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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...
What sounds like happened is that the NAS which had no backup, and really basically running like any old single drive HDD you can plug into your computer took that second HDD and did a direct copy of the first HDD, now using RAID 1. What you do to one HDD is done to the second HDD as a copy. If either HDD takes a dump, you can swap it out with a new HDD and all your data will be copied to that new HDD from the 1 working HDD.
What YOU seem to really want to use is called RAID 0. This is in fact what I use on my second NAS which I use for a Backup. It's backing up my 6 HDD NAS which has 6, 3TB HDD in it and copying all that Data onto 2 8TB HDD in RAID 0 giving me enough space. Since this is a backup NAS, and it only runs 2 days a week and only late at night. It automatically powers up, and ready when my Main NAS starts copying anything NEW over to it. In the morning that NAS powers down once again for a few days. So it's not on much and I have a backup. I have a copy of my files on one or the other NAS unit.
The big NAS is using RAID 5. So basically I have Data on 5 of my 6 HDD's in such a way if any of the 6 HDD fail, I can swap it out with a new HDD and the NAS will rebuild its self, losing no Data. Now RAID 0 will give you want you want. 1 BIG HDD using 2 drives. So double the storage space. But you also have double the odds of a HDD failing and losing ALL of your data from both HDD's!!! You were already taking that risk, so continuing to do that is on you. The problem is now, I don't think you can change it from Raid 1 to Raid 0 without removing the Data on it and starting over. I'm not 100% sure. So you may have to copy the Data on it off to someplace else, then reformat to raid 0, and then put your files back onto it.
So this explains RAID.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
So you are using RAID 1 currently as that is what the NAS would normally do on its own when just popping in a second disk. You want RAID 0. So go to that link and it'll explain RAID 0 and RAID 1.
Also because you're going to use RAID 0, you won't be able to Vertically expand once both drive bays are full for sure. Because pulling one drive means losing all your Data. It would be impossible to pop in a replacement larger HDD and rebuilt since the data you would need to rebuild with is on the drive you pulled. Without those 2 drives together, you can't rebuild. On the other hand, using RAID 1, since they are clone drives. You could pull either of the 3TB drives, pop in a 6TB drive and it would copy everything from the 3TB drive to it. But still look as a 3TB HDD until you replaced the second 3TB HDD with another 6TB HDD and the data cot copied over. Then it would look like a 6TB NAS using RAID 1. Later expand to maybe a 10TB HDD. See you can't fill 1, 6TB HDD with 5TB of Data and expect the 3TB drive to hold 5TB of Data, so it can't be RAID 1 and see the 6TB drive without both being 6TB's. Doesn't matter the size, they both have to be equal to use all the space. On the other hand RAID 0 doesn't matter. It'll throw a 3TB and a 6TB together making 1 large HDD and using all the space. BUT you have ZERO redundancy. Double the odds of a HDD failure losing ALL of the data on both HDD's. A NAS already is not a BACKUP. A backup is having you Data in at least 2 different places. Offsite as a 3rd backup is even better.
You're not really even using the benefits of a NAS. You could have just got a cheapo 3TB External drive and plugged the thing into your computer. If you need more space, buy another external HDD and plug that in also. I'm just trying to warn you of the risks. HDD's do fail. Sometimes quickly to maybe lasting YEARS. You having 2 HDD ina RAID 0 means double the risk of losing everything. Maybe quickly, to maybe years down the road. I have WD RED drives in my NAS that are over 5 years old and zero errors and problem free. Others haven't been so lucky. So Cheapo External drives plugged into your PC. It's not in RAID. If one of them dies, it doesn't affect any others. On the other hand, I don't know what you're doing with your NAS.
Perhaps it's best to not reply with "what I AM doing with my NAS" as what I want (and what I thought a NAS would do).
I have a 1 TB laptop, my wife has a 500 GB laptop, and we both have several external hard drives of varying sizes.
What I want is for a large network hard drive that can back up all these things conveniently, not having to plug things in and out of our laptops all the time.
I thought a NAS would do that, leaving me room for expansion as my finances would allow.
It appears I was wrong.
What solution is possible?
Trench_Rich wrote:
What solution is possible?
We already told you that. You have two options
- add a third drive, which would double your current capacity and preserve your RAID protection or
- Offload your data, do a factory reset, and set up the NAS as jbod. Then restore the data.
Either way you will need to spend money - either on a third internal drive or a backup USB disk. If you had asked here before you inserted the disk, we would have told you how to avoid that expense. But now that you have a RAID-1 volume, that isn't possible.
Note that if you care about data safety, you do need to back up your data to a different device. You aren't doing that, and therefore your data is always at risk of being lost. If I had to choose between the two options above, I'd go with (2) and invest in a backup USB disk that is large enough to store all my data. Backup is more valuable to me than RAID protection.
Well, I think he only has a 2 drive bay NAS. So adding a 3rd drive is not an option. It's one reason why I think if you're going to get a NAS, you're wasting your time with a 2 bay, you might as well go with at least a 4 bay NAS.
