I'd highly suggest trying to verify this on the HP site because it's been a long time since I've dealt with a server of this type. But, I believe that yes - you can insert the new disk as a 72GB as long as the SCSI type is the same. However, when the mirror occurs with the existing smaller drive then the new 72GB will only be formatted to 36.4 GB. From there, you would want to schedule a downtime to make sure the system will boot with only the 72GB drive installed. At that time, you can do one of two things if you wish to: you can simply mirror up to another new disk of same SCSI type and RPM speed (effectively only using half the disk) or you can resize the partition in Windows and then mirror up a new disk.
Caveats:
You are likely to have major firmware differences between the old and existing drives.
If you can find an old spare drive that is 36.4GB, it would be worth your while to attempt to get a good mirror on 2 drives of the same type before you try to replace the disks with new ones. Just make sure they both boot independently before trying to add in the 72GB drive.
Don't mix and match RPM speeds as a best practice on your drives. It can cause issues regardless of what others may tell you. Can you do it? Yes. Should you? No.
Hailey
Please rate all helpful posts!
