Newbie - Novice requires Setup Advice

I don't suggest you use more than 2 drive sizes. The storage will be sort of allocated in layers by the system and it only automatically supports two layers. So if you put in the 2TB and two 3TBs you'll get one 2TB layer across all three disks and a second 1TB layer across the two 3TB drives. Total capacity will be 5TB and you can use the 1.5TB for backups of the really critical stuff. Or if you don't need 5TB, then put in the 2 3TB for now (giving you 3TB of storage) and then use the 1.5TB and 2TB both for backups and you can back up everything. Don't think of the mirroring as your backup because it's still a single system and you could lose it. Put all the drives in from the start and then power it up to get the minimal initialization time.

In case it isn't obvious, if you insert the drives with content on them you will lose that content. In order to use those drives you need to move the data off and then copy it back after the drive becomes part of the NAS.

Good luck!

I agree with dsm1212's advice - no more than 2 disk sizes in the NAS, and don't confuse RAID with backup.

In terms of your starting array size, that should be driven by how much storage you need now, and what you see happening later. You have 3.5 TB of external drives now, which suggests that you probably need more than 3 TB of storage now. If you have the money, adding a third 3 TB drive now is a good approach, and lets you use your current drives for backup. Leaving a slot free for future expansion makes sense to me, as adding a new drive is usually more cost effective than upgrading an existing one (when figured as $$$ per incremental GB). That is, if you replace a 2 TB with a 3 TB drive, you are paying for a 3 TB drive but only getting 1 TB more storage.

Whatever you do, make sure you have adequate backup in place from the beginning. As part of that, you should think a bit on data organization, as the "really critical stuff" you back up will need to be in its own folders. I decided some time ago that if it is worth keeping at all it is worth backing up - so I don't attempt to distinguish "critical data" from the rest. That required more investment in backup storage of course, but for me keeping it simple and effective was more important. There are lots of people here who handle this differently (which is fine) - my main point is to be intentional about it.

Also, if you are re-using disks with content on them, make sure that you have a copy at all times during setup (excluding the NAS itself). Sometimes bad things happen in setup and expansion. If something is only on the NAS it is at risk during expansion.

Thanks for the tips guys, very useful advice. Now that I'm clearer in terms of approach, I was hoping if you don't mind answering a few more questions:

1) StephenB's suggestion that I add another 3TB now (in addition to the 2 x 3TB I am about to install) to get the storage I'm looking for now. As I'm using 3TB, it makes sense I continue to use the same 3TB drives. Is it not better to just go ahead and buy the final 4TB drive, and add all the drives in at once, from the start and then power it up to get the minimal initialization time? Or if I just go with the 3 x3 TB, how long would it take to install the 4th one if I did later?

2) The 3TB HDD I'm using are all Seagate (Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001). 3 questions here:

a) Do I need to individually format each drive before loading them into the ReadyNas, or does the initialization process take care of that?

b) This particular drive model is listed under the "Hardware Compatibility List", however its asking me to "Use firmware CC4H or newer". I'm assuming this is something related to the limitation of Windows not recognizing drives larger than 2GB. How do I go about doing this? Do I need to carry this process out on my PC, or can I do within the ReadyNas setup?

c) I read somewhere that I should be labeling each drive - What's the reason for that?

Once again thanks for your expert advice, look forward to hearing your responses.

Cheers

Kaleem

1. Installing 3x3TB drives now all at once will take approximately 8 hours to initialize the drives, install the firmware and do the synchronization process. The drives need to be synchronized sector by sector even though there is no data on them yet. Adding the fourth 3TB (not 4TB) drive will take about the same length of time to resync all 4 drives. I usually add my drives at night and once the process has begun and the percent complete begins to rise, I then go to bed. Please make sure you have a current and complete backup of all the data when you start this process. It is extremely stressful on the drives and if there is a point at which an existing drive is going to fail it is at this point.

2a. It will be a waste of time to do anything to the drives. In fact, anything other than a bare unused new drive will slow you down a bit. The ReadyNAS x-86 uses it's own format and using any drive from a PC or even one of the Sparc or x-86 ReadyNAS units will cause a delay. Worst case, the unit may reject the drive because it thinks there may be data on it and force you to connect the drive to a Windows PC and use the Drive Management tool built into Windows to remove all the current partitions. (Not the same as formatting).

