Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 100692	2009-06-17 06:14:00	Replacing a HDD in SATA RAID 1 array ...	LilDave (15015)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
782967	2009-06-17 06:14:00	Hi, I have two 320GB HDDs in a RAID 1 (or mirrored, whichever number that is) and this is handled by an on-board controller on motherboard. It works perfectly, as far as I know, I've never actually managed to see if it's written data to both drives. Anyway, it's starting to run out of space so I thought it would be time to put some bigger drives in there. When I had the motherboard manual, it seemed as easy as putting the new drive in and clicking REPAIR from the BIOS RAID startup menu. But I have lost the manual First question - is it that easy, has anyone done it before? Second question - if I upgrade to a newer motherboard and chip ... are the drives going to work on the new motherboard? A standalone NAS would be a good idea - but that's money better spent on the children - which is probably what my motherboard & chip upgrades are going to be spent on. I can't find the manual to answer the first question ... so short of pulling the box apart, finding the motherboard make and model, downloading the manual and re-reading it all - does anyone know? Thanks in anticipation --Dave	LilDave (15015)
782968	2009-06-17 22:03:00	Anyway, it's starting to run out of space so I thought it would be time to put some bigger drives in there. When I had the motherboard manual, it seemed as easy as putting the new drive in and clicking REPAIR from the BIOS RAID startup menu. But I have lost the manual First question - is it that easy, has anyone done it before? Second question - if I upgrade to a newer motherboard and chip ... are the drives going to work on the new motherboard? You can use something like CPU-Z (www.cpuid.com) to get your motherboard make & model without cracking open the case :) As for the RAID. Yes you can just swap out the drives one at a time, but you will end up with a 320GB partition on the new bigger drives as a result. Depending on the RAID chipset, you may or may not be able to expand the array or may or may not be able to add another partition to use the extra space. As far as I know, software RAID (the ones built into motherboards) do not allow expansion of the array and often don't have the capability to add extra partitions to the array. Someone more knowledgeable may be able to shed some light on whether adding a partition will work. What I have done in the past is break the array by removing a drive and telling the controller its no longer in RAID1. Install the new drives in RAID1 & copy all the info from the old drive over. As for going to a new motherboard, that would depend on the RAID chipset. If they are the same, chances are it will work fine.	autechre (266)
782969	2009-06-18 05:51:00	Thanks. That's a shame about putting a 1TB in there and only getting 320GB out of it. I think I will have to do what you suggested ... I was partly worried that if I took the drive out it wouldn't run on any other motherboard.	LilDave (15015)
1