How can I upgrade 4 HDs with 3 HDs?

Option 3 is correct

Well I think I will just upgrade the 3 and leave the fourth as the WD 1.5 incompatible drive and see if that is going to hinder its performance.

Think that will work?

It will work, you will have a 4.5 TB layer (1.5x3) and a 1TB layer (.5x1) for the extra volume in the 3 drives. You won't be able to get the second layer until you have at least 2 of the drives installed.

On the other hand, how much data do you have on the NAS? If there is less than 2TB at the current time you have a 4th option. (Actually more like 3a).

1.6 TB's used.. I already started the process of swapping the 1st drive but nothing is working. I removed the old drive from slot 1 and put the new drive in. But Nothing is happening except Frontview is telling me I have a dead drive but the drive its saying is dead is the Western Digital Drive. Also it is acting like I pulled the old drive and never put a new one in. In my log it shows something was started but I have no indication anything is going on now. This is my log...


Sat Jan 14 11:49:29 MST 2012 Data volume will be rebuilt with disk 1.
Sat Jan 14 11:46:39 MST 2012 New disk detected. If multiple disks have been added, they will be processed one at a time. Please do not remove any added disk(s) during this time. [Disk 1]
Sat Jan 14 11:43:42 MST 2012 If the failed disk is used in a RAID level 1, 5, or X-RAID volume, please note that volume is now unprotected, and an additional disk failure may render that volume dead. If this disk is a part of a RAID 10 volume,your volume is still protected if more than half of the disks alive. But another failure of disks been marked may render that volume dead. It is recommended that you replace the failed disk as soon as possible to maintain optimal protection of your volume.
Sat Jan 14 11:43:42 MST 2012 Disk failure detected.
Sat Jan 14 11:43:26 MST 2012 A disk was removed from the ReadyNAS.
Sat Jan 14 11:43:26 MST 2012 Disk removal detected. [Disk 1]

My readyNAS sais "C: unprotected"
My RAIDar shows a yellow light.

What do I do now?

and what is the 3a option? Can I still do it?

Im getting the same problem this guy is getting.. Except I can still read and access my server and by pushing the power button It does register that I pushed it. So its not hung, just not resyncing like it should.

http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=59947

UPDATE:
So I rebooted my ReadyNAS and it took a while for it to boot but atleast now I am seeing and active "Resync" on the display. Will update more later.

Option 3a was to copy your files onto one of the 2TB drives and verify that the copy was good. Then and only then, power down the unit and remove the 4x1.5 TB drives. Install the remaining two new 2TB drives and do a factory restore. Then copy the files from your backup onto the NVX. With 1.6TB of data, you should barely have enough room to do all this. Once you have verified the data on the NVX is good, Connect the 2TB drive that is not yet part of the array to a Windows PC and use Disk Manager to remove all the partitions. Then insert the 2TB drive that is now uninitialized, into Bay 3. It should at that point resync.

However, since you have installed the first 2TB drive and a resync has started, might as well continue. It should take between 8 and 10 hours to complete the resync. It is not a fast process.

Ok, All done. I swapped 1 drive, let it resync, and finish all its processes, then swapped the 2nd, did the same, then the 3rd. It took a solid 24 hours but the system is performing MUCH better then with the old incompatible drives. I do still have 1 of the older western digital hard drives in slot 4 and even with that drive still in, the system is performing much better.

Transfer rates are up from 3MB/s to 12MB per second,

No hangups like I was experiencing with the WD drives,

And everything is just running more smoothly.

I have a buyer for the 4 hard drives now and I need to format these 4 drives. How can I go about doing this. I was going to buy an external case and individually format each drive from my computer. But is there a way to do this using my server and not jeapordize the data I have on my new Seagate drives. After I sell these 4 WD drives I am ordering my last seagate and will post an update on the the systems performance.

Rynar401 wrote:
After I sell these 4 WD drives I am ordering my last seagate and will post an update on the the systems performance.

That could be a problem. In order to sell the 4 drives you have to remove the fourth drive from the array. At that point your volume will not longer be redundant and at risk until the replacement 2TB drive (not ordered until paid for the four drives) arrives and is inserted and successfully resynched.

I would make sure you have a current and complete backup before you remove the fourth drive. Remember Murphy is always lurking and when your data is at risk is when he likes to strike.

I think i'm in a simular situation, enough so that I'm replying to this post rather than starting another.

Backstory: Just transitioned from my FreeNAS to a ReadyNAS. I had a lot of data on the FreeNAS, but enough drives lying around to move everything around. So I had 3x2TB drive configured in ZFS in the FreeNAS (to be moved over) and 3x1TB drives in the ReadyNAS. I migrated most of my data over to the ReadyNAS but didn't have enough free space, so I chanced it and moved one of the 2TB drives from FreeNAS over to the ReadyNAS so I had 3x1TB and 1x2TB in the ReadyNAS to finish the data migration. From there I slowly removed the 1TB drives and replaced them with the 2TB drives, however they were only allocated at 1TB (expected). I finally had all of the drives in and removed the last 1TB drive. I then expected it to offer to expand the volume. After a few restarts and volume checks, it still has the 3x2TB drives allocated at 1TB and the volume isn't redundant.

How can I fix this? Am I going to need to buy another 2TB drive? Thanks.

Note: Ch 1 is flashing yellow.

I had to log into my readynas and uncheck the disable journaling option under system/performance. Then click apply and reboot the readynas. These instructions should have been given to you in the status logs. If not try it anyways. Once this is done you disable journaling again. For some reason this process has to be done to continue the volume expansion.