I had a raid 0 mirror with 2 30 gig drives. One died and all I had was a 40
gig to replace it. Now I want to start over and build a mirror with 2 40 gig
drives using the one 40 gig that was in the 30 gig RAID. The only problem is
that that 40 gig drive now only reads as 30 gig when I go to install a clean
Windows 2000 on it.

The question is how do I get a 40 gig drive that was altered by a 30 gig
RAID setup back to 40 gigs again?

Hank

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"Hank" <goaway@scram.com> wrote in message
news:RMSdnTS2IohFmULdRVn-gw@speakeasy.net...
> I had a raid 0 mirror with 2 30 gig drives. One died and all I had was a
40
> gig to replace it. Now I want to start over and build a mirror with 2 40
gig
> drives using the one 40 gig that was in the 30 gig RAID. The only problem
is
> that that 40 gig drive now only reads as 30 gig when I go to install a
clean
> Windows 2000 on it.
>
> The question is how do I get a 40 gig drive that was altered by a 30 gig
> RAID setup back to 40 gigs again?

Run the HD mfg's diagnostics in the mode where it writes all zeroes(writes
the whole drive with something) to the drive.

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Hank,

We hate to deliver the news but you're in a pickle now.  Whenever you run a 
RAID 1 mirror (NOT RAID 0, Striped) the available space is equal to the smal
lest of the two drives in the array.  Because the 40 Gb drive was mirrored t
o a 30 Gb drive the array controller defaulted to the smaller of the two dri
ves.  This is a general rule with RAID 1 mirroring but your particular array
 controller may have a specific workaround.  Since the array controller mask
s this info from the OS you can't create a separate 10 Gb parition of non-mi
rrored data either.  Details on the particular array controller might help. 
 

Most likely you'll have to format, delete the partitions, and re-setup RAID 
1 mirroring through the array controller.  Given the falling prices for stor
age I'd recommending adding a secondary RAID 1 array with larger drives and 
moving your data to the new array; however, this is up to the budget to do s
o.

Keep in mind that even RAID 1 isn't foolproof...if a virus or configuration 
problem hit your system you'd still have hard luck.  

Good backups are paramount...think of them as life insurance for your PC

www.easiestfilesystem.com

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"Hank" <goaway@scram.com> wrote in message
news:RMSdnTS2IohFmULdRVn-gw@speakeasy.net...
> I had a raid 0 mirror with 2 30 gig drives. One died and all I had was a
40
> gig to replace it. Now I want to start over and build a mirror with 2 40
gig
> drives using the one 40 gig that was in the 30 gig RAID. The only problem
is
> that that 40 gig drive now only reads as 30 gig when I go to install a
clean
> Windows 2000 on it.
>
> The question is how do I get a 40 gig drive that was altered by a 30 gig
> RAID setup back to 40 gigs again?
>
> Hank
>

Install Linux.  ;-D

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