I am building a home server. I had someone put the basic structure and configuration together and am now trying to get it right. Here are the basics.
MOBO A8NSLI-Deluxe
Sata Back Plane for Disk management
Running Windows Home Server 2011.
4 Disks in RAID
My computer guy configured it so the MOBO is controlling a RAID 5 array. It is currently set at 465GB array in "RAID configuration Utility-Silicon Image Inc." Within that the array is broken up into a smaller C drive for system and the rest as storage.
What I want to do is migrate the server system configuration over to a separate Hard Drive, meaning one internally in the computer separate from the Back-Plane. Then run the server off that disk. Then reconfigure the Raid so that it uses:
3-WD Red 2.0 GB HDs configured in RAID 5 giving me roughly 4.0 of storage.
Since this whole configuration is so foreign to me with more layers than I am used to with the RAID configuration controlling the disks then WHS 2011 which is running on top of Server 2008, I am not sure where or how to apply changes and formatting. The steps as I see it are.
Format new hard drive. I have a 320GB HD I installed that is showing up in WHS 2011, that has already been formatted but has multiple partitions on it with nothing on them. Under computer management in WHS, I get a stunning number of options for disk formatting.
Which one of these should I use to format this HD to become a system drive?
What freeware should i use to copy the system onto the new disk?
With all these options in here will I be able to use the WHS control to create a mirrored volume out of two HDs to run a RAID 1 for my systems disk(s)?
MOBO A8NSLI-Deluxe
Sata Back Plane for Disk management
Running Windows Home Server 2011.
4 Disks in RAID
- 3-500 MB
- 1-1.5 TB
My computer guy configured it so the MOBO is controlling a RAID 5 array. It is currently set at 465GB array in "RAID configuration Utility-Silicon Image Inc." Within that the array is broken up into a smaller C drive for system and the rest as storage.
What I want to do is migrate the server system configuration over to a separate Hard Drive, meaning one internally in the computer separate from the Back-Plane. Then run the server off that disk. Then reconfigure the Raid so that it uses:
3-WD Red 2.0 GB HDs configured in RAID 5 giving me roughly 4.0 of storage.
Since this whole configuration is so foreign to me with more layers than I am used to with the RAID configuration controlling the disks then WHS 2011 which is running on top of Server 2008, I am not sure where or how to apply changes and formatting. The steps as I see it are.
Format new hard drive. I have a 320GB HD I installed that is showing up in WHS 2011, that has already been formatted but has multiple partitions on it with nothing on them. Under computer management in WHS, I get a stunning number of options for disk formatting.
- New Spanned Volume
- New Striped Volume
- New Mirrored Volume
- New RAID 5 Volume
- Convert to Dynamic Disk
- Convert to GPT Disk
Which one of these should I use to format this HD to become a system drive?
What freeware should i use to copy the system onto the new disk?
With all these options in here will I be able to use the WHS control to create a mirrored volume out of two HDs to run a RAID 1 for my systems disk(s)?