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Moving RAID array from workstation to WHS

J

jazzman161

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 6, 2004
Messages
220
Hey all! So I'm trying to get an early start on how to process my new WHS I'll be building. I want to move my RAID1 setup (2x1TB) from my workstation (which has music, documents, and photos) into my WHS. I know I no longer need to setup RAID in WHS and WHS will duplicate the data for me. The question is, how do I unRAID the drives so I don't lose the data. I'm assuming I'll somehow end up with 1 drive full of data and 1 empty? Then install both drives into the WHS and it'll duplicate one to the other?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
buy a 2tb drive for the server, move data, then add your old drives.. May not be the ideal solution, but you're gonna store more in the future anyways.. You will need to move all your data off the drives before taking the raid array down.. There's no doing it halfway AFAIK..
 
Losfiendos, why would he need a 2TB drive to backup 1TB of data? RAID1/mirroring, ya see? So the actual amount of data is under 1TB.

Since they are mirrored drives I figured they would work independently, but maybe not. My experience with RAID is limited and I only know what all the different levels are and how they work. You can give a shot to seeing if the data on each drive can be read independently. Otherwise, there is no way to un-RAID an array and keep the data.

Edit: Wiki: "Although it may depend on the controller, some RAID 1 disks can be read as a single conventional disk" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Data_recovery_in_the_event_of_a_failed_array
 
Short way(if you have enough space)
1. Copy over the network to the WHS.
2. Remove RAID1 disk and add them to the pool.
3. Turn on Duplication.

Long Way
1. Turn off workstation.
2. Remove both disks that have RAID1
3. Plug into WHS.
4. Verify Data is complete on both disks.
5. Add one of the disk to the pool.
6. Copy data to the pool.
7. Add second disk to pool.
8. Turn on duplication.
 
A somewhat ballsy way. Try this only if you have full faith and confidence in Raid1:

1. Remove one drive from your Raid1. It will run degraded but all the data should be in tact.
2. Plug that drive into the WHS. Add it to the pool.
3. Disable duplication for the share you will be copying the data to on the WHS (unless you have at least 1Gb free on your WHS OS drive, which is unlikely).
4. Move your data.
5. Pull the 2nd drive from your raid array and add it to the pool on the WHS
6. Enable duplication on the WHS.

Downside of this would be an ill-timed failure while the Raid1 was running in degraded mode. That would probably be bad. Personally I'd spring for at least one new drive for the WHS so that you don't have to take this risk.
 
So since I have a 2tb drive I'm throwing into the WHS, I should just copy the whole 1tb drive over the network (copy & paste?) once I get the WHS build up and running?

Once the data is copied over, do I just unplug the RAID1 array from the workstation and throw into WHS and let them get formatted or do I need to something on the workstation first to stop the array? I don't want my workstation to freak out as it continually looks for the array.
 
jazzman161 said:
So since I have a 2tb drive I'm throwing into the WHS, I should just copy the whole 1tb drive over the network (copy & paste?) once I get the WHS build up and running?

Once the data is copied over, do I just unplug the RAID1 array from the workstation and throw into WHS and let them get formatted or do I need to something on the workstation first to stop the array? I don't want my workstation to freak out as it continually looks for the array.
Click to expand...

The answer depends at least in part on your network. If its wired and GigE then yes - start it copying and go to bed. But don't use windows drag/drop to do it. Use something that can restart if there is a failure or deals decently with other errors. Synctoy can probably do it. Personally, I'd used the paid version of GoodSync.

If you are wireless or 100Mb you might want to keep looking at ways to move a drive.
 
my extra drive solution was how I'd do it. I've been burnt before ;) an extra drive is cheap compared to the time you can spend if things go wrong..
 
I'll go the extra drive route. And thanks for reminding me about synctoy. I'll opt for that method.

Do I need to do anything on the workstation once I've copied the data over? I see there's a "Remove Raid" option in my Gigabyte Raid Configurer program.

Thanks guys!
 
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