Can I add drives to existing RAID without redoing the entire thing?

[pioneerx01]

Let's say that I want to buy this 8-bay RAID enclosure and load it with 4x 2TB drives running in RAID 5. In few years (or months) the 6TB (or so) effective RAID 5 will be full and I will need more space. Will I be able to buy another 2TB drive, add it to the enclosure and tell it to "expand" the current raid 5 to include the new drive? Or will I have to transfer all 6TB out and re-do the raid form ground up?

Thanks

 

[LNCPapa]

Depends on the RAID controller but the answer with hardware controllers is typically yes. I don't know anything about the bay you linked or what kind of controller it contains, but based on the price I'd be leary. A stand-alone 8 drive hardware controller usually starts around $400... and that's just for the controller.

After closer inspection I see it's software based RAID. I haven't done this type of RAID in years so I'm not sure sure what kind of advancements have been made here. I do know that I avoid doing software based at all costs.

 

[DelJo63]

IMO; Raid-0 (stripping) would be impossible but Raid-1 should work, as you are only adding another mirror.