Can I copy data to a RAID 5 array while it's still building?

[RaiderJ]

So I'm upgrading my drives on my file server, and currently my 4x750GB setup is being built. However, Windows sees the drive in Explorer just fine. Can I copy data to the drive? If I can, does the building process just mean that the drive isn't safe from a disk failure?

 

[Rubycon]

I would let it build first and then run a consistency check. If there's a drive producing errors, for example; your data could be in jeopardy or at the very least you'd lose time recopying after the problem is fixed.

 

[RaiderJ]

Is there any good software out there for doing a consistency check? Something high level? The drives have all passed the long diagnostic checks and whatnot.

Also, is there a way to get SMART data from the drives once they're built into an array?

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ
Is there any good software out there for doing a consistency check? Something high level? The drives have all passed the long diagnostic checks and whatnot.

Also, is there a way to get SMART data from the drives once they're built into an array?

Your raid controller should do all this for you. A raid controller is like a proxy to windows - most software will see it as a physical drive and any diagnostic information will be unavailable. If the controller supports SMART polling you should be able to read SMART parameters for all physical disks or at the very least their operating temperatures.

The integrated consistency checking verifies data read/written throughout the entire volume of the array is good. Again this is highly dependent on the raid controller you're using. High end ones provide lots of control, information, and monitoring. Entry level products are much more limited however they often have software monitoring utilities that can monitor the state of the array and raise an alert should it become critical.

 

[Nothinman]

Can I copy data to the drive? If I can, does the building process just mean that the drive isn't safe from a disk failure?

If the controller lets you mount the drive then you should be fine, it'll just be slow until that completes.

Also, is there a way to get SMART data from the drives once they're built into an array?

Probably not, you'll most likely need to query the controller to see if it thinks a drive has failed.

 

[RaiderJ]

Well, I can't figure out how to get SMART data from my drives on the controller, OR even tell what temperature they're running at. Kind of frustrating! Oh well.

The array finished building about 1.5 days after it started, and I'm doing my final copy of data over. Write speeds are steady around 40MB/s, which I guess is reasonable for a PCI RAID 5 array?