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I'm currently running a Windows 7 machine, which is effectively acting as a server for my network. The plan is to ditch it and put Ubuntu server on it. I have some concerns though. One of which is a spanned array of disks I have on it. It's got 5x 3TB Hard Drives on there which are completely independant of the operating system (i.e. the OS was installed on a separate hard drive). I'm fairly new to Linux, so I am wondering how easy it would be to install a new hard drive with Ubuntu server on it, then attach these 5 drives onto that server without losing any data (is it possible)?

Next question. The kit I'm using is really old. So I have some concerns with wondering if my kit will be compatible. The spec of most of the hardware is below: CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 Motherboard: Asus P5Q-E HDD: 5x WD30EFRX RAM: Not sure, it's some DDR2 Kingston stuff, 4 sticks of it.

Should I just bin it & buy something new to make sure it will work?

john smith
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  • boot a live USB and check it out. – Panther Jun 07 '15 at 23:54
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    Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! ;-) We're sorry but Ask Ubuntu is not a forum but a Question&Answer site: It works best if you ask one question, so you can receive one answer. When you ask multiple questions, you need to find one expert versed in multiple areas which becomes more unlikely the more questions you put into... well, one question! ;-) So please, split up your question into multiple questions and drop me a comment so I can answer one of your questions. – Fabby Jun 08 '15 at 13:08
  • lol fair point. I just have so many questions. The guys answer below pretty much answered my question though. If I was to elaborate on his answer though, do you know if I can remove some of my hard drives within a spanned disk on Windows without losing data? I've only used about half the space, so I'm wondering if I can just remove some of the HDD's from the array and use them to build my new Ubuntu server. – john smith Jun 08 '15 at 18:52
  • possible duplicate of What are the system requirements for each flavour of Ubuntu Desktop – Anwar Jun 16 '15 at 15:42

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Nope. Windows uses "dynamic disks" for raid and spanning volumes, which is not supported in linux. Of course, if you aren't backing up your data already, it is only a matter of time until you lose it, so you should already have a backup method. With that, back up your data, and when you install ubuntu server you can format the drives as a linux raid, then restore your data.

psusi
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