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Forum Discussion
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...
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.
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?
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
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?
It would be better if you get the same drive as with the first two that you have :)
If you can avoid Desktop drives and go with WD Reds then it will be best.
OR you can disable XRAID add the 3rd drive, set it as JBOD then transfer the files and go DESTROY the other volume and set the other 2 again as JBOD,
But JBOD does not have any data protection, once it failed you don't have any data to be recovered.
Regards
Hi Trench_Rich
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Regards,I don't have any money to buy another hard drive at the moment, so this issue will remain unresolved for me until I can get another drive.
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