moving drives in a FULL raid5 array to non-raid enclosure. what happens to data?

[dv416]

I have a maxed out 4x 1tb Qx2 array configured in Raid 5. I have 4 3tb drives ready to swap into the qx2.

I have a 4 bay, non raid enclosure that I want to move the 1tb drives to. Will it work if I just take the 1tb drives out of the qx2 and move them into this enclosure? Will I lose / corrupt the data somehow, by moving it from a setup with redundancy / RAID to one that is just a bunch of drives (it is NOT jbod though).

Will the folder structure (which is perfect and appears as "one" drive in the qx2) be legible at all in this new array if everything is split into 4 drives?

The issue is that I don't have enough backup space to hold the content on the 4x1tb drives while I make this transition. Trying to make this happen without buying MORE drives.

 

[atarijedi]

It will corrupt them if you move them out to a non RAID5 array, because the data is striped across all 4 of the drives, including parity data for error correction.

I don't know a whole lot about RAID, but if I was in your position, I would hit up newegg/tigerdirect for a really cheap PCIe raid5 card.

Like this one http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013 for $35.

Install it in your computer.
Connect your new harddrives to the PCIe card.
Copy data from QX2 to PCIe array.
Disconnect old drives from QX2.
Connect new drives to QX2.
Verify data integrity.

Voila, you are done!

Make sure to number the drives, so you will know which one is which.

Then you can put the old drives in the non-raid enclosure, format them, and do whatever you want with them.

This is what I would do.

 

[Kevin Vega]

I have a maxed out 4x 1tb Qx2 array configured in Raid 5. I have 4 3tb drives ready to swap into the qx2.

I have a 4 bay, non raid enclosure that I want to move the 1tb drives to. Will it work if I just take the 1tb drives out of the qx2 and move them into this enclosure? Will I lose / corrupt the data somehow, by moving it from a setup with redundancy / RAID to one that is just a bunch of drives (it is NOT jbod though).

Will the folder structure (which is perfect and appears as "one" drive in the qx2) be legible at all in this new array if everything is split into 4 drives?

The issue is that I don't have enough backup space to hold the content on the 4x1tb drives while I make this transition. Trying to make this happen without buying MORE drives.

How much space of the raid 5 array are you using (seeing as how it's raid it shouldn't be any more than the total of one of the drives, so I'm assuming 1TB maximum)? If less than three gigs take one of the new drives drop everything onto that from the current Raid 5, reformat the current 4 drive raid array drives as single 1TB drives. From there put the 4 reformatted 1 TB drives into the non-raid enclosure, dump the data from 3TB drive onto the 1 TB drives, then reformat the 3TB drive and install in your Qx2.

Moving the files from a raid array to the single drive should re-combine all the bits of data distributed over the raid array drives onto the one drive. Of course you should use copy to move not cut and check that everything is in correct order on the 3 TB after the move, then delete the files/format the 1 TBs.

 

[atarijedi]

How much space of the raid 5 array are you using (seeing as how it's raid it shouldn't be any more than the total of one of the drives, so I'm assuming 1TB maximum)? If less than three gigs take one of the new drives drop everything onto that from the current Raid 5, reformat the current 4 drive raid array drives as single 1TB drives. From there put the 4 reformatted 1 TB drives into the non-raid enclosure, dump the data from 3TB drive onto the 1 TB drives, then reformat the 3TB drive and install in your Qx2.

Moving the files from a raid array to the single drive should re-combine all the bits of data distributed over the raid array drives onto the one drive. Of course you should use copy to move not cut and check that everything is in correct order on the 3 TB after the move, then delete the files/format the 1 TBs.

I don't know why I didn't think of that, lol. Much better solution than my idea of buying a raid card, if there is enough space, although the raid card would be good for a backup, in case the raid controller in the QX2 died.

 

[GenJerDan]

How much space of the raid 5 array are you using (seeing as how it's raid it shouldn't be any more than the total of one of the drives, so I'm assuming 1TB maximum)? If less than three gigs take one of the new drives drop everything onto that from the current Raid 5, reformat the current 4 drive raid array drives as single 1TB drives. From there put the 4 reformatted 1 TB drives into the non-raid enclosure, dump the data from 3TB drive onto the 1 TB drives, then reformat the 3TB drive and install in your Qx2.

Moving the files from a raid array to the single drive should re-combine all the bits of data distributed over the raid array drives onto the one drive. Of course you should use copy to move not cut and check that everything is in correct order on the 3 TB after the move, then delete the files/format the 1 TBs.

4 1TB drives in RAID5 should give 3TB of available space, not 1TB.

But it's unlikely they're complertely full, so...what you said should still work.

 

[dv416]

How much space of the raid 5 array are you using (seeing as how it's raid it shouldn't be any more than the total of one of the drives, so I'm assuming 1TB maximum)? If less than three gigs take one of the new drives drop everything onto that from the current Raid 5, reformat the current 4 drive raid array drives as single 1TB drives. From there put the 4 reformatted 1 TB drives into the non-raid enclosure, dump the data from 3TB drive onto the 1 TB drives, then reformat the 3TB drive and install in your Qx2.

Moving the files from a raid array to the single drive should re-combine all the bits of data distributed over the raid array drives onto the one drive. Of course you should use copy to move not cut and check that everything is in correct order on the 3 TB after the move, then delete the files/format the 1 TBs.

Perfect. I'm gonna try this.

Funny, this feels like one of those problem solving puzzles from 5th grade math. Glad to see you're still on top of it!

 

[dv416]

Last question. If I put the 4 3tb drives into the qx2 once the 1tb drives are safe in their new enclosure - and if ONE of those 3tb drives has all the data from the aforementioned qx2 backup (so, one full 3tb drive, three empty 3tb drives) and I keep the qx2 in raid5 - will that full 3tb drive be re-distributed over all 4? or is formatting necessary to just start clean, as it were.

 

[Kevin Vega]

Last question. If I put the 4 3tb drives into the qx2 once the 1tb drives are safe in their new enclosure - and if ONE of those 3tb drives has all the data from the aforementioned qx2 backup (so, one full 3tb drive, three empty 3tb drives) and I keep the qx2 in raid5 - will that full 3tb drive be re-distributed over all 4? or is formatting necessary to just start clean, as it were.

I'm personally not sure, so my suggestion would be wipe it.

 

[GenJerDan]

Last question. If I put the 4 3tb drives into the qx2 once the 1tb drives are safe in their new enclosure - and if ONE of those 3tb drives has all the data from the aforementioned qx2 backup (so, one full 3tb drive, three empty 3tb drives) and I keep the qx2 in raid5 - will that full 3tb drive be re-distributed over all 4? or is formatting necessary to just start clean, as it were.

No. Moving the data to the 3TB drive will eliminate the striping. It doesn't keep its RAIDness. And reRAIDing the new set will destroy the data on that 3TB.

If you don't need more than 6TB of the new set, I'd suggest RAID 1+0. Mirrored redundancy and striping speed. (But these days striping doesn't increase the speed much above what your software is capable of writing/reading, anyway. Probably not worth the effort. I do mirror, though, on mine. If one drive fails you haven't lost anything.)