ReadyNAS Duo, Adding 2nd disk as ACTUAL 2nd disk?

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=55076

Check mdgm's post shortly after yours.

Thanks for the reply, but I think that's not exactly what I am trying to do.

I would like to add a second disk to a single disk ReadyNAS, leaving the original disk (/C/) totally untouched and have the second disk act as a new/separate disk by itself, probably /D/. I think the topic you mean will set up the second disc as a mirror of the first one (RAID 1) or merge the two together (RAID 0) destroying all the data that is already on the first disc.

The topic you pointed me to has another question from me, which is regarding my own new NAS and the wish to upgrade it with two 2 TB disks. The question I put in here is about someone elses NAS (that I take care of) that already has a lot a data on it.

But reading through the topics anyhow, I am starting to think it is not possible to have two totally independent disks in the ReadyNAS Duo and that my only option is to backup the entire (one disk) NAS and do a factory reset with the second disk added and set it up using Flex-RAID.

Thanks for the reply anyhow.

Are you running X-Raid or Flex-Raid on the single disk in your Duo?

Which version is your OS?

Hi,

I want to do the same thing as Ruben.cc

My set-up is this:
ReadyNas Duo [X-RAID] with RAIDiator 4.1.7.
One 2TB disk in slot1.

And I want to add a 1TB disk in slot2. However, that 2nd disk was previously used as an external disk on a macbook and has files on it (which I backed-up already).

I would like my final set-up to be like Ruben.cc mentioned; "I would like to add a second disk to a single disk ReadyNAS, leaving the original disk (/C/) totally untouched and have the second disk act as a new/separate disk by itself, probably /D/"

X-RAID only allows for a single volume. Adding a second disk will add redundancy.

You will need to backup your data, do a factory reset (wipes all data, settings, everything) and switch to Flex-RAID.

Flex-RAID allows you to use standard RAID levels e.g. RAID-0 (no redundancy), RAID-1 (two disks, with single disk redundancy). You can choose to use this following the guide here: Configuring Your ReadyNAS for Flex-RAID

You can delete the volume automatically created and create two new RAID-0 volumes (one at a time). Once the first volume has been created you can then create another.

Thanks for the quick replu mdgm.

So if I understood correctly, I need to do a a factory reset of the ReadyNas Duo with both drives in it (does it matter in which order; 2TB in slot1 and 1TB in slot2..?)??

Because if that's the case I'm in trouble ... I just finished transferring 1TB of files onto the ReadyNas (on the 2TB drive in slot1) and that took me about 1 week... And, if I understood correctly, I need to do this another 2 times?

Order of disks does not matter.

You'll need to transfer the data off the ReadyNAS to some place (if you still don't have the data stored somewhere else), factory default with the two drives in place, setup the volumes you want then restore the data backup.

Ok thanks mdgm.

Your reply was exactly what I wanted to know even though I will not go through with it because I do not have a spare 1TB usb disk to do the backup on at the moment ...

The system I want to use in this way is a ReadyNAS Duo with one 1TB disk in X-RAID running RAIDiator 4.1.7 [1.00a043]. Only non-standard thing is that I replaced the memory with a module I had lying around, so it's now 512 MB instead of the 256 it came with.

But I guess the answers above pretty well explained what I must do. Backup all data from the current disk, reset the NAS and have it use Felx-RAID and then set up the disks one by one. Thanks for the replies everyone, think I'll just have to go this way and spend a few days copying data back and forth.

soltarian wrote:
... I just finished transferring 1TB of files onto the ReadyNas (on the 2TB drive in slot1) and that took me about 1 week...

How does it take you a week to transfer 1TB of data? Do you copy all the data over the network and is your NAS connected to a 100 Mbit network?

If you have a USB disk to backup/transfer your data to/from, it might be much faster if you connect it directly to the NAS and use a backup-scheme to transfer all the data. That's how I filled the NAS I want to expand now and it took little less than 24 hours to fill almost the entire 1 TB disk. Just "backup" the entire USB share to a folder on the ReadyNAS and move the data to the appropriate folders on the NAS afterwards.

I have an additional question to this. Not sure if I should start a new thread, but lets try it in here first...

If I setup a disk in this Flex-RAID mode, can the ReadyNAS read this disk when it's connected to one of the USB ports? Or only when fixed internally?

I'm asking this for any "future plans". Let's say I have a NAS with two independent disks of 1TB and I decide to replace one of the disks with a larger drive, say 2TB. Would I need to copy all the data from the old 1TB drive somewhere else first, upgrade the drive and then copy everything back? Or can I just take out the "old" 1TB drive, insert a new 2TB drive and then connect the old drive to USB and copy everything over just once?