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Areca 1882ix-16 RAID expansion

L

Lifespeed

Weaksauce
Joined
May 12, 2013
Messages
77
I just added two more Hitachi (now Toshiba) 5K3000 3TB drives to increase from 8 drives to 10 drives. Using the web interface I chose "expand RAID set". Two days later it finished. It then checked the array (apparently automatically?) without complaint.

Windows storage manager still shows only 16 TB available from the previous array configuration. If I click on "RAID set function/activate RAID set" it shows 30 TB. Under "Information/RAID set hierarchy" It shows 18TB.

What is going on? How do I get the added capacity available in Windows 7? It is configured to 64K stripe size, 512 byte block size.

Edit: it is still "checking" the array, only 12% complete.
 
Last edited:
Ok, first thing to do, is make a complete backup of all important data. As it says in the manual, "RAID set expansion is a quite critical process, we strongly recommend customer backup data before expand. Unexpected accident may cause serious data corruption." Second, make a complete backup of all important data :D
After that process finishes, reboot the machine and you need to use the diskpart.exe utility.


Here are the steps for diskpart (XP or later):

Run a Command Prompt (run cmd.exe)
diskpart.exe (starts the diskpart utility)
help (displays a list of commands, for reference only)
list volume (to list the volumes available and figure out the number of the volume you want to expand)
select volume # (# being the number of the volume you want to extend, in this case you would choose your RAID array)
extend (this extends the selected volume to take up the available free space you just added)
list volume (to make sure the volume is in fact bigger now)
exit (to exit partdisk)
Reboot your computer

If any of this does not go as expected, come back to chat more before you continue to minimize any potential nasties from getting worse.


Microsoft Page On Using Diskpart To Expand:

More info on Diskpart:
 
Snowknight26 said:
Did you expand the volume under 'Modify Volume Set'?
Click to expand...

No, although I looked at this option in the menu and wondered about it. I was reluctant to try anything without knowing what I was doing.

So you are saying that I must also expand the "volume set" the RAID array is part of? I only have one physical RAID array, but I guess Areca wants to put it in a logical volume set regardless.
 
mwroobel said:
Ok, first thing to do, is make a complete backup of all important data. As it says in the manual, "RAID set expansion is a quite critical process, we strongly recommend customer backup data before expand. Unexpected accident may cause serious data corruption." Second, make a complete backup of all important data :D
After that process finishes, reboot the machine and you need to use the diskpart.exe utility.


Here are the steps for diskpart (XP or later):

Run a Command Prompt (run cmd.exe)
diskpart.exe (starts the diskpart utility)
help (displays a list of commands, for reference only)
list volume (to list the volumes available and figure out the number of the volume you want to expand)
select volume # (# being the number of the volume you want to extend, in this case you would choose your RAID array)
extend (this extends the selected volume to take up the available free space you just added)
list volume (to make sure the volume is in fact bigger now)
exit (to exit partdisk)
Reboot your computer

If any of this does not go as expected, come back to chat more before you continue to minimize any potential nasties from getting worse.


Microsoft Page On Using Diskpart To Expand:

More info on Diskpart:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, yes I did back up the critical data. I would lose some non-critical stuff if things go south.

It is my understanding the diskpart functionality you describe is available in windows storage manager, certainly I have used it for this function in the past. I'll check on expanding the "volume" within Areca interface first as mentioned and report back.
 
You still have to expand the VolumeSet in the Areca interface before you can extend the filesystem how I showed above.
 
All is well now. It has been so long since I added disks to this array that I forgot the two-step (three if you include extending the volume in Windows) process.

@mwroobel, interesting names for your computers.

Thanks!
 
Lifespeed said:
All is well now. It has been so long since I added disks to this array that I forgot the two-step (three if you include extending the volume in Windows) process.

@mwroobel, interesting names for your computers.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am a huge Tolkien Fan!
 
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