2b. The firmware CC4H or newer is the firmware on the Hard Drive. The current version should be listed on the front label.

2c. It is best to have the drives labeled in some manner so you can tell which one goes in bay1, bay2 etc. so that you can put them back in the same bay if you remove the. If you need to remove a drive for some reason (looking at the label, blowing the dust out of the NAS, etc.) and the drive is good and you want to put it back, do so with the NAS shut down normally. Then reboot only after the drive is reseated. If you remove and then reinsert the drive with the unit on, it will erase the drive and resynch the array. Because I have so many drives spread across a number of machines here at home, I use small press on white labels and number the all the drives. I then keep a spreadsheet of all the drives, make, model, location (incuding the bay on the ReadyNAS units) because they sometimes are recycled. For temporary use, Post-It notes will work. Some write on the label, but that is rather permanent.

Thanks Papabear,

Appreciate the detailed response, I'm still unclear about the Firmware upgrade.

Currently, the 2 x 3TB drives are showing Firmware versions CC43 and CC4B.

Do I need to upgrade these to CC4H? And how would I do this? Through the ReadyNas install process?

Cheers

Kaleem

Upgrading the drive firmware has to be done on a PC (or perhaps on an x86 Mac with the Seagate boot disk). The Readynas has its own firmware, which should be kept current - but that is completely separate.

Whether you can upgrade the drives firmware depends on which ST3000DM001 variant you have. CC4H only applies to 9YN166, and per Seagate these drives would be running CC46, CC47, CC49, CC4C, or CC4G today. So I am thinking you might not have 9YN166. http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/e ... Q/223651en

On the label, there should be 6 characters after the Model ST3000DM001. What is that code?

This is getting more interesting by the second. I've got 2 x 3TB drives unopened, details are:

Model: ST3000DM001
PN: 1CH166-300
FW: CC43
Made in Thailand

Model: ST3000DM001
PN: 9YN166-500
FW: CC4b
Made in China

The other 2 x 3TB's I am awaiting delivery, but I can return the order.

So what do I do with these drives? Am I able to use both of them in the ReadyNas? What do I need to do first?

I am now confused as it seems I have to do some firmware upgrading (on my PC) before sticking the drives into the ReadyNas for initialization?

Will I have a problem with the other 2 drives I am about to receive?

The drives you have are essentially the same drive, but manufactured in different countries. That maybe why they have different P/N's and different firmware. There *may* be differences in the firmware and/or subtle differences in operation between the different P/N's but only Seagate could advise you on that front.

One thing the 9YN166-500 type drives do is they exhibit an audible "click" about once ever 30-60 seconds. They have no APM feature, but do have AAM. The CC4H firmware was released to address an issue with performance and (potential) reliability on these drives. However, whereas before the F/W upgrade my drive wasn't "Chirping" like a lot of people posting about this on SeaGate's forums, it was making this audible click noise. Which sounded not unlike the noise a drive makes when it's dying. Since the update they do do a random seek every 30 seconds. At least that's what it sounds like to me. But even then it's not consistent. Sometimes it goes on for hours, other times nothing. So the issue has been looked at, but not fixed properly as yet. It doesn't prevent the drive operating though. Mine is still going strong and exhibiting no negative symptoms in SMART, even if the noise annoys the hell out of me. It is fairly loud too. ;)

The Firmware update tool SeaGate has up comes in two flavours. One that can be burnt to a CD-Rom, and one which installs a (temporary) bootloader on your PC and loads that on the next reboot to flash the drive automatically. Disconnection of your PC's own drives during this process isn't really nessecary as the tool won't attempt to flash a drive which doesn't match what the firmware supports, and if memory serves you have to give the tool final confirmation before the update is performed anyhow. But if you have multiple drives whose firmware needs updating you will need to have all connected, or repeat the process for each drive that will end up in the NAS. The NAS cannot flash drives itself.

If I was buying disks now, i'd take a look at the new WD-Red drives as these were designed with NAS systems in mind. As to whether they do a 3TB model, i don't know. Seagate's track record with HDD's over the last few years hasn't been brilliant, but now Samsung have sold their HDD unit to Seagate, the options are drying up somewhat.

Actually, I got that the wrong way round. They have APM (Advanced Power Management) but not AAM (Advanced Acoustic Management).

:)