2*500GB and 1*1TB drive in Raid 5 array

Hi Guys,

I am looking to setup my computer with RAID 5 so i have 2x500GB drives and 1x1TB drive. I will be using hardware RAID via BIOS.

I realise only half of the 1TB drive will be used and i wont be able to use the other half but wondered, If i buy another 500GB drive at a later date will i be able to then remove the 1TB drive and pop in the 500GB drive as a replacement ?

Im guessing being its fault tollerant it should just rebuild on the 500GB drive but wanted to make sure before i commit myself .

Any advice appreciated.

Ta
Tony

What you're describing should work just fine. RAID works better when you have identical drives, though.

I don't know what your motivation is for using RAID5 but have you considered putting the 500GB drives in RAID1 and using the 1TB drive by itself?

First of all, RAID1 will severely hamper your write speeds - there is no question about that. However, in read a RAID1 can theoretically be just as fast as RAID0 but whether you actually attain those speeds depends on the controller. Here's a thread that I followed recently with some interesting discussion:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] read-speed

Conventional wisdom, though, says that you generally don't want to use a RAID1 for a boot drive. If you're booting then maybe another RAID0 but with regular backups to the 1TB.

Yeah, that sounds like a great plan with the SSD. Enjoy!