RAID-1 mirror reinitializing question...

Hi,

A friend of mine has a Dell Poweredge server which originally had two
disks in mirrored raid config. Due to a disk error it has run with only
one disk for a few months now. Lately he reformatted that disk and when
I asked if he had put in a second disk to have the raid mirroring
operational again, the answer was 'no'.

Now this Poweredge server runs with a single reformatted disk which has
not been initialized for raid-1.

Is it possible to add a second equal disk and initialize both these
disks for raid-1 mirroring without reformatting the win2003 server os
which is already operational and configured?

Thanks for comments on how to get this up and running as a mirrored raid
without risking to mess up the win2003 server on the original disk.

regards

Geir

"Geir" <geir02@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:5holtuF3m5c39U1@mid.individual.net...
> Hi,
>
> A friend of mine has a Dell Poweredge server which originally had two
> disks in mirrored raid config. Due to a disk error it has run with only
> one disk for a few months now. Lately he reformatted that disk and when I
> asked if he had put in a second disk to have the raid mirroring
> operational again, the answer was 'no'.
>
> Now this Poweredge server runs with a single reformatted disk which has
> not been initialized for raid-1.
>
> Is it possible to add a second equal disk and initialize both these disks
> for raid-1 mirroring without reformatting the win2003 server os which is
> already operational and configured?
>
> Thanks for comments on how to get this up and running as a mirrored raid
> without risking to mess up the win2003 server on the original disk.
>
> regards
>
> Geir

Tell him to RTFM!!! If that remaining disk fails, he will be out of a
job! He should add a suitable second disk and add it to the raid array and
set it to rebuild the mirror.

Mike.

"Geir" <geir02@gmail.com> wrote in message news:5holtuF3m5c39U1@mid.individual.net
> Hi,
>
> A friend of mine has a Dell Poweredge server which originally had two
> disks in mirrored raid config. Due to a disk error it has run with only
> one disk for a few months now. Lately he reformatted that disk and when
> I asked if he had put in a second disk to have the raid mirroring
> operational again, the answer was 'no'.
>
> Now this Poweredge server runs with a single reformatted disk which has

> not been initialized for raid-1.

So how (as what) has it been initialized then?

>
> Is it possible to add a second equal disk and initialize both these
> disks for raid-1 mirroring without reformatting the win2003 server os
> which is already operational and configured?
>
> Thanks for comments on how to get this up and running as a mirrored raid
> without risking to mess up the win2003 server on the original disk.
>
> regards
>
> Geir

Folkert Rienstra skreiv:

>> Now this Poweredge server runs with a single reformatted disk which has
>
>> not been initialized for raid-1.
>
> So how (as what) has it been initialized then?

AFAIK it was just connected as a single disk w/o any raid init.

Geir

"Geir" <geir02@gmail.com> wrote in message news:5holtuF3m5c39U1@mid.individual.net
> Hi,
>
> A friend of mine has a Dell Poweredge server which originally had two
> disks in mirrored raid config. Due to a disk error it has run with only
> one disk for a few months now. Lately he reformatted that disk and when
> I asked if he had put in a second disk to have the raid mirroring
> operational again, the answer was 'no'.
>
> Now this Poweredge server runs with a single reformatted disk which has
> not been initialized for raid-1.

> Is it possible to add a second equal disk and initialize both these disks
> for raid-1 mirroring without reformatting the win2003 server os which
> is already operational and configured?

Sure: backup from old and restore to new.

>
> Thanks for comments on how to get this up and running as a mirrored raid
> without risking to mess up the win2003 server on the original disk.

Presumably you are asking whether you can write RAID1 metadata
to a drive that doesn't have it, without damaging the filesystem
(= assuming everything else is equal) and whether such a tool exists?

>
> regards
>
> Geir

"Geir" <geir02@gmail.com> wrote in message news:5hqcd4F3ju9bhU1@mid.individual.net
> Folkert Rienstra skreiv:
>
> > > Now this Poweredge server runs with a single reformatted disk which has
> >
> > > not been initialized for raid-1.
> >
> > So how (as what) has it been initialized then?
>
> AFAIK it was just connected as a single disk w/o any raid init.

Is "AFAIK" about all the research that you did on this project?

>
> Geir

So what conversion possibilities does this controller offer?
If none it is quite simple:
backup and initialize new RAID1 pair and restore.