Increas drive size in d5000t RAID 1 Windows Vista

[Jiyu]

I have a Pavilion d5000t (KT608AV#AVA) that came with dual 500GB drives in RAID 1 configuration.  The second (mirror) 500GB drive in the array failed a couple of years ago, and I replaced it with a 1 TB drive because it cost no more than the 500GB drive, and I wanted to eventually increase drive capacity anyway.  Since the primary drive being mirrored was only 500GB, the new 1TB mirror was automatically configured by the RAID software to use only half the drive capacity.  Now the primary drive (the remaining original 500 GB drive) has died, and the system is running off the 1TB secondary drive (mirrored as 500GB), and the system reports a degraded RAID.  If I replace the failed primary drive with another 1 TB drive, will the RAID rebuild the system to use the full 1TB capacity of both drives, or will it use both drives at only half (500GB) capacity?  If the lattter, how do I reconfigure both drives to use the full 1TB capacity of both newer drives?

[Anisio]

Move a RAID 1 Volume to Larger Hard Drive

Use the following steps to move a RAID 1 volume to larger hard drives. The procedure will not require reinstallation of the operating system and will not compromise the current information on the RAID 1 volume.

1. Turn off the system and remove one of the hard drives.
2. Replace it with one of the large hard drives.
3. Turn on the system and boot into Windows*.
4. Open the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology user interface (Start > All Programs > Intel > Intel® Rapid Storage Technology).
5. Click Rebuild to another disk.
6. Select the newly added hard drive and click Rebuild.
7. Allow the rebuild to complete.
8. Restart the system and enter the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology option ROM by pressing Ctrl and i when prompted.
9. Click Reset Disks to Non-RAID.
10. Click Yes to confirm.
11. Click Exit and shut off the system.
12. Remove the original (smaller) hard drive from the system. This will leave only the new (larger) hard drive, acting as a single hard drive (it is no longer part of a RAID volume).
13. Turn on the system and boot into Windows. You may need to change the hard drive priority in order to boot.
14. From within Windows, use the Windows computer management tools or a third party partitioning software in order to resize the hard drive partition so that it uses the entire capacity of the hard drive.
15. Turn off the system and attach the second large hard drive.
16. Turn on the system and boot into Windows.
17. Open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology user interface and click the Create icon.
18. Follow the prompts to create a new RAID 1 volume. Your data will then be migrated from the single large hard drive to the new RAID 1 volume.

 Source:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/technologies/intel-rapid-storage-technology-intel-rst...

[Jiyu]

Thanks, but I'm not sure the instructions you gave apply to my current situation.  They are for replacing two working smaller drives with two larger drives, which is not what I need to do.  I already had one smaller drive (500GB) and one larger drive (1TB) installed, both configured by the RAID as 500 GB drives.  The smaller drive is now dead, leaving only the larger drive operational (but still configured as  500 GB instead of 1 TB).  Would I follow the same procedure by removing the dead 500 GB drive and replacing it with a second 1 TB drive, then completing the rest of the same steps? If so, I don't know how to resize the partitions without destroying the data.  Can you point me to instructions?  Thanks again.

[Anisio]

Extend a partition on windows don't delete your Data just right click on my computer and go to manager, drivers tools, select your hard drive and just extend