Basic RAID 4 and RAID 5 Operations

RAID 4 and RAID 5 are much similar. You may create and edit a RAID 4 object the same way as a RAID 5 one.

To create a RAID 5 object

1	Click the Create Virtual RAID button and select Create Virtual Block RAID

or select the Create Virtual Block RAID on the Create menu

>	A Virtual Block RAID object will appear on the Drives panel

2	Select RAID 5 on the RAID type

3	Drag the required partitions from the Drives panel to the Parents tab

Other ways to add objects

·	Right-click the Parents tab and select the required partition from the shortcut menu,

·	Right-click the partition on the Drives panel, select Add to RAID on the shortcut menu, and select the RAID object you want to add the partition to.

You may either make R-Studio to process your changes immediately or wait until you finish editing the RAID layout. Select or clear the Apply changes immediately checkbox on the Parents tab. Click the Apply button to apply the changes when are you through.

Note: Objects should be placed in the same order as they were in the original RAID 5. If this order is incorrect, you must change it by dragging the parents to place them in the correct order.

Object control buttons

Locate	Click this button to locate the selected object in the Drives panel.
Add Empty Space/Add Missing Disk	Click this button to add an empty space or missing disk object to the RAID
Remove	Click this button to remove the selected object from the RAID
Move Up	Click this button to move up the selected object in the RAID
Move Down	Click this button to move down the selected object in the RAID
Synchronize Offsets	Click this button to make the offsets the same for all objects in the RAID

The RAID block size and Offset (in sectors) parameters must be set the same as for the original RAID 5.

You also need to specify Block order for virtual RAID 5. You may select it on the Block order drop-down or shortcut menu.

If the those parameters are not correct, data on the parents will not be damaged, but files from the RAID 5 cannot be recovered.

Note: You may check how correctly you have reconstructed the original RAID 5. Find a file and preview it. If the file appears correct, you have created a correct RAID 5 layout.

If your RAID 5 has an unusual configuration, you may create them manually. See Working with Advanced RAID 5 Layouts for details.

>	The RAID 5 object can now be processed like regular drives/volumes

If R-Studio detects a valid file system on the newly created RAID object, a partition object will appear on the Drives panel.

The Description Files for RAID Configurations topic shows the RAID description file for this RAID configuration.

Turning Disks On-Line and Off-Line on-the-fly

You may turn the objects in the virtual RAID or volume set on-line and off-line by selecting/clearing the checkbox on the Parents tab. It may be useful, for example, if you need to see which disk is non-actual in a RAID 5.

Actually, when you turn an object off-line, R-Studio substitutes it with a Missing Disk or Empty Space object.

Missing Disks and Empty Space

If one partition from a hardware volume set or RAID or software volume set or RAID is absent, due to hardware failure, for example, you need to add a virtual missing disk or empty space in order to correctly re-construct the hardware volume set or RAID or software volume set or RAID structure. The missing disk/empty space should be placed in the same place as the missing partition.

Note: R-Studio does not write anything real on the disk. Missing disks/empty space are virtual objects that do not affect actual data on the drive.

To add a Missing disk/Empty space object

1	Select a Volume sets and RAIDs object on the R-Studio's Drives panel

2	Right-click in the Parents tab in the right pane and select Add Missing Disk or Add Empty Space on the shortcut menu or select Add Missing Disk or Add Empty Space on the Create menu. Which object type is necessary, R-Studio decides automatically.

For the Empty space object, Specify its size on the Add Empty Space dialog box.

Add Empty Space dialog box

>	A Missing Disk or Empty Space object will appear in the Parents tab

Creating and saving your own RAID 5 configuration

You may create and save your own RAID configurations for non-standard RAIDs. You may specify Offset, Block order/size and Row count. See Working with Advanced RAID 5 Layouts for details.