is it ok to move raid drives?

Roverno · 16 Nov 2011 at 14:00

I currently have 2 WD 1TB Black HDDs on a Raid1 plugged into two SATAIII ports. Just wondering if i can move them over to a pair of sataII ports without data loss. This sounds stupid as i ask it, but its a raid, which is new to me, so i had to ask.

Thanks
Adam

Surveyor · 16 Nov 2011 at 14:21

You should be OK as long as the SATA 2 ports and the SATA 3 ports are on the same controller.

So moving from Intel SATA 3 to Intel SATA 2 should be fine.

Moving from Marvell SATA 3 to Intel SATA 2 would be a problem.

Edit

I assume this is all happening on the same motherboard?

Roverno · 16 Nov 2011 at 14:41

Yes, all the same motherboard and PC etc. just need space on 6Gbs ports for SSD im going to buy soon. I have an Asrock Extreme4 Gen3 Mobo and my raid plugged into the bottom two grey ports, which i think are marvel. Humm, thats a problem... any ideas for ways to get around it?

skyripper · 16 Nov 2011 at 15:05

Which Asrock Extreme4 Gen3 do you have - looking on the Z68 one, its got both Intel and Marvell controllers+ports for SATA3 (6Gbps). I'd just put the SSD on the intel ports and leave the hard drives where they are if thats your board.

Also you are running Raid1 - so both drives should be a perfect copy (mirror) of each other. It could be possible for you to break the mirror, remove one drive (stick it on a shelf), move the other to the port you want, boot up, check its all ok, then stick the other drive back in and recreate the mirror.

That is assuming the Intel RST software lets you go from a single drive to a mirror - never done it, never looked to see if its possible.

Do not attempt this if you actually have Raid0. It will lead to data loss.

Roverno · 16 Nov 2011 at 22:26

I do have the z68 gen3 board, got myself setup for IB next year.

I am pretty sure i have setup a raid1, 2x1TB drives, 1TB storage available. Thus double the safety factor. I may try and backup the raid to a seperate drive first, then replace afterwards. many methods for the same outcome im sure, thanks for your help.