Home Server Questions

[Appleby]

Hi Guys,

I could do with a bit of advice. I'm trying to upgrade my current home server which is:

HP Microserver
3x 2TB Samsung HD204UI
8GB Corsair XMS3
all running Windows Home Server

Now I was looking at all the usual sites picking up bargains and managed to get a MegaRAID SAS 9265-8i for absolute peanuts!

I also have a Crucial C300 64GB SSD that I want to use for a boot drive and I want to add 2 more 2TB drives.

My final config would be

HP Microserver
LSI 9265-8i 6Gbps MegaRAID Card
5x 2TB HDD's in RAID5
8GB Corsair XMS3
Crucial C300 64GB SSD
Windows Home Server 2011

Now onto the questions! How do I transfer about 4TB of data from my old server back onto the new server. I only have 2 1TB drives spare to move stuff about! Is it possible to compress this much data to fit on the drives?

If I have a RAID5 array using that RAID controller can I set it up with say 3 disks now and add the other two into the pool at at later date without losing all my data?

Also would it be a problem mixing drives? It looks like my Samsungs are end of life products so I would need to get 2 different 2TB drives!

Thanks in advance for all your worldly wisdom! This server stuff is a bit above me at the moment!

 

[PistolPete]

If I have a RAID5 array using that RAID controller can I set it up with say 3 disks now and add the other two into the pool at at later date without losing all my data?

That depends on the controller. If it supports OCE or Online Capacity Expansion then yes. However, there is a risk (as there is with most things) that you could lose your data if something went wrong during the upgrade.

Having said that - I've done this many times at home and countless times at work (albeit with backups) and I've not yet had one fail....touchwood.

If you decide you to do the OCE I'd suggest adding both disks in at once rather than 1 at a time - it'll take hours each time you do any upgrade so if you do the 2 disks at once you effectively half the total time taken to upgrade. Plus with only 1 upgrade you also half the chances of a failure.


EDIT: Just checked the link to the controller - it DOES support OCE.

 

[Appleby]

Thanks for that, I will probably set up the array with my current 3 disks and add two more when prices drop a bit.

Would there be any issue with using different brands/models of disk, I know it is best practice to use all the same but in my case I don't think it will be possible?

Also any advice on compression for moving the data over? Am I best to just stick it all through winRAR or something?