Expand a simple Raid 1
I have a Dell Poweredge SC420. I have a simple Raid1 with 2 Qty: 80GB HDDs. It is just using the onboard SATA controller. There are also 2 additional SATA ports, just not 2 additional SATA power cables!
If I remove one of the 80's, and put in a 250, will the RAID rebuild from the 80 onto the 250? Then, I will substitute the remaining 80 with another 250, so it will rebuild back to the other 250. I'm hoping to have a final result of 2 Qty 250 HDDs.
Then I would just use Disk Management to extend the partitions into the empty space.
Is this too simple to work?
Thanks!
If I remove one of the 80's, and put in a 250, will the RAID rebuild from the 80 onto the 250? Then, I will substitute the remaining 80 with another 250, so it will rebuild back to the other 250. I'm hoping to have a final result of 2 Qty 250 HDDs.
Then I would just use Disk Management to extend the partitions into the empty space.
Is this too simple to work?
Thanks!
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On Windows 2003 server you can only expand others than the C:\ drive, and you would have to do that via diskpart from a CMD prompt. In more modern Windows OS's you can do it using diskmanagement and including C:.
I guess it depends on the imaging program you use I normally used acronis and could set the partition size the image was being installed too. Using disk managment to expand a partition depends on the OS you are using.
ASKER
Thanks guys. I'll aware points based on whether or not I was successful. I will be attempting this next week.
I'd just like to add, using extpart from dell:
(http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R64398&formatcnt=2&fileid=83929)
Will allow you to increase the C: drive. I've used it multiple times by setting no page file for C: and booting to safemode to resize the disk. The page file can be set again after a reboot. This obviously won't get around the raid volume not being able to be increased though.
(http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R64398&formatcnt=2&fileid=83929)
Will allow you to increase the C: drive. I've used it multiple times by setting no page file for C: and booting to safemode to resize the disk. The page file can be set again after a reboot. This obviously won't get around the raid volume not being able to be increased though.
To confirm what many have said ... the CERC SATA 2s (I'm assuming is your "onboard" SATA controller) will not make the extra drive space available to the OS, and there is no automatic or manual way to reconfigure the array to use that extra drive space. Go with the recommendations here to backup, replace the drives, configure new/larger RAID 1, restore, then extend C: or create a new partition with the new space.
ASKER
Still waiting for my customer to give me time to try and implement this solution.
ASKER