Hey everyone, quick question here. I am on a RAID 1 configuration (mirrored not stripped), the problem is one drive is a 1TB and the other is a 2TB. The 2TB will format down to the 1TB (as smallest drive is the 1TB) but I'm wondering if there is anyway to utilize the remaining space on the 2TB drive. I do have another 2TB internal drive not in the RAID, would it be easier or even if I can put that on the RAID and extend my storage? Thanks.
Kanzen 12 years ago
If hardware RAID, no.
If software RAID, yes, but with some big complications. Depending on the partitioning scheme, and LLVM used you may be able to partition the 2TB down to a pair of 1TB and mirror the other drive with some trickery, but it can fail horribly. RAID works best with identical drives, same brand, same model, same size. Yeah you can use different brands and different models start up RAIDs, but read/write times, data correction, time-outs, and spindle speeds can cause errors and lock up drives for longer instances.
If you are aiming for data integrity and security without much of a performance hit, I would suggest purchasing one more 2TB and switching to RAID5. Sure out of the 6TB only 4TB will be available but you will have XOR data parity so you can recover from drive failure. Then use the 1TB for your boot/applications or what have you and the RAID for your data (music, movies, etc.).
Personally I have a MediaSonic ProRAID 4-BAY with 4x3TB WD Greens running in RAID5 over a USB3 connection.
If software RAID, yes, but with some big complications. Depending on the partitioning scheme, and LLVM used you may be able to partition the 2TB down to a pair of 1TB and mirror the other drive with some trickery, but it can fail horribly. RAID works best with identical drives, same brand, same model, same size. Yeah you can use different brands and different models start up RAIDs, but read/write times, data correction, time-outs, and spindle speeds can cause errors and lock up drives for longer instances.
If you are aiming for data integrity and security without much of a performance hit, I would suggest purchasing one more 2TB and switching to RAID5. Sure out of the 6TB only 4TB will be available but you will have XOR data parity so you can recover from drive failure. Then use the 1TB for your boot/applications or what have you and the RAID for your data (music, movies, etc.).
Personally I have a MediaSonic ProRAID 4-BAY with 4x3TB WD Greens running in RAID5 over a USB3 connection.
