Initialize raid-1 with 'live' disks..

Question

Hi,

In an earlier post here ChocolateHobNob gave me some good advice on how to initialize disks in raid-1 mirroring from scratch using the dell installation CD.

Our situation is that we have a Dell Poweredge SC420 server which originally had two disks in mirrored raid config. Due to a disk error it has run with only one disk for a few months now. Lately that disk was replaced with a bigger one and win2003 server was installed and configured from scratch.

Now we wonder if it is possible to *add a second equal disk* and initialize both these disks for raid-1 mirroring *without reformatting* the win2003 server os which is already operational and configured.

Thanks for comments on how to get this up and running as a mirrored raid without risking to mess up the win2003 server on the original disk (if ever possible).

regards

geir

Message Edited by bushtor on 08-06-2007 08:54 AM

pcmeiners · Answer

raid migration.... http://lsionline2.lsil.com/eSupport/esupport/consumer/esupport.asp?id=b1feba55-7aed-45b5-9c25-552cf60e4be4&resource=&number=4&isExternal=0&nShowFacts=&nShowCause=&nShowChange=&nShowAddInfo=&activepage=statement.asp&bForceMatch=False&strCurrentSymptom=&searchtype=normal&searchclass=QuickSearch&bnewsession=false&selecttype=match

bushtor · Answer

Thanks pcmeiners Is the MegaRaid software downloadable from the Dell website? Does it support the 420SC controller? Geir

pcmeiners · Answer

Jumped the gun, I have misled you, likely the 420 is equipped with a SCSI adapter capable of raid 1,....  This previous post was for the 'true' raid adapters, not for SCSI adapters capable of just simple raid 0 and raid 1. If you have an adapter which is capable of raid 5, then it is a true hardware raid, then you could do the migration from the raid bios setup.

bushtor · Answer

Well the two disks have SATA interfaces. I will post back tomorrow which adapter type this server is equipped with... regards Tor

bushtor · Answer

Excerpt from system summary of the actual computer: C3 SATA, Software RAID 1,2 Hard drives So which options do I have...? Thanks ;-) regards Tor

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

Initialize raid-1 with 'live' disks..

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