It depends on how the RAID configuration is written. Some RAID controllers
actually write the RAID configuration onto the hard disks and some don't.
Those controllers that do make changing the RAID card easy (as long as you
use one of the original hard disks) - but other RAID cards retain the RAID
config in memory on the card. Thus, when changing the RAID controller the
config is lost. I'm not familiar with that particular RAID card, but perhaps
somewhere on the Intel site it may say for sure. Most of the RAID card's
I've dealt with do NOT write the RAID config on the hard disks. So, changing
the RAID resulted in a rebuild and reload of all data.
If you have the resources, you can install the new RAID card along with the
first hard disk ('0') from the previous RAID controller. Next, populate the
remainder of the new RAID with the appropriate number of hard disks> Boot
the system and go to the RAID configuration; if it detects your previous
RAID configuration then it wrote the config to the hard disk ('0'). If it
detects NO RAID config, then the Config is in the memory on the old RAID
card and its time to perform a data migration. This assumes you have some
extra hardware just laying around
For me, an external hard disk (USB, portable) is usually the simplest way to
copy an entire RAID. Good luck!
Cheers!
