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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).
KLF2004
Apr 21, 2019Aspirant
What 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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