Raid 5 Questions

[civic00typer]

If you start out with 3 hard disks in a RAID 5 setup, can you add more hard drives to it? Another question which I can't seem to find an answer to: is it possible to add hard drives that already have data on them to a raid 5 arrary without losing the data? Furthermore if you have the same size hard drives by different manufacturers, is that going to cause issues with the array?

 

[Phixzet]

You need a separate RAID card that supports Online Capacity Expansion.

I'm going to soon get the Areca 1220 board - PCI 8x (wish it was 4x), 8 SATA II ports, supports NCQ. Unfortunately it is like $600, without the battery backup for the flash which is another $150 or so.

 

[EnderW]

If you start out with 3 hard disks in a RAID 5 setup, can you add more hard drives to it?

Depends on the controller. Look for a feature called Online Capacity Expansion.

Another question which I can't seem to find an answer to: is it possible to add hard drives that already have data on them to a raid 5 arrary without losing the data?

No.

Furthermore if you have the same size hard drives by different manufacturers, is that going to cause issues with the array?

You're asking for trouble by mixing brands/models. It may work, you'd just have to try and see.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Another question which I can't seem to find an answer to: is it possible to add hard drives that already have data on them to a raid 5 arrary without losing the data?

Well, indirectly, yes - move the data from the new drive onto the array, then blank it and add it to the array.

Furthermore if you have the same size hard drives by different manufacturers, is that going to cause issues with the array?

Don't. Different drives, even from the same manufacturer, can lead to problems. The drives deal with buffer strategies in different ways, and performance problems are bound to ensue.