I have RAID level 5 with three 72.8 GB disks. I also have 3 empty drive bays. Can I simply plug in more hard disks to gain more storage space? What steps will I have to take to configure the new disks?

It's been a while since I ran a Raid 5 stack, and that was on Novell, but here are a few thoughts - please check what i say though! 1. RAID discs have to be all the same size (or at least they will all be treated as the size of the smallest). Unless you already have more disks, it would probable be cheaper and easier to start again with fresh disks. 2. I would expect you to have to rebuild the stack from stage one (blamk discs) to increase the number of discs - in other words back up your server, install new or extra disks, create the stack, and restore the backup. 3. Always keep a spare disc to hand to plug in in place of a faulty disc. 4. If this server is " mission critical", and not just for fun, I suggest you do some serious study of how these things work before you mess with them. Finally, you will probably get a better answer by posting on the Win Server 2003 forum.

"2. I would expect you to have to rebuild the stack from stage one (blamk discs) to increase the number of discs - in other words back up your server, install new or extra disks, create the stack, and restore the backup." This is true in most cases. There are *some* RAID controllers that allow you to dynamically add additional drives. You should carefully read the documentation for your RAID controller to see if it has this capability. Otherwise, I agree with everything oldfogey stated. basically destroy the existing array and then create new array with old + new discs. Michael J