Hey all, I have a Dell Poweredge510 with 1 internal disk that run Windows Server 2008R2 as OS. and 5 external disks (2TB each, attached to chassis) that are configured in Raid-5. so 4 disks are used for storage and 1 is parity. I would like to expand my raid and attach new 2 disks to the chassis (there are open slots) so i attach them physically, then i expand the raid-5 with Dell Open manage server administrator. the next step after the raid-5 is now in the size of 7 disks, is to extend the volume, so i need to open the "Server manager" and then i see the Disk info, there are 5 disks in the allocated units, and 2 disks that are "un-allocated", i have 2 options, to extend the volume or to create new simple volume. my questions, is do the volume losses the information written on it during the expanding the volume / create the new volume ? during the raid rebuild the information is kept, but what about the windows Server manager extend ? And the harder question, if i extend the volume, will the physical lunes continue from the same place ? is the extention is physical or virtual ? because if its virtual then it can damage my system read/write i\o..

Hi, If you have the additional 2 disks configured properly in Dell Open manage server administrator, then you can easily extend your current volume with the unallocated disk space. You can also create a new volume if you want. And both of the actions will not destroy your data on the disk. For more information, you can refer to: Extend a Basic Volume http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771473.aspx Extend System/Boot Volume on Windows Server 2008/ Windows Vista/Win7 Beta http://blogs.technet.com/b/mghazai/archive/2009/02/24/extend-system-boot-volume-on-windows-server-2008-windows-vista-win7-beta.aspx Best Regards, Vincent Hu

and what about the physical/virtual ? Is there a performance issues in "Extend volume" VS "add simple volume" ? does it matter what i choose ? Since during the expanding i have a software that read and write from the disk im expanding, if i expand it as new simple volume the performance is better then extending ? or there is no difference.. since its the same RAID. thanks

Hi, Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact meaning of your physical/virtual. However, after the extend, the volume is the same as what it was, except the size. If you extend the volume, then the original volume is bigger now. If you create a new volume, then you can have another drive with a drive letter in explorer or Disk Management. By the way, based on my experience, there is no performance difference. Please also try to contact your storage vendor to get the most qualified pool of respondents. Best Regards, Vincent Hu

Hi again, when i connected the disks to the chassis, it put them in foreign mode, and i cant add them to the virtual disk / raid. how can i put them not in foreign mode ? thanks.

Hi, To analyze your problem, could you provide the screen shot of Disk Management? I am not sure which type of RAID is your configuration. Hardware or Software? From your description "so i attach them physically, then i expand the raid-5 with Dell Open manage server administrator." It seems it's Hardware-based RAID. However, "so i need to open the "Server manager" and then i see the Disk info, there are 5 disks in the allocated units, and 2 disks that are "un-allocated", i have 2 options, to extend the volume or to create new simple volume." It seems it's Software-based RAID.

Its a hardware raid controller, PERC H700 After i attach the new 2 disks that i want to add to the RAID array, i cant add them to the raid since they are foreign. How can i make them not foreign ? After i add them to the raid, i can use the Server manager in order to allocated the bytes (format and add to disk)

Why not ask Dell? It's their software.Bill

Why not ask Dell? It's their software.Bill

Asking them and here. most of the people here are expert like their tech and even better so why not trying :)