Guide: add drive to RAID 5
Here you will find out:
- how to add drive to RAID 5
- how DiskInternals RAID software can help you
- RAID recovery software (Linux)
Are you ready? Let's read!
Is it possible?
RAID 5 (Redundant Array of Independent Disks Mode 5) provides data redundancy, increased performance, and you can avoid data loss in the event of a single disk failure. As you can see, using RAID 5 you get a lot of possibilities, so some users may quickly run out of free space in the array.
If your RAID 5 has 3 or more disks and you still run out of free space, you might wonder if you can add another disk to the array without deleting the current RAID 5. Yes, you can! You can add an additional hard drive to a RAID 5 array in the following way. It is described below.
How to do it?
So what tool can you use in Windows to configure and manage hard drives and raid levels? It is proposed to use Disk Management, a built-in Windows application that helps you manage your hard drives, including adding a disk to RAID 5. This method is completely free and compatible with all PCs, but you should expect data loss for all existing volumes.
So, right-click "This PC" and select "Manage".
Then click "Disk Management" and right-click any volume in RAID 5. Next, select "Delete Volume", then all volumes on RAID 5 will be deleted and dynamic disks will be converted to basic disks in automatic mode.
Now right-click each of the basic disks and select Convert to Dynamic Disk. Next, click on each of the dynamic disks (and the newly added disk as well) and select "New RAID-5 Volume". Then Follow the instructions on the wizard screen until you click Finish.
Make sure your data is safe
Now let's take care of the data that was deleted as a result of add drive to raid 5. Yes, that is also possible, so relax, you will still be left with your data. All this is possible thanks to the unique technologies of the DiskInternals RAID Recovery application.
This application recreates an array of available hard drives, which can be simply dragged and dropped, and automatically detects the correct type, correct drive order, and size of the array. No special technical skills are required to recover damaged RAID arrays using RAID Recovery ™ software, you can also store files on another hard drive or partition. You can also use virtual drives or even upload files via FTP.
So, first, download RAID Recovery ™ to your PC or server and install the software, the OS must be Windows 7-11 or Windows Server 2003-2019.
Open the application and be sure to select the target array and the mode in which you will work:
- Fast recovery mode (try this method first, it will not take much time and effort),
- Full recovery mode (deeper scan, it helps to recover even outdated data).
Once the scan is complete, you will have read-only access to the files, don't worry - it's free and needed to check how successful the operation was.
Now you are sure that your data is restored in proper form and can really be returned. Purchase a RAID Recovery ™ license and you have unlimited access to your files and the ability to export selected files to any storage device.