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Forum Discussion
Trench_Rich
Aug 08, 2018Aspirant
how to vertically expand a ReadyNAS 104
I bought a ReadyNAS104 a couple of years ago with one 3TB disk.
Now that that disk is full, I bought another 3TB disk to increase the capacity to 6TB.
I stuck the new hard drive into the box, and...
StephenB
Aug 08, 2018Guru - Experienced User
Vertical expansion: expanding capacity by replacing smaller disks with larger ones
Horizontal expansion: expanding capacity by adding drives to empty bays.
So what you attempted was horizontal expansion, not vertical. However, as you discovered, adding a second 3 TB drive doesn't expand capacity. With XRAID, adding the second disk gives you RAID redundancy - protecting your data from a routine disk failure. That can't be undone without destroying your data.
The simplest solution is to purchase another 3 TB drive and put it into slot 3. If you do that, your capacity will increase to 6 TB (~5.45 TiB). Adding a fourth 3 TB drive would give you 9 TB (~8.2 TiB) of total space.
Your other option is to back up your data, do a factory reset on the NAS, set it up again in flexraid mode - creating two volumes (one for each disk). Put some shares on each, and then restore your files from the backup.
Note it is possible to create a single 6 TB volume that spans both disks. However, that is a risky thing to do. When either drive fails you will lose all the data on the NAS. With two volumes, you'd only lose the data on the failed drive.
- Marc_VAug 08, 2018NETGEAR Employee Retired
Hi Trench_Rich
Welcome to the Community!
This is normal, this is due to the configuration your NAS might be into, If you can check under the volume tab on your ReadyNAS Admin page, XRAID is used which will represent enabled with a blue color line.
What happened is that your 1 3TB disk which is in JBOD has changed to a mirror RAID (RAID 1) after you have added the 3TB disk on your NAS making it an exact copy/mirror of your current disk.
IMO, you can add another drive or two to make it RAID 5 making it expand it's capacity or You will have to start over by turning of XRAID and destroying the current RAID then setting it up with 2 3TB on JBODs or do a factory reset
You need to make a backup first since Destroying the volume will remove all your data as well.
Hope this helps!
Regards - Trench_RichAug 08, 2018Aspirant
If I remove the second drive and reboot the NAS, is there any way to get it back to a single disk system and start over?
Could I then make the system into a JBOD (or something) array and have it (re)format the second hard drive so I can use it?
- Marc_VAug 08, 2018NETGEAR Employee Retired
There is no other way than to change to Flex-RAID and destroy the current volume created or do a Factory reset and start with Flex-RAID. The RAID is now RAID 1 so these are the only option :(
Both will be destructive so you need to do a backup.
Regards
- Trench_RichAug 08, 2018Aspirant
So, if I have no choice but to add another hard drive, what options do I have with the drive: does it have to be exactly the same as the original disks (WD Red 3TB), or can it be just the cheapest I can find?
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