFM to check, since I'm
sure that any RAIDbox vendor that supported incremental growth would certainly
point out that useful feature; but you will probably need to backup your files,
then replace your RAIDset, then restore your files.

 

[Stuart]

The way I have done it on XP with Adaptec & Promise SATA controllers is:
Break the array which gives you two individual drives.
Remove the 160.
Using XP Computer Mgt partition the 320 to your liking.
Install the second 360 and at boot use the RAID controller to form a new array.
Be sure you know which 360 has your system on it [don't ask].
If something goes wrong remember you have your complete system on the 160 you removed after you broke up the array.
HTH
Stuart

 

[David B.]

You have no idea what your talking about as usual Andrew, RAID 1 with 2 x
160GB drives will yield you 160GB of useable space, RAID 0 would yield 320
or so.