Expanding a ReadyNas Ultra 2

escajo wrote:
I have a ReadyNas Ultra 2 with two 2Tb discs and I'm interested in increase the capacity to 6Tb changin the current 2Tb discs for two 3Tb discs. I do not need to preserve de data in the discs. My version is Radiator 4.2.15. Is it possible to do this?

Here is how:

1. Be sure to have a backup of all the data.
2. Power off your NAS. Pull-out the old 2x2TB disks.
3. Insert the new 2x3TB disks. Be sure its compatible with your ReadyNAS Ultra 2. Check the compatibility list of hard drives here: http://www.readynas.com/app/hcl_disk
4. Do a factory reset: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21100'
5. Select Flex-RAID then choose RAID 0 on the initial setup since you want to maximize the storage capacity to 6TB.
6. After setting it up, restore back your data to your NAS.

escajo wrote:
Do I need to upgrade the firmware? Now I can login by SSH. Will I be able to login after upgrading the firmware? I need to access by SSH in order to change some file permisions.

It would be best that you update the firmware to the latest version which is v4.2.27. You can download it here: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/25755

You may access this link as your reference guide to locally update the firmware on your NAS: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... ultra-plus

If are not able to login via SSH on your NAS again after upgrading the firmware then download ToggleSSH on this link then install it on your NAS just like installing an Add-On: http://www.readynas.com/download/addons ... .0-x86.bin

You need to update the firmware before putting the higher capacity disks in.

4.2.15 only supports disks up to 2TB in capacity.

In 4.2.16 we added support for disks larger than 2TB in capacity.

If you don't want redundancy I would suggest creating a separate RAID-0 volume for each disk. With RAID-0 if a disk fails all data on the volume using that disk is lost.

To create separate Flex-RAID RAID-0 volumes you could delete the volume created automatically when choosing Flex-RAID then create the volumes you want.

Hi,

I have a similar question regarding capacity expansion.

Until recently I had only one 2TB hdd in my Ultra 2 readynas. I've got Raidar 4.3.8.
I recently purchased one 3TB hdd and wanted to change 2TB for 3TB.
I inserted new hdd in and NAS made a copy. That is probably because my settings are: Configuration: RAID Level X-RAID2, 2 disks Status: Redundant.
Now if I remove the smaller 2tb hdd, nas keeps blinking on slot 1.

What I wanted to do is to copy only certain files from one HDD to the other and remove the first one. I would much prefer configuration where I could eventually have 6tb capacity, not 3tb+backup. There are also a few files on my 2TB hdd, which cannot be deleted, renamed or moved and I wanted to get rid of them. Unfortunatelly NAS copied them all to the new hdd.
I tryed to delete them by removing one hdd and connecting it directly to my PC. While hdd seem to work it was not recognised as a volume in my windows. Probably because it is formated for Linux??

I would like to use just one HDD in my NAS, with posibility to expand storage. Volume settings cannot be changed ATM. Should I just remove one disk and ignore blinking or should I perform factory default and start all over. As I understood I should go for FLEX configuration not XRAID 2 if I want to add storage?
Another question how to get rid of files/folders that cannot be deleted?

RAID is not backup. RAID provides redundancy/high-availability.

1. Backup your data
2. Verify backup is good
3. Do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything) with the 3TB drive in place.
4. During the 10 minute countdown open RAIDar, click setup, choose Flex-RAID and confirm your choice.
5. Restore your data from backup

Thank you for your quick response.

I have tried to access data on my nas with each hdd inserted separatelly and it worked. I believe the data will be preserved on one hdds if I delete the other one using procedure you provided.
I have read the manual regarding RAID settings an as I understand RAID 0 is the only setting for a nas with 2 hdds capability, which allows expansion of storage. RAID 1 would make one HDD redundant, therefore a mirror image. I have made a configuration backup, so I think this is all there is to do before factory default procedure. If there is some other kind of backup of data required, please let me know.

What I would like to know is what happens after factory default. One of the drives (the one I leave inside) will be empty (3TB). I will then shut down NAS and add the other one with data (2TB). Will I be able to see 2 volumes afterwards and move/copy files freely from one HDD to the other? At the moment I can move them only between different shares. After I copy all the files I want to the 3TB hdd, I will then remove 2TB hdd. This is the plan. Is this how it works?

Many thanks for your help
Kind regards
Z

No, you need to backup the data to e.g. a USB disk.

Thank you.

Another thing came up. I would like to use 2 TB hdd in another computer with NTFS format. At the moment This HDD is locked in linux RAID format and I cannot format it.
I do not want to be "married" to nas anymore. How can I format it in NTFS?

Can you delete the partitions off it then format it?

I cannot even see it in windows. I could not do anything in gparted.