RAID 5 conversion
cduma, Fri Dec 02 2011, 11:24PMIs it possible to take 3 drives from different manufactures with data on them and convert them into a RAID 5?
Re: RAID 5 conversion
FastMHz, Sat Dec 03 2011, 12:59AM
You'd most certainly have to copy all the data off. And then, only if your controller supports mixed drives, do you stand a chance. Generally, *not* recommended...
FastMHz, Sat Dec 03 2011, 12:59AM
You'd most certainly have to copy all the data off. And then, only if your controller supports mixed drives, do you stand a chance. Generally, *not* recommended...
Re: RAID 5 conversion
Carbon_Rod, Sat Dec 03 2011, 07:51AM
In this situation a software LVM is better than fake RAID as you can dynamically add/remove drives on the set as needed.
Note there is a higher cpu load in LVM setups, but they are better than fake RAID offered by motherboard manufacturers. Note LVM snapshots make incremental backups easier too, but do not set your ext4 boot partition on the LVM.
cheers,
Carbon_Rod, Sat Dec 03 2011, 07:51AM
In this situation a software LVM is better than fake RAID as you can dynamically add/remove drives on the set as needed.
Note there is a higher cpu load in LVM setups, but they are better than fake RAID offered by motherboard manufacturers. Note LVM snapshots make incremental backups easier too, but do not set your ext4 boot partition on the LVM.
cheers,
Re: RAID 5 conversion
Pinky's Brain, Sat Dec 03 2011, 11:39AM
RAID5 is bad RAID, whether it's software or hardware.
If you just want to convert them into a single filesystem for some reason (since you say all 3 drives have data on them) an union filesystem works. I use AUFS with a patched Linux kernel (Liquorix, don't know if they have AUFS compatible kernels for 3.x yet though) for a fileserver. Don't know if there is something similar for Windows.
Alternatively this software might be of interest :
Pinky's Brain, Sat Dec 03 2011, 11:39AM
RAID5 is bad RAID, whether it's software or hardware.
If you just want to convert them into a single filesystem for some reason (since you say all 3 drives have data on them) an union filesystem works. I use AUFS with a patched Linux kernel (Liquorix, don't know if they have AUFS compatible kernels for 3.x yet though) for a fileserver. Don't know if there is something similar for Windows.
Alternatively this software might be of interest :
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