Possibility of disabling RAID 0 on running system?

**vwgtiturbo** · 08-14-2009, 04:58 PM

Hello, I have a file server that has two drives running in a software (md'x') RAID 0 setup (mirroring). I debated disabling this RAID, and just having one system/data drive, and using the second drive for backups. However, I am not sure if I can do this with a running system, or if I will have to reinstall. Advice?

**countach44** · 08-19-2009, 04:16 AM

RAID 0 is not mirroring ... it's striping (making two drives appear as one with roughly the capacity of both)
RAID 1 is mirroring... I would recommend against disabling any running RAID volume, at least not before backing it up fully.

**vwgtiturbo** · 08-19-2009, 04:45 AM

Yeah I realized that after I posted. In any case, the directions I read from another site didn't work out, so I am getting the data off of the drives now, and reinstalling. Yippee!

**countach44** · 08-19-2009, 06:07 AM

As long as your data is safe, all is well.

**vwgtiturbo** · 08-19-2009, 06:14 AM

Yeah, all is well. It was odd because I stopped the RAID, removed the drive from the array, and fdisk'd the partitions. When I rebooted, everything went to hell in a handbasket, and the drive I fdisk'd still had the partitions and data on it. Go figure... When I have a good backup, the data stays when I don't need it to. If I didn't have a backup, all of the data would have been gone!

oh well, better safe...