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Forum Discussion
MrBigabbey
Nov 02, 2023Aspirant
Question about increasing capacity in RN428 - replacing 4TB drives with 12TB drives
I have a 428 with 8 x 4TB drives (Ironwolf) in 1 volume with RAID6. I want to expand the capacity. So I have replaced 3 of the drives with 12TB Ironwolfs that are on the Netgear supported list. I r...
- Nov 02, 2023
MrBigabbey wrote:
I have done this before on a smaller RN104. On that one, I had 4 x3TB and started replacing the 3TB drives with 4TB. As soon as the 2nd one rebuilt, 1TB was added to the capacity.
The RN104 must have been using single redundancy (XRAID/RAID5)
MrBigabbey wrote:
I have a 428 with 8 x 4TB drives (Ironwolf) in 1 volume with RAID6.
I want to expand the capacity. So I have replaced 3 of the drives with 12TB Ironwolfs
Dual redundancy/RAID6 requires four drives to be upgraded before the capacity increases. So you need to get one more Ironwolf.
MrBigabbey wrote:
...that are on the Netgear supported list.
Long neglected, so best to ignore it. NAS purposed drives are ok, with one exception - the WD Red drives are SMR, and should be avoided. WD Red Plus and Red Pro are fine. Enterprise-class drives are also fine.
MrBigabbey wrote:I can try Netgear support
You won't be able to get support. Netgear is clearly exiting the ReadyNAS business. You can still get warranty replacements, but that's all.
StephenB
Nov 02, 2023Guru - Experienced User
MrBigabbey wrote:
I have done this before on a smaller RN104. On that one, I had 4 x3TB and started replacing the 3TB drives with 4TB. As soon as the 2nd one rebuilt, 1TB was added to the capacity.
The RN104 must have been using single redundancy (XRAID/RAID5)
MrBigabbey wrote:
I have a 428 with 8 x 4TB drives (Ironwolf) in 1 volume with RAID6.
I want to expand the capacity. So I have replaced 3 of the drives with 12TB Ironwolfs
Dual redundancy/RAID6 requires four drives to be upgraded before the capacity increases. So you need to get one more Ironwolf.
MrBigabbey wrote:
...that are on the Netgear supported list.
Long neglected, so best to ignore it. NAS purposed drives are ok, with one exception - the WD Red drives are SMR, and should be avoided. WD Red Plus and Red Pro are fine. Enterprise-class drives are also fine.
MrBigabbey wrote:I can try Netgear support
You won't be able to get support. Netgear is clearly exiting the ReadyNAS business. You can still get warranty replacements, but that's all.
MrBigabbey
Nov 02, 2023Aspirant
Thanks for the great answer. I will get a 4th drive.
Good to know about them exiting the busy. I guess it's also time to look for something else like a Synology.
- StephenBNov 02, 2023Guru - Experienced User
I should add this caveat - if you encrypted the volume, then it won't expand. The only option there is to destroy it and create a new one. That will of course require you to recreate shares, backup jobs, etc - and restore all the data from backup.
- MrBigabbeyNov 02, 2023Aspirant
No, I did not encrypt it.
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