Dell R620 with H710P Mini - the best way to replace all disks with larger disks

Hello,

If you're planning to swap all the drives in Virtual Disk 1 for larger ones, the most important first step is to make a full, verified backup of your data. Even though replacing drives one-by-one and letting the RAID rebuild is technically possible, it comes with some serious downsides.

Option 1: Replace Drives One-by-One 

• Yes, you can replace each drive in the RAID-10 array one at a time, letting it rebuild after each swap.
• Use OMSA or the PERC BIOS (Ctrl+R) to confirm which drives belong to VD1 before starting.
• But be aware:
  • It’s very time-consuming
  • The array is in a degraded state during each rebuild—if another drive fails, you risk data loss
  • There’s a performance hit during rebuilds

Option 2: Backup, Recreate, and Restore 

• Back up your data, delete VD1, install the new larger drives, recreate the RAID-10 array, and restore your data.
• Pros:
  • No rebuild risk—you’re starting fresh
  • Faster overall
  • You can always fall back to the original drives if something goes wrong (as long as you haven’t formatted them)

If downtime is acceptable and you have a solid backup, the second method is usually the safer and cleaner route.

Hope that helps!