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Forum Discussion
KLF2004
Apr 20, 2019Aspirant
Factory reset & change RAID without losing data
I added a new drive to my RN102 2-bay system to get more storage capacity. Once I added the drive it didnt add anymore strorage space. I have looked through a bunch of threads on here about how to fi...
Sandshark
Apr 21, 2019Sensei - Experienced User
Yep, you clearly added the drive with XRAID enabled, which converted the volume to a redundant RAID1. There is no way witrhin the confines of the GUI to un-do that. Your plan will just get you in bigger trouble.
You really should have a backup. There is an old IT saying "If you only have one copy of something, you must not think it's important." Some think RAID is a backup (it's not), but you don't even have that.
I have recently posted how to un-do this, but it involves using SSH and the command line. See the second post in this thread: Reducing-RAID-size-removing-drives-WITHOUT-DATA-LOSS-is-possible. One false move with this process, and your data is gone. So if you are not 100% confident in your ability to do it, then it's time to get that much-needed backup and follow the procedure of deleting and re-creating the volume in FlexRAID mode, as you have read elsewhere.
Note that I went on to add the drive back as a group, which expands the existing volume. But it has a dis-advantage of one drive failure causing loss of all data without even having the speed benefit of RAID0 striping. You are better off creating a second volume on the second drive, but that does mean you have to manually balace the space used on the two. You cannot convert the single-drive JBOD to RAID0 (At least, not within the confines of the GUI. I've not tried it via SSH).
- KLF2004Apr 21, 2019AspirantWhat is the safest way to remove the second drive without ruining or losing any data on the first drive? My thought is that if I can remove the second drive from my nas system, then format it using my computer, I have a way to connect to the readynas using a USB connection, then I can backup all my data to it. Once I do that, then I can factory reset the readynas and change the RAID to flex raid then restore the data back to my original drive in the nas. Once I do that, then I can insert the second drive back into the readynas and hopefully all will be well. Is this possible, or am I missing anything?
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