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ReadyNAS 316 additional drives
I have two 3.0TB WD Red drives (WD30EFRX, September 2014) in my 6 bay RE316.
It's time to expand my data capacity, and I was hoping someone could advise on my best options.
Would I need to buy an...
Max_NAS wrote:
I have two 3.0TB WD Red drives (WD30EFRX, September 2014) in my 6 bay RE316.
It's time to expand my data capacity, and I was hoping someone could advise on my best options.
Would I need to buy another pair of the same drives to double capacity? Or can I install a single higher capacity drive?
The capacity rule for XRAID single redundancy is "sum the drives and subtract the largest". So in your case adding one additional 3 TB drive will double your capacity.
You could add a larger drive (say a 6 TB WD60EFRX), but you'd only be using 3 TB of it's capacity until you added a second one of that size. Some do plan ahead and do that - over the long haul, larger drives are often more cost effective. But you still have plenty of empty bays, and if your storage needs are growing slowly it might not be a good strategy for you.
You can't add a smaller drive though.
Hi Max_NAS, you might want to go here to see what options you got
Thanks Roland,
I'm not familiar with all the raid options - currently using X-RAID.
If I understand the configurator correctly, the addition of just a single new 3TB drive seems the most effective (capacity up from 2.72 to 5.44, with no unused space) - would this be the best option?
Max
Hi Max_NAS
Your current NAS configuration is RAID1 where in the 1st disk is mirrored by the 2nd. If you want to expand your volume capacity adding a 3rd disk would be the best option.
This will not only make your volume capacity bigger it also retains data protection with a single disk failure by changing your RAID1 configuration to RAID5 due to your NAS is configured using XRAID.
With disks option WD Reds is okay since you already have that model installed on your NAS and it is actually a NAS purposed drive it is advisable to use the same disk size and if you plan on using higher capacity drives, it would be advisable to change all your current ones to the same size to properly utilize it.
Hope this helps!
RegardsThank you everyone for your incredibly prompt responses (I wish I could say the same for my cad software vendor).
You've given me a much clearer understanding - I'm inclined to go with the single additional 3Tb (based on the fact that my "storage needs are growing slowly").
Much appreciated,
Max
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