Hey,

I am looking at setting up a Raid 5 array. Only problem is I can't find any raid 5 controllers, all I can seem to find is raid 0 or 1. Also can I raid 2 hard drives that already have data on them or can I only raid new hdd's?

Cheers

Cheapest hardware raid solution you'll get are a few hundred, so keep looking past the cheapy standard raid cards you get in yum cha pc shops. Look for brands like highpoint, Adaptec, 3Ware, and Areca for good hardware raid cards.

Alright, what about Sunix? I found a Sata PCI card that isn't RAID equipped but extends my SATA ports.

http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/29537-pci-sata4000

Not sure if they are any good, they sound a bit dodgy though (Sunix that is)

The cheapest card I would get is a Highpoint 2320, 8 port RAID5 card, though it is not true hardware RAID. Next one up is the Adaptec 5805.

If you on a budget then I suggest getting cheapo sata cards and run mdadm on linux.

Ah ok, what about a 4 port RAID5 card? I saw this but it's a new avenue for me so I have no idea about it.

Also would I need to buy 3 new HDD's to RAID? I have 2 HDD's that have the data I want to RAID but I don't want to lose any of that data, does that mean new HDD's then transfer the data to the new RAID array or can I RAID old HDD's and not lose the data?

Thanks for all the help by the way

I don't think you should bother to be honest. Raid 5 requires 3 drives minimum, and unless you spend big on a proper controller ($500+), once you have an array, you won't be able to just add drives to it like that.

cheapest raid 5 card you're looking at is a highpoint 2300 pci-e 1x 4 port SATA - $200ish.

You need clean drives to add to the array, so your existing ones will be wiped.

Like I said, if you really want the benefits of RAID5, run linux and run software RAID. This is the best budget solution.

Or run WHS and duplicate important files.

Appreciate all the help guys, I'm gonna purchase an 8 port RAID5 card and purchase a few spare drives.

Thanks again