NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Disks Replacement

Hello,

I currently have an ReadyNAS Ultra 4 with four 4TB disks in a X-RAID2 configuration. The NAS is serving primarily as a media server and for backup of some files. I want to replace two of the four drives with 8TB drives, and I want to know the easiest way to do this without risking data loss or needing extensive tech expertise. I'm using Seagate drives and will replace them with the new Seagate 8TB NAS HDD.

What I have in mind is to replace Disks 3 and 4 by the new ones one at the time. Here is the steps I've planned.

1 - Hot unplug disk 4
2 - Insert the new 8TB disk and wait for the system to resync the new disk.
3 - After the first disk resync finishes hot unplug disk 3
4 - Insert the other new 8TB and wait for the system to resync the new disk.
5 - Check if everything went ok if all my data is intact and only then use the replaced disks in another system.

Can anyone point me if is the right approach? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance

Johnny

Installation & Upgrade

StephenB
Apr 25, 2016
JohnnyR2D2 wrote:

So what you're saying here is that after backup everything I can still try to resync the disks although your suggestion is to destroy all the data volume not only because it will be faster but also probably it will be a more clean installation right?

It is faster because each resync requires every sector on all disks to be either read or written. It's more efficient to build the volume once.

You'd have a clean installation either way - identical RAID layers, etc.

JohnnyR2D2 wrote:

So what I'm going to install first isn't an actual firmware correct? it's a kind of upgrade from 4.2 to OS 6 meaning that after all the above I will have to install the new firmware which if I'm not mistaken is the ReadyNASOS-6.4.2-x86_64.img (got if from NTGR support download site).

Actually the module I linked will install 6.5 beta directly, so you won't need the .img that you downloaded. That makes the overall process simpler.

JohnnyR2D2 wrote:

Last but not least...just in case I run into problems which I hope I'm not which ReadyNas new model you recommend for me to buy and use with four 8TB disks remembering that I use only for media share and backup some stuff in there. I need to USB minimum.

The RN314 is the closest model to what you have now. It includes a 5 year hardware warranty and free lifetime chat software support.

The RN214 is worth considering if you are interested in streaming. It uses a quadcore arm processor, which is capable of real-time 1080 transcoding with the plex streaming app. That is particularly useful if you are streaming over the internet. However, warranty is only 3 years, and free software support is limited to 90 days.

The RN204 gives good filesharing performance, but can't do real-time transcoding. The warranty and software support is the same as the RN214.

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StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Apr 25, 2016
With 4.2.x firmware there are two expansion limits, and it is possible you will hit one of them.

(a) the system will not expand a volume if the new target size would be greater than 16 TiB.

(b) In addition, each volume can only expand 8 TiB over its lifetime (starting from the size when it was initially created).

Both of these limits are related to volume size, not the raw disk capacity.

If you do hit these, then your best option is to switch from 4.2.x firmware to OS 6 firmware. That is not supported by Netgear, but many have done it - and OS6 doesn't have those limitations. Making the switch will require you do to a factory reset, so you will need to have all the data on the NAS backed up.
- JohnnyR2D2
  Guide
  Apr 25, 2016
  The new configuration will have two 4TB disks plus the new two 8TB disks meaning that the total will be 24TB. What you're saying is that I will not be able to do this upgrade with the current firmware which is indeed the 4.2 and I will need to upgrade it to the OS 6. Can you provide me a direct link to dowload the OS 6 firmware pls?
  
  Tks
  - JohnnyR2D2
    Guide
    Apr 25, 2016
    Also are you 100% sure about the 4.2 limit? Isn't worth to try at least? And if I try and doesn't work can I put the replaced drive back into the NAS?