ST2000DL003 Compatibility?

sjw wrote:
Thanks - not quite sure about this bit - "Before putting the disk you backed up to back in the NAS ideally you'd delete the partitions on it using a PC or at least ensure that it only has a single partition.". Why would there be any partitions on the drive?

When you format a drive it has partition on it. If you don't divide it into multiple partitions it would have a single partition.

sjw wrote:
Is there a performance benefit backing up to an EXT formatted drive over USB than over the network to an NTFS drive (only 100mbps router).

Backing up to an EXT formatted drive would be quicker. If you want to backup over the network you could get a gigabit switch and hook the NAS and a PC with a gigabit ethernet port up to that (use Cat5e or newer ethernet cabling) and then connect an ethernet cable from the switch to the router. Or you could use a direct-connection: http://sphardy.com/web/readynas/how-to-direct-connect-to-your-readynas/

sjw wrote:
Process I will follow: Attach 1st new HDD. Backup to 1st new HDD. Backup config to USB stick. Remove both 1TB disks. Put in 2nd new HDD. Perform Factory Reset. Restore config from USB stick. Restore data from 1st new HDD. (at this stage I may do a backup of the restored data from the NAS to one of the old 1TB drives - before adding the 1st HDD to the system) Hot add 1st new HDD. Pray.

That would work fine.

The Config Backup is a zip file. You can just download it onto your PC if you prefer (unless your planning on replicating the config onto multiple ReadyNAS this would probably be the way to go). No need to back it up to a USB stick. However if you want to backup to a USB stick and restore from it, here's some advice: http://www.readynas.com/?p=276

Note that the option to backup your data volume will only backup your data if it is no more than 50MB of data. So the config backup is certainly not a replacement for backing up your data separately.

sjw wrote:
EDIT: and is it the config backup that restores all of the user ID's passwords, share permissions etc?

Yes. In fact if you unzip it, you can look and see the config and explore it. If you're familiar with Linux you should find lots of familiar configuration files.

Keep the zip file that is downloaded from Frontview as this is what needs to be restored.