I have a 6 disk (2TB each) mdadm RAID 5 volume created in Ubuntu 12.04 Server. However, I'm moving to a different solution and want to "unraid" my disks but keep the data. Only 50% is in use.

From what I can surmise I basically have to do this recursively for each physical disk.

1. Fail the disk
2. Format the failed disk
3. Move a portion of files to the new disk.
4. Reshape the array
5. Shrink the logical volume md0

This seems like a very time consuming process. Is there an easier way to do this (automatically perhaps) without buying new disks to temporarily hold the data?

I am also aware that during this processing my RAID volume will be degraded and vulnerable the entire time. I am not too concerned about this and will be using battery backup and moving the most important files off first.

Thank you for your help!