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From: Boo on 4 May 2008 13:55
Hi,

I'm hoping to start a new system build next week and intend to fit multiple
Seagate 500 GB sata drives in a Raid5 array. The raid controller is the Intel
IC9R chip (Gigabyte mobo) and I want to know whether it is possible to start
with 3 drives and later upgrade the disk space by adding hard disks and
non-destructively rebuilding the array so as to retain the existing data spread
across the nre bigger array ? Or is this completely impossible ?

Thanks,

--
Boo
From: Paul on 4 May 2008 14:43
Boo wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm hoping to start a new system build next week and intend to fit
> multiple Seagate 500 GB sata drives in a Raid5 array. The raid
> controller is the Intel IC9R chip (Gigabyte mobo) and I want to know
> whether it is possible to start with 3 drives and later upgrade the disk
> space by adding hard disks and non-destructively rebuilding the array so
> as to retain the existing data spread across the nre bigger array ? Or
> is this completely impossible ?
>
> Thanks,
>

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-020674.htm

It almost suggests you'd start with a 3 drive RAID0 and
migrate to a 4 drive RAID5. At least in terms of number of
drives in source and destination arrays. (I presume anything
not in the above table, is not possible or is not supported.)

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-021520.htm

The second article is telling you, that certain migrations will
make more space available, but the volume size in Windows
is preserved during the migration. Something like
Partition Magic would be needed to change the volume size
after the migration was completed.

Going from 3 drive RAID0 to 4 drive RAID5, should still
give you 1500GB when using 500GB drives. So there won't be
a change in the physical volume size.

RAID5 is not a replacement for a backup strategy. You still
need backups, if the data is valuable to you. And in that
sense, migration is unnecessary, if your backup and restore
capability actually works. (Why do you need backups ? Say
the 12V rail on the power supply suddenly produces 15V, burning
all four drives in the RAID5 array. All your data is gone
instantly. That is when your off-machine backup comes into
play.)

I would suggest avoiding this step entirely. I would go
for the 4 drive RAID5 immediately if possible. I don't see
much point going through the additional step, especially as
the RAID0 seems like a bad idea.

The other alternative, is you could install one drive, F6 install
the RAID driver (makes the system "RAID ready"), and delay moving
all your data over, until the single boot drive is migrated to 4 drive
RAID5. According to the first link, that migration is
supported (5th line in table). You still need some way to connect
the original information source (where ever the 1500GB of data
is stored).

The Matrix Storage manual is here.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-020670.htm

Paul
From: Boo on 6 May 2008 15:50
>
> http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-020674.htm
>

....snip...

Thanks for the link and the useful reply. I need to start with RAID5 and 3
drives 'cos that's all I've got. I will ask Intel later about upgrading it when
the time arrives.

--
Boo
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