Ok, so I bought 4 1.5 Terrabyte hard drives with my ReadyNAS NVX pioneer addition server. I was having a lot of disconnect issues and hanging issues as well as very poor performance on the server. Further research showed that I had incompatible hard drives in my ReadyNAS. Also I found this information on Western Digital website..http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD15EADS-00P8B0-Really-slow-Or-am-I-just-crazy/td-p/1547Well I had already spent about $700 for all the hard drives so since the server did kinda work I waited about a year till I was ready to replace them with compatible higher performing hard drives. So now I have 3 2 Terrabyte hard drives and am wondering if I can do a swap from 4 hard drives down to 3 even though the total capacity is the same. I wanted to do it this way so I would have an empty slot for future expansion. If this is possible how should I go about doing it.. Do I 1. Swap 1 drive at a time until all 3 2tb are in it and then just pull the 4th 1.5tb drive and call it done?2. Pull the 4th drive 1st, let the readynas repopulate any info (if thats what its going to do) and then start swaping the three drive 1 at a time.OR3. No stupid you cant go from 4 drives to 3. What were you thinking? Buy the 4th drive before attempting this, or back everything up and start fresh with the 3 drives.So I believe these are my options. Please help. My current hardware and settings are as follows.ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer Edition Server running Frontview 4.2.19 on xRaid2RAIDar 4.3.44 1.5TB Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS-00P8B0 currently in it (not on compatibility list) 32mb cache @ 3gb/s 3 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green SG-2000DL003 waiting to go in it (on compatibility list) 64MB cache @ 6Gb/s I am also running a laptop windows 7 with an i7 processor 8GB of ram gigabit ethernet and wireless NNetgear WNDR3700 N600 gigabit dual band wireless N routerOh and a last note, My server is only 38% used if this makes a difference..

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=59947UPDATE: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.

Rynar401

Aspirant

Jan 14, 2012

How can I upgrade 4 HDs with 3 HDs?

Ok, so I bought 4 1.5 Terrabyte hard drives with my ReadyNAS NVX pioneer addition server. I was having a lot of disconnect issues and hanging issues as well as very poor performance on the server. Further research showed that I had incompatible hard drives in my ReadyNAS. Also I found this information on Western Digital website..

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD15EADS-00P8B0-Really-slow-Or-am-I-just-crazy/td-p/1547

Well I had already spent about $700 for all the hard drives so since the server did kinda work I waited about a year till I was ready to replace them with compatible higher performing hard drives. So now I have 3 2 Terrabyte hard drives and am wondering if I can do a swap from 4 hard drives down to 3 even though the total capacity is the same. I wanted to do it this way so I would have an empty slot for future expansion. If this is possible how should I go about doing it.. Do I

No stupid

What were you thinking

So I believe these are my options. Please help. My current hardware and settings are as follows.

ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer Edition Server running Frontview 4.2.19 on xRaid2
RAIDar 4.3.4
4 1.5TB Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS-00P8B0 currently in it (not on compatibility list) 32mb cache @ 3gb/s
3 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green SG-2000DL003 waiting to go in it (on compatibility list) 64MB cache @ 6Gb/s
I am also running a laptop windows 7 with an i7 processor 8GB of ram gigabit ethernet and wireless N
Netgear WNDR3700 N600 gigabit dual band wireless N router

Oh and a last note, My server is only 38% used if this makes a difference..

Adding Disks

20 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion

danmandle
Aspirant
Jan 20, 2012
Thanks for the quick reply. Unfortunately, I tried that and it didn't change anything after reboot. I still have "Disable full data journaling" selected. Do I need to deselect that as well?
Rynar401
Aspirant
Jan 20, 2012
I would try that too. What does your logs tell you.
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Jan 20, 2012
No. Journaling must be enabled (disable journaling unchecked). Setting for full data journaling doesn't matter.

You will need a fourth 2TB drive installed before the volume will expand
Rynar401
Aspirant
Jan 20, 2012
Oh. The reason you are only showing 1tb drive is because your #1 slot drive is only 1tb. This will limit all others to that size. Should look into how to configure it so your smaller drive is in slot #4. I believe that will solve your problem. Or just replace it with a 2 tb would be a better choice. Not sure if swapping the order of your drives is a good idea or if it will effect your data.
danmandle
Aspirant
Jan 20, 2012
My Ch 1 drive was a 1TB drive. Now there's nothing in Ch 1, and a 2TB drive in channels 2, 3, 4.
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Jan 20, 2012
Don't reorder the disks. The NV+ v1 is limited by capacity of smallest disk. See X-RAID — RAID for the rest of us

X-RAID2 on x86 (e.g. NVX) and ARM (i.e.) Duo v2, NV+ v2) is different. See X-RAID2 in Action
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Jan 20, 2012
danmandle wrote:
My Ch 1 drive was a 1TB drive. Now there's nothing in Ch 1, and a 2TB drive in channels 2, 3, 4.

Which is one reason why I said you needed a fourth 2TB drive. You cannot reduce the number of disks and get expansion on any ReadyNAS. You'll need to either add a 2TB disk in Ch1 or backup your data and do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything).

If you download your logs (Status > Logs > Download all logs) and extract the zip contents what does your partition.log look like?

danmandle wrote:
My Ch 1 drive was a 1TB drive. Now there's nothing in Ch 1, and a 2TB drive in channels 2, 3, 4.

danmandle

Aspirant

Jan 20, 2012

So they're no way to manually change anything so I don't need to buy another drive?

Here's my partition log:

Disk /dev/hdg doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/hde: 2000.3 GB, 2000388448256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243200 cylinders, total 3907008688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hde1              32     4096031     2048000   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hde2         4096032     4608031      256000   82  Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hde3         4608032  1953092263   974242116    5  Extended
/dev/hde5         4608040  1953092263   974242112   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hdg: 2000.3 GB, 2000388448256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243200 cylinders, total 3907008688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Disk /dev/hdi: 2000.3 GB, 2000388448256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243200 cylinders, total 3907008688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdi1              32     4096031     2048000   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdi2         4096032     4608031      256000   82  Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdi3         4608032  1953092263   974242116    5  Extended
/dev/hdi5         4608040  1953092263   974242112   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hdc: 999.9 GB, 999991611392 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121575 cylinders, total 1953108616 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdc1              32     4096031     2048000   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdc2         4096032     4608031      256000   82  Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdc3         4608032  1953092263   974242116    5  Extended
/dev/hdc5         4608040  1953092263   974242112   8e  Linux LVM

mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Jan 20, 2012
That partition log looks fine. You have 4k sector alignment which means you last did a factory default on 4.1.7 or later. Disk 3 /dev/hdg is your parity disk that's why it doesn't have a partition table on it.

No. You either have to replace the removed disk (considered to be "dead" by the ReadyNAS) with a 2TB disk, or backup and do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything).
danmandle
Aspirant
Jan 20, 2012
Thanks for the help guys. I guess a new hard drive is in my future!

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How can I upgrade 4 HDs with 3 HDs?

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