Can raid only be built from empty drives?

nightrider1470 · 17 Mar 2015 at 10:05

Ok so I have 6 hard drives, some with data on.. If I put them in my HTPC and try to have them all running in a raid configuration, will data be wiped?

matt_fsr · 17 Mar 2015 at 10:06

If you try to build a new RAID array, then yes as far as I know you're going to need to blank all of the drives first, or they'll get automatically blanked during the creation of the RAID array.

joeyjojo · 17 Mar 2015 at 10:31

If they used to form a RAID then I think it's possible to rebuild the array and recover the data.

If not and you're building a new array then creating the array will make it impossible to read any existing data. Think of it like a "quick format" on all the disks. They (probably) aren't zeroed, but they won't be readable any more.

Grrrrr · 17 Mar 2015 at 13:14

If you use something like Drive Pool or Drive Bender your data will be retained.