Hi Bill,

On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 11:54:06AM -0400, Bill Davidsen wrote:

If it were me, I would leave the raid up, install the new drive, and
just copy the data to it. That way you have error tolerance on the
original data, while your method doesn't. After doing that and reading
the entire new drive to be sure it's valid, configure the two original
drives as a degraded three drive raid10. After that's done AND TESTED
to see that the data are still all valid, then you add the new drive
to the raid10 and get full operation.

Thanks for the thorough evaluation and thoughtful advice! Much
appreciated.  I agree it makes a lot more sense and I will follow your
suggested procedure (when I get to purchase the extra drive ;-) )

Actually, if it were me I'd have a backup, too. And be damn sure to
run on a UPS.

Great points. I will use a remote backup. I should get a UPS, really...
that'll be a good incentive to stop procrastinating this ;-)

Thanks again.

Gilad