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Reformatting Issue
Hello
I had 2x2TB drives and 3x3TB drives (starting from a 2TB drive) added to a Readynas ultra 6. In the x-Raid2 configuration, it gave me 9250GB usable capacity. I have used 9000GB so I decided to add another 3TB. But now after adding the new drive and it's been resynced, I realized that there is the 8TB expansion limit, accordingly no expansion took place and the usable capacity remains the same (9250GB). My first question is that if it is ok to remove the lastly added drive, and only use the previous 5 drives as before adding the last drive.
If it is ok to remove the drive then I am thinking about buying a new 6TB drive and use the removed 3TB drive to back up the entire volume of 9TB.
So here is my plan:
1. Back up the volume (9TB) to 6TB + 3TB (reformatted) drives.
2. Update the x86 firmware to OS6.
3. Factory reset the box with 2x2TB and 3x3TB in it.
4. Put the data back into the volume from the backup.
Now I would like to have some advise for reusing the the 6TB and 3TB drives used for backup to expand the NAS volume after putting the data back into the volume. I have read that previously formatted drives must be reformatted using the OS6 system to be recognised. Only reformatting method I can find is to add these previously formatted drives into a driveless ReadyNAS and factory reset it. If this is the only way then do I have to execute the following extra steps?
5. Remove the 2x2TB and 3x3TB drives with all data in.
6. Add the 3TB and 6TB drives.
7. Factory Reset
8. Remove the 3TB and 6TB drives.
9. Add the 2x2TB and 3x3TB drives back in. (Hopefully all the data intact)
10. Add the 3TB (or 6TB) to expand the volume.
Or are there any other ways to reformat previously formatted drives to be able to simply add to ReadyNAS or is there a totally different way to work around this problem?
saxophilia wrote:
4. Put the data back into the volume from the backup.Now I would like to have some advise for reusing the the 6TB and 3TB drives used for backup to expand the NAS volume after putting the data back into the volume. I have read that previously formatted drives must be reformatted using the OS6 system to be recognised. Only reformatting method I can find is to add these previously formatted drives into a driveless ReadyNAS and factory reset it. If this is the only way then do I have to execute the following extra steps?
I am assuming 6TB and 3TB backup is being done externally (in a USB enclosure, or temporarily connected to a PC). Is that correct?
After the restore, you can simply hot-insert (or replace) the drives into the NAS. OS-6 will detect that there is data on them, so it will not automatically add them. But you will be able to format them/add them to the array from the OS-6 UI. So there are no big hoops to jump through. Just make sure you do this one drive at a time, and wait for the resync to finish before doing the second drive.
Though only 3 TB of the 6 TB drive can be used initially. So 2x2TB+4x3TB will give you the same volume size as 2x2TB+3x3TB+6TB (13 TB). 1x2TB+4x3TB+6TB would give you a 14 TB volume. If budget permits, perhaps get two 6 TB drives, and go with 2x6TB+4x3TB (18 TB volume). Though you can migrate to this later on - and OS 6 has no known expansion limits.
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saxophilia wrote:
4. Put the data back into the volume from the backup.Now I would like to have some advise for reusing the the 6TB and 3TB drives used for backup to expand the NAS volume after putting the data back into the volume. I have read that previously formatted drives must be reformatted using the OS6 system to be recognised. Only reformatting method I can find is to add these previously formatted drives into a driveless ReadyNAS and factory reset it. If this is the only way then do I have to execute the following extra steps?
I am assuming 6TB and 3TB backup is being done externally (in a USB enclosure, or temporarily connected to a PC). Is that correct?
After the restore, you can simply hot-insert (or replace) the drives into the NAS. OS-6 will detect that there is data on them, so it will not automatically add them. But you will be able to format them/add them to the array from the OS-6 UI. So there are no big hoops to jump through. Just make sure you do this one drive at a time, and wait for the resync to finish before doing the second drive.
Though only 3 TB of the 6 TB drive can be used initially. So 2x2TB+4x3TB will give you the same volume size as 2x2TB+3x3TB+6TB (13 TB). 1x2TB+4x3TB+6TB would give you a 14 TB volume. If budget permits, perhaps get two 6 TB drives, and go with 2x6TB+4x3TB (18 TB volume). Though you can migrate to this later on - and OS 6 has no known expansion limits.
Great!
Thanks StephenB!
So it is ok to remove the 3TB drive from the current configuration, right?
"Though only 3 TB of the 6 TB drive can be used initially. So 2x2TB+4x3TB will give you the same volume size as 2x2TB+3x3TB+6TB (13 TB). 1x2TB+4x3TB+6TB would give you a 14 TB volume. If budget permits, perhaps get two 6 TB drives, and go with 2x6TB+4x3TB (18 TB volume). Though you can migrate to this later on - and OS 6 has no known expansion limits."
Yes, I will use the 1x2TB+4x3TB+6TB config for now and eventually replace the remaining 2TB with a 6TB when budget allows.
saxophilia wrote:
So it is ok to remove the 3TB drive from the current configuration, right?
It should be, though I'd backup up to the 6 TB drive first.
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