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rcanpolat1's avatar
rcanpolat1
Aspirant
Jul 25, 2019

Upgrading ReadyNAS 102 from 2TB to 8TB - Advice Needed

Im doing a drive upgrade in my ReadyNAS. It's had a 2tb drive in it for a few years. Im upping to an 8tb drive (no reduncancy) 

 

I'd like to setup the OS on the new drive (like a fresh install because the nas is really dragging, its very slow and i think a fresh format is no hard) I would then like to port the data from the 2tb drive onto the 8tb drive.

 

Can i pop out the 2TB drive (full of data) and put in the new 8TB drive, do the OS setup and then put the 2TB drive back into the readynas  and transfer the data through OS6? Or will the 2TB format when i put it back in?

 

Or would i need to mount the 2TB drive on a linux machine to transfer the data across?

 

And if i can't manage to get the 2TB to mount on linux and i put it back into the NAS after i take out the 8TB will the boot files on the readynas rom detect that the drive is different to the 8tb and try format my 2TB drive?

 

Basically im worried about loosing data because i haven't got another 2tb to backup to and i need to install the 8tb because im maxed out on space. After i install the 8tb and have my data ported ill setup a raid redundancy.

 

Any advice much appreciated. 

3 Replies

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  • StephenB's avatar
    StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User

    The best strategy is to back up your 2 TB volume (ideally getting a USB drive that is large enough to handle your new volume).

     

    Then

    1. Power down, remove your 2 TB drive and insert your 8 TB one. 
    2. Power up and reconfigure the NAS (recreating user accounts and shares, reinstalling any apps)
    3. Restore the data from your backup.

    rcanpolat1 wrote:

     

    Can i pop out the 2TB drive (full of data) and put in the new 8TB drive, do the OS setup and then put the 2TB drive back into the readynas  and transfer the data through OS6? Or will the 2TB format when i put it back in?

     


    That won't work.  It will ignore the 2 TB drive.

    • Sandshark's avatar
      Sandshark
      Sensei

      If, prior to inserting the 8TB, you "Export" the original volume (which is named "data" if you are in xraid), then you create your new 8TB system with a volume other than "data" and no shares with the same names as on the old one, this should be possible.  I say should, because I have never tried exporting the main volume, just a secondary one.  Once your new system is built, powering down, inserting the old drive, and powering up should import the old "data" volume so you can copy from it, then again do an export to make the NAS forget it so it can be removed..   That's a lot of things that can go wrong, so having a full backup before tryng it is recommended, which kinda negates the reason you want to do what you are doing.  Once you've exported the old volume, you can't just go back to the old drive alone.

       

      You really need to think about backup, anyway.  RAID redundancy is not the same thing as backup, though it's an improvement over neither.

       

      If you are going to add redundancy soon, then just add the 8TB, let it sync (it won't expand yet), then replace the 2TB with another 8TB and let it sync and expand.  Voila, you have an 8TB redundant system with all your original data.

      • Sandshark's avatar
        Sandshark
        Sensei

        I ran an experiment exporting a singular drive main volume (data), creating a new one on another drive (named new), and then importing the original.  It does work.  Still, not likely the best way to do it.

         

        As is the case whenever you export and import, all sharing is initially disabled on the imported volume.  But since the best thing to do in this case is use a backup job to move files from one volume to the other, you need not change that.

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