Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Apr 26, 2017

Solved

Expand Raid 5 to use the spare as space.

I have a ReadyNas 2120 v2 with 4 - 4TB disks. I am presently using the 4th disk as hot spare. When I click on the spare disk in the volume manager it offers to let me add parity to this disk. I assume this means I can add it to the disk pool and not have a hot spare? Is this correct? If yes, will it restripe the existing data or will it destroy the data on the existing volume? These are backups and I need to preserve them!

Thanks

Mike

Adding Disks

StephenB
May 01, 2017
Mike10 wrote:

Ok this is where it is at after clicking yes.

Looks like it is adding the 4th disk then. Just let it finish, it should then expand.

16 Replies

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mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Apr 26, 2017
Add parity would mean to convert your volume from RAID-5 to RAID-6. That wouldn't lead to volume expansion.
- Mike10
  Aspirant
  Apr 26, 2017
  Is there any way to start using the spare disk to expand the capacity of the raid without having my data overwritten?
  - JennC
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Apr 27, 2017
    Hello Mike10,
    
    First and foremost, always make sure you have backup of important data. It is a bad idea saving important data to just one storage.
    
    Adding parity is safe for data. That action you are planning is moving from RAID 5 to RAID 6 which adds more protection to the data. Please see this article.
    
    Regards,
- JennC
  NETGEAR Employee Retired
  May 01, 2017
  Hello Mike10,
  
  You are currently on FlexRAID RAID 5? How many disks did you use initially when you created the volume?
  
  Regards,
  - Mike10
    Aspirant
    May 01, 2017
    I ordered it with 4 x 4bg drives. 3 of them are in the Raid 5 and one is idle as a spare.
    
    Thanks
    Mike