# How to do Raid 1 Mirror with New Larger Hard Drive



## lazychippy (Dec 7, 2010)

I have a Dell PowerEdge 1800 server, i have two OS 32GB harddisk. One of the 32GB harddisk is faulty.

Currently, 32GB harddisk has been phrase out and I intend to upgrade the old 32GB harddisk to 72GB harddisk.

However, I have no idea how to do it. 

Initial steps to do,
1) Image the old 32GB harddisk
2) Mirror the two new 72GB harddisks into Raid 1
3) Restore the image to one of the 72B harddisk then rebuild the two 72GB harddisks.

I did some research and understand the harddisk size will remain as 32GB is i restore the image.

Anyone can help? Any solution for me?:4-dontkno


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## GZ (Jan 31, 2010)

Hard drives are cheap enough now, why don't you purchase two matched drives, build your RAID 1 array, then drivecopy your files over to the new array?


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Once you have the hard drive setup in a mirrored array (formatting not needed), you just need to use a program that will at least image the partition over. After that, if you are using one of the latest operating systems, you should be able to extend the partition to cover the entire capacity (from 32GB to 72GB). Or the imaging program should do it for you while it does its job, something programs like Acronis True Image seem capable of doing by selecting Proprotional during the Move Method stage.


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

I can only share what I've done in the past. I've taken a known good drive from the array and put it in a to a different computer along with the new bigger drive. I've run a drive copy utility (ghost in my case) changing partition sizes as needed. With the new larger drive created, I've put it back in to the server along with the other new drive and rebuilt the array selecting the freshly copied drive as the "source" drive, which will be mirrored to the blank drive.


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## lazychippy (Dec 7, 2010)

gavinzach said:


> Hard drives are cheap enough now, why don't you purchase two matched drives, build your RAID 1 array, then drivecopy your files over to the new array?


 
hi,

Yap, bought 2 new 72GB OS harddisk...i need to restore all the data which is previously in 32GB OS harddisk and image into both 72GB harddisk.

=)


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## lazychippy (Dec 7, 2010)

djaburg said:


> I can only share what I've done in the past. I've taken a known good drive from the array and put it in a to a different computer along with the new bigger drive. I've run a drive copy utility (ghost in my case) changing partition sizes as needed. With the new larger drive created, I've put it back in to the server along with the other new drive and rebuilt the array selecting the freshly copied drive as the "source" drive, which will be mirrored to the blank drive.


Hi,

For mirroring, is there a need to know which is the primary harddisk? hmm, Since it's mirror can i say it does not matter which is the primary disk?

So, what you mean is i just take out one old 32GB HD and replace the new 72GB HD to rebuild. 

Will it recognise it as 72GB HD instead of 32GB HD?


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## lazychippy (Dec 7, 2010)

Jay_JWLH said:


> Once you have the hard drive setup in a mirrored array (formatting not needed), you just need to use a program that will at least image the partition over. After that, if you are using one of the latest operating systems, you should be able to extend the partition to cover the entire capacity (from 32GB to 72GB). Or the imaging program should do it for you while it does its job, something programs like Acronis True Image seem capable of doing by selecting Proprotional during the Move Method stage.


Hi,

yap, i'll be using Acronis True Image ...thanks for the information ya...


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

lazychippy said:


> Hi,
> 
> For mirroring, is there a need to know which is the primary harddisk? hmm, Since it's mirror can i say it does not matter which is the primary disk?
> 
> ...


Software RAID is another story, but hardware RAID will typically work off the full capacity of the smallest drive. If you RAID 1 a 32GB and 72GB together, the hardware controller will only use up 32GB on both of them.

What he wants you to do is break the mirror, rebuild it onto one of the bigger hard drives, break the mirror again, and rebuild it onto the second bigger hard drive. After that is over, I just hope the RAID controller lets your computer see the full capacity, and then allow you to extend the partition over it. Personally I would view this as one of the last resorts, not the first.


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## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

lazychippy said:


> Hi,
> 
> yap, i'll be using Acronis True Image ...thanks for the information ya...


If you have the program, I can imagine your solutions like this.
1. Create a Acronis Boot Disk for later use.
2. Unplug the 32GB array.
3. Plug the 72GB disks in their place.
4. Build the array using the RAID controller.
5. Plug one of the 32GB disks into the computer via USB/SATA/SCSI.
6. Boot off the disk from step 1, and make the disk to disk transfer. Of course at this point you can expand the partition at one of the steps, or do it later on using Device Manager instead.


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

Jay_JWLH said:


> Software RAID is another story, but hardware RAID will typically work off the full capacity of the smallest drive. If you RAID 1 a 32GB and 72GB together, the hardware controller will only use up 32GB on both of them.
> 
> What he wants you to do is break the mirror, rebuild it onto one of the bigger hard drives, break the mirror again, and rebuild it onto the second bigger hard drive. After that is over, I just hope the RAID controller lets your computer see the full capacity, and then allow you to extend the partition over it. Personally I would view this as one of the last resorts, not the first.


Well you missed what I was getting at. In steps:

-Remove 32GB drive
-Ghost 32GB drive to 72GB drive changing size during imaging
-Put both 72GB drives in to server and create array using the 72GB (with the data on it) drive as the "source" drive during the build


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

djaburg's method is the simplest imo

BTW you use disk management not device manager to extend a partition.


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