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I have a Dell PowerEdge with a RAID 5 array of 3 disks, and I want to add a fourth disk to it to expand the capacity of the volume.

I don't want to reinitialize the whole RAID 5, because I want to keep all the data on it and just expand it.

Can I do this with OpenManage while Windows is live, or do I have to do this on the boot menu while the OS is not mounted?

Here is a screenshot on OpenManage Server Administrator:

Physical Disks on Controller PERC 4e/Di

And also please tell me how to achieve this. Thanks!

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I found the solution by myself, and here is how to achieve this WITHOUT data loss:

With the disk inserted, go to OMSA, Storage, PERC, Enclosure/Backplane, Physical Disks, and make sure your disk is showing Ready.

If Ready, go to OMSA, Storage, PERC, Virtual Disks, choose Reconfigure from the dropdown menu for your RAID 5, follow the wizard to add the disk.

enter image description here

If the disk is showing Foreign, go to OMSA, Storage, PERC, Information/Configuration (link at top of page), choose Foreign/Clear from the dropdown menu, then follow the instruction above.

Source: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/906/t/19378577.aspx

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...and now you should accept your own answer. BTW - this works with every OMSA. Also with linux-based systems. – Nils Dec 6 '11 at 21:13
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