PE 840 - Space Issues - Expandable RAID?

These were the 2 options I was playing with myself.

What about restoring with an image backup to the new drives or is that what you mean in option 1?

If I replace the drives, build new array and then restore image to those drives, would the PE 840 recognize the space? Probably not I'm thinking.

That is what I mean in option 1.

In going this route, your only issue will be Windows.  The new space will show as Unallocated Space in Windows, with which you can create a new partition or extend an existing partition(s) into it.

Since you can't fit any more drives in your 840, you really only have two options:

1. Backup, replace 146GB drives with larger drives configured in a new/larger RAID 5, then restore data to it.

2. Replace each 146GB drive one at at time, allowing each to rebuild before replacing the next.  Once all drives are replaced, you can create a new RAID 5 with the newly available space.  This will be treated as a new/separate "disk" in Windows to be used as an additional storage partition.

Which operating system are you using?

For Windows Server  2003, to extend partition into unallocated space, you need to partition magic server 2003 software.

For Windows Server 2008, you can directly use Disk Management snap-in "extend volume" function to merge unallocated space.

Just to address the deleted post:

Yes, 2003 needs a special utility to extend a C: drive ("data" drives will work fine with Diskpart/Disk Management).  In 2008 and later, the functionality is built into the OS.  There are a lot of utilities that can extend a C: drive, including Dell's ExtPart or a 2008/Vista/7 DVD.