RAID help needed!

[Liquidshadow]

So I'm finishing my computer build tonight. I'm putting 2x SSD's in RAID 0. I also have 2x 2TB HDD that I want to eventually put in RAID 10(using 4 hard drives). 

 

My question is can I put the 2x 2TB hard drives in RAID 0 right now and eventually put them easily in RAID 10 once I pick up two more drives? Or would I have to format each drive first?

 

Thanks

[m_tieu]

Every time you set up a new RAID array, the drives need to be formatted

[2mbur2n]

Every time you set up a new RAID array, the drives need to be formatted

He's right, you know.

[Mighty_Miro_WD]

Hi there @Liquidshadow!

 

I don't think it's possible to make a RAID 0/10 implementation that can grow without doing a rebuild, which requires reformatting the hard drives in the array. 

 

What I would personally do is to back up the data, reconfigure the RAID and after that to restore the information on the new array.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

[Liquidshadow]

Thanks guys, I think I'll hold off putting my 2x2TB drives into RAID, buy a few more and put it in RAID 10

[ChineseChef]

It can be done, but your raid controller has to be capable of building a "degraded" array.  Essentially, you would build a raid 10 with 4 drives, but only connect 2 of them.  You build the raid 0 part, but are missing the mirroring until you connect the other drives.  Once you get the other drives, you just tell the raid controller to repair the array, and it will mirror the raid 0 onto the other 2 drives, giving you the mirrored striped array (raid 10). 

 

This is a rather advanced procedure, not in a sense of user difficulty, but in a sense that the controller must be capable of supporting this.  You would likely be hard pressed to find these features on non-enterprise raid controllers.  But used high-end enterprise raid controllers are cheap on ebay (100-150).  So, its really all about what you are looking for, and if it is worth the cost and effort for you.