• Apple OS X

  Adding a drive to an internal RAID

  Posted by Andrew Weinstein on July 31, 2008 at 2:50 pm

  I have a MacPro with 3 internal 750 gig HDs. One is the system drive and the other 2 are set up as a RAID 0 drive (no controller card, just software RAID using disc utility). I want to add a third drive to the RAID. So, a few questions:

  1) Must the 3rd drive be the identical make/model/capacity as the first two or simply the same size? (Methinks it should be identical).
  2) How exactly do I add the drive to the RAID? After physically installing the HD I go into disc utility and ??? add it it to the existing RAID somehow or better to undo the existing RAID and make a new RAID and then add the 3 drives to it?
  3) Does doing this risk losing any of the data on the existing drives?
  4) I have had no difficulties whatsoever from using the software RAID configuration. Assuming only internal drives, what does a hardware RAID controller card add?

  Thank you in advance,

  Andrew

  Zane Barker replied 17 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Zane Barker

  July 31, 2008 at 4:30 pm

  [Andrew Weinstein] “1) Must the 3rd drive be the identical make/model/capacity as the first two or simply the same size? (Methinks it should be identical). “

  It is best if they are identical, less risk of problems.

  [Andrew Weinstein] “2) How exactly do I add the drive to the RAID? After physically installing the HD I go into disc utility and ??? add it it to the existing RAID somehow or better to undo the existing RAID and make a new RAID and then add the 3 drives to it? “

  You cannot just add a drive to a existing raid you must build a new raid from scratch.

  [Andrew Weinstein] “3) Does doing this risk losing any of the data on the existing drives? “

  There is no way around loosing all the data on the drives. When setting up a raid it will erase all data on the drives, you will want to copy any data to a completely different drive first.

  [Andrew Weinstein] “4) I have had no difficulties whatsoever from using the software RAID configuration. Assuming only internal drives, what does a hardware RAID controller card add? “

  The benefit to a hardware raid is that it is MUSCH more stable. I have had software raids fail before, so I stop using them and started using hardware raids.

  There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
  Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

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