So he popped in a second HDD and it just put it right into RAID1. Which is what you normally want. He doesn't care about the reliability of his Data. That is fine. What he should do is take a look here. http://rdconfigurator.netgear.com/raid/index.html
Now all he has to do is drag into that virtual NAS 2 3TB HDD's that he has. Now on the right top, it shows XRAID. This is what he has now and what the NAS would default to. It shows Level: Xraid (Raid1). Which means the Second drive is being cloned to the first drive. If either drive fails, you can swap it for another 3TB HDD and everything will get copied from the good drive to the new HDD and continue on as always.
Down Below is FLEX RAID. It defaults to RAID 1 also. So the same amount of storage as XRAID. But you can change that to FLEX Raid 0. This gives you 5.45TB of space from 2 3TB HDD!!! I'm not going to get into why a 3TB HDD is not actually 3TB. It really is only 2.72TB of Space per drive. With only a 2 drive bay, your options are Limited. It's either RAID 1, which you only get 2.72TB of space with the 2 HDD or you can use Flex Raid 0 and combine the 2 HDD to get you double the space. BUT, if either of the 2 HDD's fails, you lose ALL of your Data!!! Or if you want the full space, without losing everything on BOTH HDD. You can split the drives to just 2 separate drives. Ignoring a big reason to have a NAS. You have Z: drive for 1 HDD, and a Y drive for the other HDD. Instead of 1 single big drive. This way if/when 1 HDD fails, you won't lose the Data on the other HDD. Just like any other non-raid HDD setup.
If he wants MAX drive space and doesn't care about a HDD failing and losing Data, he is going to have to Copy anything that's on the NAS to something else. Then Reset/ Wipe the NAS, and change the settings. To do this, once your NAS is backup and running and fresh, on the Admin Page, in System, and then Volume, on the right side of that page, you'll see X-Raid. Click on that. It'll ask if you want to change it over to Flex-Raid Mode. You'll want to say YES. From there you can change it. I'm not going to see it on my NAS to see what it says past there. You should then be able to change it to like Flex Raid 0 for example.
See, when you have a 4 bay NAS. You do what I did, you start out with 2 HDD in RAID 1. Part of the reason to have a NAS is to use RAID and have some Data Protection. When you get close to filling up that 2.72TB of space from those 2 drives. you pop in in 3rd HDD. It'll get added to the system, and change over to RAID 5 all on its own. This would give you 5.44TB of Data. This gives you 2 HDD worth of Data storage with redundancy. In that if any of the 3 HDD fails, you can swap it out with a new one, it'll rebuild the files gone from the old drive to the new HDD and everything will be good. When that is close to filling up, you go ahead and pop in a 4th HDD. It'll get added to the system, and you'll have storage space of 3 HDD's and still have a 1 HDD redundancy. If any of the 4 fails, you can swap it out and it'll rebuild the files onto the new HDD. 8.16TB of Storage with 4 3TB HDD's. In fact, this is how I started with my old Orignal 4 Bay NAS. Some good reasons for doing things this way is that you're not getting all your HDD from the same batch of HDD at the same time. Another reason is to save wear and tear. Why do that to HDD you're not filling up with Data yet? Besides, why spend more money on HDD's than the NAS cost all at once.
This is why I say don't waste your time with a 2 bay NAS. It's a waste of money because you're going to end up wanting more space in the future. It doesn't mean you have to buy all the HDD to fill it up right away. Which ends up costing more money than the NAS. It just gives you future options. 3TB drives are not a whole lot of money. If he had a 4 bay NAS, just throwing in a 3rd would have been the best option. He would have double the storage space and redundancy from RAID5. All would have been good.
I think part of the problem here is ADVERTISING!!!! What do they do? They advertise it as being able to store 20 TB's of Data from a 2 bay NAS!!! Sure, you have to buy 2 expensive 10TB HDD, and use ZERO redundancy in a FLEX Raid 0. Most people just don't know better. These people go, I'm not going to buy expensive 10TB HDD's I don't need that much space. But a 3TB WD Red HDD is $109 from Amazon. Buy one of those now, then it gets close to filling, they buy another expecting double the space. When that doesn't happen. That they just spend $109 for another HDD and storage space didn't change at all. What would a normal person be thinking???
????? What the hell happened? They don't know or understand RAID. They just see they can up to 20TB of storage space and then buy it. So I kind of take issue with that. On the other side, the person buying it should really know what they're buying. So both are at fault. I saw his NAS on Amazon, and in big print on top 20TB!!!! On a 2 bay NAS. Really at most, it would be 10TB in RAID 1. Which anyone with half a brain would want. No one in their right mind would use it for 20TB. If you stuff a 3TB HDD into it, you should be looking at it as a 3TB NAS with 2 3TB HDD in it. Not a 6TB NAS unless you pop in 2 6TB HDD into it.
The things people are now expected to know that used to be in the domain of the IT expert. Routers, Switches, RAID, etc, etc, etc. Just trying to get people to change the default password in their Wifi Router is hard enough. How many people these days think the Internet is Facebook?
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