Moving to RAID 1 with 1 TB hard drives. Need manual backup?

[Curbkiddytech]

I currently have 2 Raid 1 arrays configured on my system.
2 drives are 160 GB for my OS.
The other 2 drives are 500 GB for my games and music.
I just ordered 2 1 TB hard drives to replace my 500 GB array.

My question is, when the terabyte drives come, can I plug one TB drive in along with my 500 GB drive and have it copy over to the TB drive, and repeat with the second TB drive?
Or do I have to manually backup my 500 GB drives and manually copy over everything after I have my TB drives installed?

(In case you're confused because of my poor wording, I'm asking if I can have 1 drive from my existing array copy everything over to 1 of my new drives, and after it's copied over can I plug in the second TB drive and have the RAID automatically copy everything without making a manual backup?)

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Take out one od the old 500Gb hdds, swap in a new 1TB hdd and rebuild the array. Then take the next 500Gb drive out, swap in the next 1tb drive, and rebuild again. You'll end up with raided 1tb drives.

 

[Curbkiddytech]

Woot! That's the answer I was hoping to hear! Thanks very much

 

[S0ULphIRE]

 

[Curbkiddytech]

Okay so I did exactly what you said, everything went fine. The new TB drives are in now as I speak, they show as 900 something GB, but the OS on My Computer still shows a maximum capacity of 475 from my previous drives, so it looks like I have to format everything anyways?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

You'll probably have to just expand the volume, usually you'll do this with the Raid Configuration Utility that comes with your motherboard. Should be a downloadable program, available off your motherboard manufacturer's website. It'll say something about Raid Utility or Raid Manager

 

[MyGodAL3X]

nice pic up there soul lol

I'm just trying to get this, but when you put two different sized drives, doesn't the RAID see the biggest one as the same capacity as the smallest one?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yeah, with a 1TB and 500GB, it only uses 500GB of the 1TB.

 

[MyGodAL3X]

ok and as soul was saying you can usually get a utility to bring that back up to 1TB?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yeah, you can usually do that with software from your board's manufacturer.