Array Expansion on a ich8r

[JSM88]

I've got three 500gig drives running in raid 5 on my p5b-e and would like to add more space (when 1 terabyte just isn't enough...) I can't seem to find any information on whether the ICH8R supports array expansion (and if not, why not.) Any help would be appreciated

 

[tuskenraider]

If you can, you should find the info here: http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/index.htm

 

[BillParrish]

yes, however with your chipset the largest raid 5 supported is 4 disks holding data , you can have another disk on the controller marked as a hot spare but it wont hold data until it replaces a defective drive.

From the intel matrix storage manager help file.

Adding hard drives: The Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver is adding one or more members and migrating data in the array.


Plus I have done it, add the new drive to the array and it should be straight forward, It was so long ago (couple months LOL) I cant remember exactly how but it was cake. Plugged it in, hit CTRL-I when booting to get into raid bios, made sure drive was seen, added it to the array, then cant remember if it was there or inside windows/matrix storage manager but where-ever, it was cake. automatically started migrating data. It took a while, plan on couple hours at least of leaving computer powered up.