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I'm currently setting up a DELL server, which came with 2*500gb disk drives but is configured in RAID 1. I want to increase the total capacity of the disk storage to at least 1TB. Now with it being RAID 1 I'm currently only getting a total storage of 500gb. I have 2 spare slots for disk drives in the server. Now my question is if I configure it to use RAID 5 and I put in 2 * 1TB disk drives would it treat the 2 * 500gb disk drives as 1 virtual disk totaling to 1TB, which when added to the 2 * 1TB disk drives give me a total disk capacity of 2TB on the server?

Cheers,

Pradeep

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    Software RAID? (What OS?) Hardware RAID? (What card?) May 30, 2013 at 16:36
  • Why RAID5? Why not just two RAID1 volumes, one that is 500gb, and one that is 1TB?
    – Zoredache
    May 30, 2013 at 17:00

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if I configure it to use RAID 5 and I put in 2 * 1TB disk drives would it treat the 2 * 500gb disk drives as 1 virtual disk totaling to 1TB

Nope, if your controller supports RAID-level-migration it may offer you the opportunity to use half of the 1TB to act as part of a three-disk RAID 5 array giving you 1TB of usable space but that depends on the make and model. Either way RAID5, especially when used with SATA disks, is heavily frowned on in professional circles.

You'd be much better off to buy two more identical 500GB disks and run them in a RAID 10 array giving you 1TB of usable and much more resilient space.

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  • or as another option RAID 5 with a hotspare of 3x500 and 1x500. Giving you 1.5 raw and the ability to (assuming no failure during rebuild) lose 2 drives. You also need to make sure the controller supports RAID 5 or 10...a lot of onboard controllers nowadays by default don't support RAID 5 without an "upgrade" (typically just a jumper or software key to enable it).
    – TheCleaner
    May 30, 2013 at 17:12
  • @TheCleaner Bit 50/50 for me that, with R10 obviously you could lose two disks with the same data but with R5 you run the risk of data corruption on larger disks. Glad you pointed out the option but I'm just not 100% sure which way I'd go in this situation.
    – Chopper3
    May 30, 2013 at 17:50
  • The difference between the 2 would be the amount of usable space...so if the need is for 1.5TB and not 1TB then he'll need to go with R5 or with larger R10 disks.
    – TheCleaner
    May 30, 2013 at 18:03
  • Hi guys, thanks for your replies its very much appreciated.
    – user175928
    May 31, 2013 at 8:28

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