Intel RST question

[azazel1024]

Can you use Intel RST application to build a RAID0 array preserving the data on one of the drives? IE I have a 3TB disk with data on it, add in a second 3TB disk, can I think build a RAID0 array from the two drives and have Intel RST span the data across the two drives to build a proper RAID0 array?

Or is the only option to format the array once it is built and copy the data over from another source?

I am asking in part because one of my 2TB drives in my server is going belly up, so instead of trying to replace a really old drive with another really old drive, I am going to yank both 2TB drives and slap in a 3TB for now (money concerns) and then get a second one hopefully Black Friday if there is a decent deal. I'd prefer not to have to transfer the data twice (not that it is the end of the world).

Alternately, I can keep the server limping along for now and just get both drives at the same time in a few weeks. I'd really prefer not to do that. I've had two archives trashed by read errors from the one disk dying. Everything is backed up on my desktop, with the exception of a few applications that I need to copy over tonight (fingers crossed) and it is mostly used for streaming and backup (OS and server applications are stored on a perfectly working SSD in the server). Streaming it is continuing to work great for*, but backup...yeah...

Thoughts?

*Because in general a corrupted block out of a couple of gigabytes in a video might result in part of a corrupted frame. A corrupted block in an image is going to thrash it. Same with an executible. So streaming it'll be fine for now, backups, not so much. I don't want my only known good copy of data to be what is sitting on my desktop.

 

[Dreamslacker]

AFAIK, you can't do that. Not with RAID 0 or 5 on RST anyway.

 

[azazel1024]

Sigh, oh well. I think I've figured out a workable solution and my time scales are larger than I had originally thought.

First 3TB drive shows up tomorrow. Drop it in the server, rebuild from my desktop. Black Friday-ish I'll get the second one and then load it up before I yank and wipe the drives in my desktop (I'll do the same in the server). Then instead of going to RAID0 with a second 3TB drive in either machine, I think I am going to get a 4TB external USB3 drive first to build a full backup of all of the data on it, then go RAID0 on each machine. That way I have a full backup of everything at any given point. Money-wise I have to wait till tax time to afford more than 2HDDs anyway and at that point I should be able to afford the other 2 + an external drive.

So I might as well take this "slow" and do it right to ensure at least 2 copies of the data at a minimum at any given time. That and when I go 2x3TB in the server, I might pick a weekend to do the upgrade and also upgrade the OS from Win8 to 8.1 finally. I've been kind of wanting too, but haven't had a spare few hours (or longer if it goes south) to dedicate to it. Picking a day where it is nothing but "working on the machines" sounds like a good time to do the OS upgrade too.