How to expand an ARECA RAID6 Array?

[Hammer!]

Hi, I have a RAID6 array with 5 3TB drives on an Areca 1880i card and would like to expand that array to 6 drive. I added the 6th drive and expanded the raidset and all that went smoothly such that after the re-striping, the array is "Normal". However, my volume set still only reports a 9TB volume size. The only option I see to change the volume set is "Modify Volume Set." There, I have the ability to change the size of the volume set from 9000 to 12000. However, I am hesitant to do that since another option on the same screen is the method of initialization which implies to me that my existing volume set will be wiped out and replaced with a new empty volume set of the larger size. I do not want to lose the data I have on the array.

I believe I need to expand the volume set before the larger size will be presented to my Windows OS so that I can increase the partition size in Disk Management.

Please help! At current prices for these 3TB drives, I would hate to see one go to waste!

Thanks, Hammer!

 

[mwroobel]

Hi, I have a RAID6 array with 5 3TB drives on an Areca 1880i card and would like to expand that array to 6 drive. I added the 6th drive and expanded the raidset and all that went smoothly such that after the re-striping, the array is "Normal". However, my volume set still only reports a 9TB volume size. The only option I see to change the volume set is "Modify Volume Set." There, I have the ability to change the size of the volume set from 9000 to 12000. However, I am hesitant to do that since another option on the same screen is the method of initialization which implies to me that my existing volume set will be wiped out and replaced with a new empty volume set of the larger size. I do not want to lose the data I have on the array.

I believe I need to expand the volume set before the larger size will be presented to my Windows OS so that I can increase the partition size in Disk Management.

Please help! At current prices for these 3TB drives, I would hate to see one go to waste!

Thanks, Hammer!

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
Next, since you already added the drive and expanded the RAIDset, you need next to go to Modify Volume Set and set the new size to 12000. After that process finishes, reboot the machine and you need to use the diskpart.exe utility. Which version of Windows are you running?


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: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590

More info on Diskpart: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415