[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

"Upgrading" to hardware RAID



I'm currently running a system with NO RAID of any kind, software or
hardware. I've ordered a new RAID board from 3ware as per a
recommendation on here a while ago. (Thanks Brandon! :) I had thought
briefly about doing software RAID before realizing that I have no more
free IDE ports, so it wouldn't really be possible.

The card and extra HD should be in within a week but I want to make sure
that I'm ready for it when it comes. I will have, if necessary, three
total drives to work with at first. My current drive, and two more exact
same ones. One of those, however, will have to be given back to the
owner shortly. If necessary, I can always just set up the array (RAID 0
btw) with the two new drives and then just copy everything over from the
old drive. What I'm interested in, however, is if there is any way to
"insert" a drive with pre-existing data into an array. That is, attach
my current drive and one new drive to the board, and have the striping
done automatically with current data as part of a startup routine or
some such. Is there a way to do this, or will I have to use the two new
drives for the array and then just copy the data over?

Also, while I'm on the subject, any suggestions or advance warnings
anyone might have are greatly appreciated. I'd imagine that setting up
hardware RAID is considerably less work than software since the board
should handle most of the work. Will the array appear as one drive to
the system from boot? (i.e. will I just get another /dev/hd* device, or
will it still recognize the array and create a /dev/md* device?) TIA for
any help/suggestions.
-- 
Alex Malinovich
Support Free Software, delete your Windows partition TODAY!
Encrypted mail preferred. You can get my public key from any of the
pgp.net keyservers. Key ID: A6D24837

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part


Reply to: