Dead Disk.. but not really

martinsbootfair wrote:

...1: with Xraid 2 my understanding was I can start off with one drive and incrementally add others, up to the max of six. Auto volume expansion will just do it's job. How do you do this in reverse if you have a problem with a faulty drive? ie take the drive out and tell the volume to adjust itself to the new situation? 2 If that is not possible how do you test your new drives BEFORE putting them into the Raid with the same software that the Raid uses? 3: Should I take out a running drive and replace it with a different drive as a test maybe?...

1: the replacement method is in the PRO FAQ (http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=5073). You take out the old disk, wait for at least 10 seconds, and insert the new one. (It will take more than 10 seconds to put the new disk into the tray anyway...). What you can't do is downsize the volume. It would be nice for several reasons, but you can't.
2. My suggestion for that is to use vendor tools (which of course is not the same software that the NAS uses).
3. I wouldn't do that. The resync process stresses the remaining drives.

BTW, Seagate will take back your drives even if you don't use their test. (Apple users can't run Seatools at all). You use one of the error codes here: http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/supp ... codes.html They do reserve the right to reject it if they decide the drive is good, and will charge you for return shipping. They have never done that to me, and I have sometimes used those codes. Seagate will give you a refurbished drive, and the model will not always match what you returned, and might not be on the HCL. So in general you are better off exchanging them through the retailer if you can (probably too late for you I realize).