Intel® RST, RAID0, and Removal of Array Member

[idata]

I foolishly thought I could use the Intel RST to remove a drive from a RAID0 configuration. I don't see any way to do so. How do I remove a drive from a configured RAID0?

My configuration consists of four 512gb Drives, however I'm using only about 375gb's of this now almost 2TB storage.

I can I reset a disk via the raid bios utility and expect the OS/Intel RST to recover the rest?

Help and thanks in advance.

[idata]

Jeff,

Removing a drive from a RAID 0 array is the same as a drive failing. See the section on RAID 0 (Striping) in the http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/irst_user_guide.pdf RST User Guide. It details the Fault- tolerance of a RAID 0 array.

Regards,

John

[idata]

Well from reading this I can assume that removing it will cause a complete and total loss of data, as I suspected. I'm just surprised that the Intel RST s/w won't politely remove the drive and reallocate the data.

Is my only option to backup my system and then reinstall windows 7?

[idata]

Jeff, It's not a function of the controller manufacturer, that's how RAID 0 works. No getting around it. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID John

[idata]

Ok, thanks for your replies, John. I wanted to be sure this was the case before I did something stupid. Now I know;)

Appreciated!

[idata]

Jeff,

You should be able to backup the data and then deploy that image to a single disk. I would suggest working with a disk that isn't part of your array as the target disk though, just for safety precaution.

Jason

[idata]

Yes, thanks. I have a 1TB backup drive I can use and will ghost it over and back. hmmm, do you foresee any problems ghosting to a 350gb img and then back to a single 500gb disk in the array with the RST as part of the image?

[idata]

You should be able to deploy a Ghost image independently of the storage controller. Just make sure that you configure your disks the way you like them before deploying the image.

But make sure to make note of the old configuration details in case it doesn't work and you have to roll back.