Removing RAID1 array

[Giuseppe Pagnoni]

Dear all,

I have installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a PC as a RAID1 (mirror) array using
two 250GB SATA drives, without any problem.  Later I decided I wanted
to use the second drive to install another operating system, so I
first marked the two RAID partitions (root and swap) on it as failed:

mdadm /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sdb1
mdadm /dev/md1 --fail /dev/sdb2

and then I removed them with:

mdadm --remove /dev/md0 /dev/sdb1
mdadm --remove /dev/md1 /dev/sdb2

and proceded with installing the other OS on the 2nd drive.

Now, Ubuntu is left on the first drive and seems to work just as fine,
but I wonder whether I should remove the RAID configuration from it
altogether so that it works as a simple single drive.  I am not sure
how to proceed though: I am afraid that if I remove the RAID
partitions from it, all my data will  be gone.  Furthermore, is this
necessary or I can simply leave the first drive as is and not worry
about it?

Many thanks in advance for your input

best

  giuseppe


-- 
Giuseppe Pagnoni
Dip. Scienze Biomediche
Sezione Fisiologia
Univ. di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Via Campi 287
I-41100 Modena, Italy
Tel: +39-059-205-5742
Fax: +39-059-205-5363