Changing my Adaptec 7805 to HBA mode: steps and consequences?

[mikehd]

Background: I have a Windows 10 based PC that I use for serving media and documents to our home network. I've been running my Adaptec 7805 in RAID:Expose RAW mode for a few years now and have had no issues except for the failure of the web based management interface. The controller, RAID6 array + hot spare, and RAW drive are all not visible. The array and RAW drive are definitely still working as they still appear in File Explorer and in the UEFI interface for the controller.

I've decided to try a Windows Storage Space for this (I currently have one 4 drive parity space/drive that I created via the GUI). I've since been reading a lot about how to use PS to build the SS in a manner that has much better speeds than the default GUI setups. But that's for another post likely in a different sub-forum.

I plan on changing the mode of the 7805 to HBA mode to allow for SS to build on the available drives. Where I need some guidance is in the procedure and steps to present the drives currently attached to the OS as available drives for SS.

The 8 drives are:

• RAID6 - 6 drives
• Hot spare - 1 drive
• Exposed RAW - 1 drive: need to preserve the data on this drive if possible.

Based on reading the users guide and ARCCONF guide I think the general steps are:

1. Delete the hot spare
2. Delete the array
3. Uninitialize drives
4. Change controller mode to HBA

Does this sequence look correct? Since the RAW drive currently has no Adaptec meta data will this process corrupt/delete the current drive contents?

Thanks for your feedback.