NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
RN214 replacing hard disks
Dear All, I am using my ReadyNas RN214 with 3x2TB disks in Raid 0 mode (eg. 6TB) with no redundancy, so I want to replace them 2x6TB wd red series for upgrade. I have checked with RAID calcul...
Since you have configured the 3 HDDs you have to RAID-0 then for you to be able to use X-RAID you will have to destroy the volume or do a factory reset and start from scratch.
You will have to backup all your data first, then turn off your NAS and replace/insert the new drives (2x6TB, 2x2TB). You can then perform a Factory reset from the Boot Menu.
https://kb.netgear.com/22891/How-do-I-access-the-boot-menu-on-my-ReadyNAS-104-204-214-or-314
This will reset the NAS and reformat the drives and be configured to X-RAID RAID5.
HTH
Leventh wrote:
so I want to replace them 2x6TB wd red series for upgrade.
My advice is to avoid the WD60EFAX, because it is an SMR drive. Get the older WD60EFRX, or move up to the 8 TB Reds (which use PMR).
SMR drives will give uneven performance with write speeds, and there are some scenarios where raid resync or expansion can be extremely slow.
Leventh wrote:(For existing data, I think I have to backup them to another storage, because of Raid 0 configuration)
Correct. Then insert all your drives, and do a factory default procedure via the boot menu. Reconfigure the NAS, and then restore your files from the backup.
StephenB wrote:My advice is to avoid the WD60EFAX, because it is an SMR drive. Get the older WD60EFRX, or move up to the 8 TB Reds (which use PMR). SMR drives will give uneven performance with write speeds, and there are some scenarios where raid resync or expansion can be extremely slow.
Dear Stephen,
Thanks for your advice,
Yes, you are right and I know the WD EFAX series has performance bottleneck and they are selling these without informing customers which is not acceptable (at least by me) being such a big manufacturer...
(As far as i know the Toshiba still manufacturing PMR on N300 series, except P300)
While the new 2TB-6TB parts are all SMR drives.
"The performance difference between the two is significant, with the 2TB -6TB drives in the 150MB/s to 180MB/s range, while the 8TB-14TB drives run at 198MB/s to 215MB/s. While SMR drives are cheaper to manufacture than PMR drives, none of the savings is being passed on to customers as far as we can tell" (according to extremetech.com)
So, lucky me that i already have the 2TB and 6TB EFRX series (actually i bought 6TBs couple days ago after some research in the market ;))
Thanks again.
Since you have an empty bay, you should not need to destroy and re-create the volume, though that may be the fastest way to get where you want to.
Add one 6TB to the NAS, format the drive in the NAS if needed (if it complains about a used drive) and select Add Parity for the volume and let it complete a sync. That should convert it to RAID5, with no increase in volume size. Then, switch on XRAID, and swap one 2TB for the other 6TB. That should go through two sync's -- one for the original 2TB layer and another for the additional 4TB of each of the 6TB drives. You will then have 4TB more than you started with, plus you will have single drive redundancy.
If you had gone with JBOD instead of RAID0, then you'd need to destroy and re-create.
I have just tested this by adding parity to a 3-drive RAID1 and it is syncing. I even switched on XRAID before the sync has completed. I think you could actually change to XRAID first and the new drive would automatically add parity, but I didn';t think to do it that way. I did this on an Ultra4PLus updated to OS6, which likely has similar CPU power as your 214. The first sync is showing a completion time of 13 hours.
Sorry but too late to try, I have already backed up and destroy the 3x2TB drives then installed 2 of 6TB and 2 of 2TB disks side by side (do not know whether it does matter or not the disk order using with X-Raid, btw. please tell if this is wrong).
İt's resyncing right now at %20 for about 2 hours and i will wait for finishing the sync operation (i think i'll wait until morning or go to bed :)), after that i'll reconfigure and check the capacity should be 9.07TB that result of RAID Calculator on Netgear page.
Thanks anyway, i know there are several ways to do that expanding/adding disks to ReadyNAS but I thought that configured disks with Raid 0 ? so then the right way is to start from scratch.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
