Raid Question

ZARTT

Junior Member
Apr 22, 2008
2
0
0
I recently acquired an LSI 2108 chip based RAID card.
It's current F/W configuration is, as an IBM m5015 MEGA-RAID SAS/SATA controller with a write back BBU.
I have 2 virtual drives configured.
The first VD is two Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSd's in a RAID-1, they have the Win-7x64 boot system on them.
The second VD is 5 WD-black 2 TB spinners in a RAID-5. That VD provides me with approx 7.72 TB of storage for all of my video stuff. I have a lot of stuff.
I am new to a Raid philosophy. I had a tragedy with a Seagate 2 TB spinner in a NAS that wasn't backed up.
This led me to try a raid.
I am aware that WD-blacks aren't the best choice, but so far so good.
My question is this:
If I cross flash my card from the IBM m5015 configuration, to the LSI 9260-8i configuration, do I have to discard my current array and basically start from the ground floor again?
There are certain advantages to using the board as an LSI controller that are superior to the IBM method.
I had already loaded about 60 % of my data from the NAS to the RAID array, when I found a site that described the LSI advantage.
I'm tempted to disconnect the two port plugs that go to the array back plane and forge ahead, but I will wait till I get some kind of meaningful response to my question.
This is not a life or death situation, but rather something that I should have thought out when I was doing the search for the controller board.
Thank you in advance for any and all responses, I posted on this board because I am a fan of Anand since I got to know him from CPU magazine a few years ago.

ZARTT
(Art)
 

ZARTT

Junior Member
Apr 22, 2008
2
0
0
Isn't there anyone on this forum with at least an opinion regarding my question at the top of the thread?
ZARTT
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
Possibly not. The first step to changing a RAID configuration that may hold live useful data should be to make sure you have current good backups. The life cycle of a RAID array's data is typically to move it from one array to another array.

It aught to work, but I don't ever intend to be in a situation to find out, myself.