In my case I used Intel's GUI application that runs on Microsoft Windows to increase the harddrive size. Most of the Intel motherboard/hardware raid controllers use the same Intel GUI application. The older version is called Intel "Matrix Storage Console" and the newer version are called Intel "Rapid Storage".
Open the GUI application and then make sure it is in "Advanced Mode":
- pulldown menu
View --> Advanced Mode.
In the advanced view you will see a tree-like display of all the hardware managed by the sata/raid controller. You need to locate your raid-volume in that tree-like display. In my case my raid volume was located at:
Intel Matrix Storage Manager --> Intel ... SATA RAID Controller --> Arrays --> Array_0000 --> Volumes --> Volume0 *1
Then you need to use the GUI to increase the size of the raid-volume by following this process:
- backup all your data
- try to ensure reliable power for 6+ hours
right-click the raid-volume --> select Modify-Volume --> Next --> Next --> check the "Volume Capacity Expansion" checkbox --> select the "Utilize 100% of available array space" radio button- keep hitting next and confirm your selection
After you confirm this GUI dialog, the raid controller will get to work.
NOTE:
- You can view the status of the operation by left-clicking on the volume and looking for "Status" and you will see a percentage completed like this screenshot:
- you can still do all the things you want in your OS while the raid-controller is busy but I think performance will be degraded (similar to when the raid-controller has to rebuild the raid-volume)
The last step is:
- wait for 100% status
- make sure power to the machine is reliable/constant
- This operation can take a long time. In my case, I was expanding a 230 GB to 1TB and it took 6+ hours.
- restart your machine
- open your favorite disk management application
- in Windows you can use
Start Menu --> Computer Management --> Disk Management (linux has many command-line/GUI. one is gparted.)
- the disk management application should now show that the disk size is larger (corresponds to however large your new disks are... in my case 1TB) and the larger space should be "unused"
- done!
Bonus, extend the partition:
- if you have a Windows NTFS filesystem for the partition
- I used
Disk Management to extend the partition right-click the partition --> click "Extend" --> confirm
- verify the new partition size by going to
My Computer --> right-click the drive "Properties" there should be more space (in my example I now have 1TB)
- if you have non-NTFS filesystem then the process is different for each type of partition
*1
Depending on how you created your raid-1 volume, the name/location will vary (finding your would probably be a new question). But if you only have one volume then finding it shouldn't be too hard.
