I have an Asus a8n-SLI nForce4 motherboard. I currently have two 80 GB harddrives in a RAID 0 array. I'd like to upgrade the drives to larger sizes. However, I want to keep all my data intact while I do this. How would you suggest I go about doing this?

My initial idea was to set up a new array, use some mirroring software to mirror the old array to the new array, and then to remove the old array. However, I don't know if that's the easiest way to go about doing this.

6/15/2009 1:13:17 PM

Add 2 larger drives in a second RAID-0 and copy the data over. It's pretty much the only way that makes sense in this scenario.

It's advisable when using new disks to initialize the array if it's not done automatically. Initialize by writing a test pattern to the array and then reading it back before formatting. This'll cause the drive's internal logic to remap any unreadable sectors before user data is written to them. It's not a huge deal with RAID-0 as you'll only really lose a couple random single files in all but the worst cases.

6/15/2009 1:58:16 PM

Is imaging a RAID and moving it to a new and larger RAID any different than the same process for single disks?

6/19/2009 6:14:54 PM

not really, other than obviously you'll have the additional step of creating the array

even the bit about an initial full write applies to single disks, but it's particularly relevant in parity RAID modes

[Edited on June 19, 2009 at 6:39 PM. Reason : ..]

6/19/2009 6:37:12 PM

Anyone have any favorite imaging tools? I've only ever used Acronis.

6/19/2009 7:34:36 PM

Acronis.

6/19/2009 7:42:22 PM