Moving drives

Ok here it is for those that would like to know for reference material.

As StephenB said IF the NEW chassis is EXACTLY the same model as the OLD chassis ( example 600e for a 600e as in my case ) then simply do the following:

Before doing this make sure that the rocker switch on the back of the NAS units is switched to the OFF position, this way when you plug the new chassis in it will not automatically boot on you, you first need to physically toggle this rocker switch to the ON position - remember the NAS will automatically boot immediately you plug in the power cord if you leave this rocker switch in the ON position.

1. OLD chassis: try and gather as much information about your old chassis as you can if it is alive, particularly the firmware - mine was upgraded to 4.2.25 recently, power down and switch it OFF with the rocker power switch on the rear
2. NEW chassis: Make sure rear rocker power switch is OFF: insert a hdd ( not one that forms a part of the original NAS hdd volume ) just a spare that you have laying around will do fine - all data will be erased of this hdd
3. NEW chassis: Plug in power cable and network cable, turn rear rocker power switch ON: perform firmware update to the same firmware as on the old chassis - in my case 4.2.25
4. shutdown and switch OFF the rear rocker switch, UNPLUG the NEW chassis cables,
5. remove ONE hdd at a time and transfer from OLD chassis bay 1 to NEW chassis bay 1, old cb 2 to new cb 2, old cb 3 to new cb 3, old cb 4 to new cb 4, old cb 5 to new cb 5 and old cb 6 to new cb 6 - ( cb = chassis bay ) I did the entire 6 chassis bays to make it easier for people to read and understand for their reference.
6. place in position, Make sure rear rocker power switch is OFF, connect network cable and power cable and turn rear rocker switch ON, NAS should automatically boot
7. Cross fingers and toes :)

Please note: when I first powered up the new chassis with my temp hdd it produced an error for me: could not mount root raid d I needed to load up the boot menu via the rear pin hole, scroll through the menu to Restore Factory Defaults then finished off the temp drive firmware upgrade. Not sure as to why this occurred for me but this is all I did and things so far appear to be working.

I need to spend the next 4 days checking the new chassis out before I send my old chassis back to Netgear before they charge my credit card for this new chassis. Good luck to all that need to move original NAS volume drives over to another chassis of same model, it works as we think.

As for a different chassis eg RN316 to a 600e then I would assume this to be a lot more complicated as new volumes would need to be created hence your hdd's requiring a format and data loss and huge headaches.

Thanks to those that responded am eternally grateful and oh so love Netgear 5 yr warranty.... all for sake of a $20 fan I got an entirely new chassis, not a refurbished as we would have thought, swwwweeeeeeeeeettt lol