Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Sep 14, 2019

Solved

102 with mixed size disks

Hi,

After a lot of years a 2TB disk is failing. It turns out to be cheaper to upgrade to 3TB. Can I mix a 2TB with a 3TB? Let raid do its magic with redundancy and then upgrade the second disk to 3TB? Is this a rational strategy?

Thanks

StephenB
Sep 16, 2019
tenforty wrote:

Hi,

After a lot of years a 2TB disk is failing. It turns out to be cheaper to upgrade to 3TB. Can I mix a 2TB with a 3TB? Let raid do its magic with redundancy and then upgrade the second disk to 3TB? Is this a rational strategy?

Thanks

Yes, this works (and is called "vertical expansion").

One caveat is that the array isn't protected during the resync. So it is important to have a backup of the data before you manipulate disks in the array.

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StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Sep 16, 2019
tenforty wrote:

Hi,

After a lot of years a 2TB disk is failing. It turns out to be cheaper to upgrade to 3TB. Can I mix a 2TB with a 3TB? Let raid do its magic with redundancy and then upgrade the second disk to 3TB? Is this a rational strategy?

Thanks

Yes, this works (and is called "vertical expansion").

One caveat is that the array isn't protected during the resync. So it is important to have a backup of the data before you manipulate disks in the array.
- Sandshark
  Sensei
  Sep 17, 2019
  And take a look at your potential future use. It's a lot cheaper to go bigger now than go small and have to completely replace again later.
  
  2 x 4TB (or even bigger) now instead of 2 x 3TB now and another 2 x 4TB later.
  - StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User
    Sep 17, 2019
    Sandshark wrote:
    
    And take a look at your potential future use. It's a lot cheaper to go bigger now than go small and have to completely replace again later.
    
    I agree - it's cheapest to plan ahead, and not upgrade too often. The sweet spot for $/TB starts at about 4 TB at the moment, and seems to be moving up. And at the moment a 4 TB ironwolf costs $100 (US Amazon) - the 3 TB model costs $97.