Adding drive to RAID array

[Clowny666]

Afternoon guys and girls,

I'm thinking of building a home media server for 720p files and looking at either the GA-EP35-DS3R or the Asus P5Q-E Intel P45, can't really decide between them at the moment anyway!

The question I have is I want to start building a RAID 5 array to serve the files but only have a couple of Sammy 1TB's to start with. Is it possible to add addtional disks as required to expand the array or is this not possible?

Cheers

 

[rpstewart]

Some RAID controllers support online capacity expansion and some don't. I think the ICH9R does but you'll need to check the mobo manual(s). The problem with OCE is it takes a while since all the parity information has to be recalculated as well as all the data moved around. After that's done you still need to extend the partitions within the array although with Vista that's no longer the chore it used to be.

BTW, you need a minimum of 3 disks to run RAID5.

 

[Pandobear]

I would have a look at Windows Home Server, rather than a RAID 5 array, as it has the capability of giving you far better fexibility and protection for your data. RAID 5 is fine for small arrays that do not require expansion. If you consider expansion then it is not the most efficient. It is quite correct that some controllers allow expansion, they will only expand in multiples of the smallest disk. This means that in the future you will be restricted to using 1TB drives, which probably sounds fine now, however if you had created this arrary two years ago, then you would probably have been using 320GB drives, because they were reasonably priced then, like the 1TB now. So you would have had two 320 GB drives, and adding a 1TB drive now, would give you 3 x 320 GB, which I am sure you will agree is not worthwhile.

Windows Home Server allows you to add as many drives as you wish, internally and/or externally, and gives you a 'pool' of available storage which is the sum of all your drives, and can be increased at any time. Futhermore protection for files is given in the form of 'mirroring', which can be enabled for all data, or just specific files or folders.

You may find that this is more suitable for your storage needs, or then again.....