Any idea on how to format hdd to NTFS format without OS?

[SOH BG]

Hi Guys

If I tried format the hdds to NTFS in another server, will it affect my raid settings as I remove the hdd to format the hdd.

Hope to get any suggestions/recommendations. Thanks.

[Víctor Cespón · Accepted solution]

You're talking about hardware RAID or software RAID?
In a hardware RAID the OS does not see the disks, you create a RAID, then a logical unit, then a partition, and then the OS formats that partition. You do not format a disk.

DISKS -> RAID -> LOGICAL UNIT -> PARTITION

The OS sees and formats partitions, not disks.

[SOH BG]

raid setting done during boot up (F8). Thats means I can just remove the hdd to format to NTFS after partition? Thnaks for any advise and feedback

[Uwe Zessin]

Don't do that. If I understand correctly what you want to do ... no this will very likely not work.

The disk will be overwritten as soon as you attempt to reintegrate it into an existing RAID set.

What good is an NTFS-formatted disk on a server without a working Windows?? What are you really trying to do / which problem to solve?

[SOH BG]

Yup. You got the point that the disk will be overwritten as soon as I put it back to the server with raid setting. I was being told to use a linux live cd and use linux fdisk command to format disk to NTFS. I am sorry that I cant review the purpose/reason. Thanks a lot for quick response.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

Given that you've given us virtually no useful information to go on, then its difficult to say what will happen.

However, if we assume that you're talking about hard drives attached to a SmartArray controller, then you should be able to move them between controllers without losing any RAID settings.

You just need to be careful about what existing configuration is on the "other" server.

Cheers,

Rob