1600R 6/266 drive cage question

[Ayman Altounji]

I have a 1600R 6/266 that was upgraded from the 3 drive to the 5 drive cage. When the 3 drives (RAID 5 attached to a SMART 2SL) were replaced in the new 5 drive bay, they were accidentally put in the bottom 3 slots (Is 2, 3, & 4). I now need to add an additional 2 drives in a separate RAID 1 array to bays 0 & 1.

My questions are: Since the Compaq System Partition & NT boot partition reside on the RAID 5 array, will adding the new drives to bays 0 & 1 as a new array cause the RAID 5 array to become unbootable (both the Compaq System Partition & NT)? If so, is it possible to move the RAID 5 set currently in bays 2, 3 & 4 to bays 0, 1 & 2, without destroying the data?

Thanks, Joe

[Ayman Altounji]

Joe,
Adding the new drivs to position 0 and 1 should have no affect. Run the array configuration utility and configure the two new drives as Array B, Logical drive 2. Only logical drive 1 is bootable.
To answer your other question, as long as the firmware on the controller is fairly recent (4.44 or greater), the controller will support "drive roaming" meaning you can move the drives. i recommend a backup before dong something like this and it is a good idea to keep your drives in the same Relative Position (2,3,4 become 0,1,2)
Mark