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Forum Discussion
ReadyNAS RN204 - change out drives from 4x4tb to 4x6TB or 4x8TB
I purchased my RN204 a few years back and installed 4 4TB WD Red Drives and it has been flawless but now I'm at about 8TB of 10.9 TB available in Raid 5. Now I am thinking of changing out the driv...
davidk1952 wrote:
What is the best way to do it, should I just download all my current content to another drive and then do a fresh install of the new drives or change them out one at a time?
Both methods will work.
A fresh install will be completed quicker, and if something went wrong you could just reboot with your original 4 drives in their original slots.
On the other hand, if you go with the one-at-a-time approach, your data will always be available during the process.
You should make a backup either way, since there's always some risk when you are manipulating the disks.
davidk1952 wrote:
I need larger drives.... ... Or, Should I really think about upgrading the RN204 as well?
It's still a good NAS for your purpose (storage).
Not sure it's worth the money to just upgrade it, but you could run both NAS at 2x4TB+2x8TB (giving you 16 TB of storage on each), and then repurpose the RN204 as a backup NAS. Look at the RN400 series (or better) if you are wanting some performance gain.
Thanks for the replies, I have the content backed up on a separate external drive right now so I'm covered on the backups... I'm somewhat new to Plex and when I set things up I had used the 204 for my content and pointed my desktop to the 204 as I had read that the 204 may not having the power for alot of transcoding. Getting a second NAS with more performance and loading PLEX on that may not give me much more as my current set up with my DT. If I"m down for a couple of days doesn't bother me.. I can just use my backup drive with PLex and get all I would need.
I am guessing the Netgear is still using Segate Drives where my RN204 was loaded with WD RED drives... in my research it seems like the WD drives have had a better reliability over the Segates, but it has been a while since I have checked that out.
Thanks for the the replies so far.
davidk1952 wrote:
I am guessing the Netgear is still using Segate Drives where my RN204 was loaded with WD RED drives... in my research it seems like the WD drives have had a better reliability over the Segates, but it has been a while since I have checked that out.
Not sure what "the Netgear" refers to. I get my NAS diskless, and purchase the drives separately. I use the WDC Reds in my various NAS, though I do have a couple of the 1 TB Seagate Ironwolf drives. Users seem to find both lines reliable. I don't recommend using desktop drives, instead I suggest going with NAS-purposed drives (in desktop NAS) or enterprise drives.
In your specific case, I suggest Western Digital. Most manufacturers have dropped the side-center mounting holes on the the larger capacity drives, in order to maximize the interior space. WDC Reds still have those side holes, so you can continue to use the toolless inserts. If you go with 8 TB Seagates, you'll need to remove the inserts and use the screws that came with your NAS to attach the drives to the tray. Even then, the holes on your older tray bottoms won't align with some of the disk mounts. But enough will align that you will be able to firmly attach them.
If you prefer the toolless inserts, check the pictures (or datasheets) on the manufacturer website for the side-center holes prior to purchase.
davidk1952 wrote:
I'm somewhat new to Plex and when I set things up I had used the 204 for my content and pointed my desktop to the 204 as I had read that the 204 may not having the power for alot of transcoding.
The RN214 is a bit more capable than the RN204 in that regard - it can transcode one 1080p stream to SD. An RN500 series can handle HD transcoding, but stalls on most 4K streams. The NAS processors don't include GPUs, and that limits the transcoding performance.
Personally I also put plex (and other applications) on a desktop PC - I think it's a more flexible and robust approach than loading a bunch of apps on the NAS. My main NAS is an RN526x, which has a 10 gigabit interface. I installed a 10 gigabit Nic in the PC to ensure that the network wouldn't be a bottleneck (though I think it would have been acceptable if I hadn't done that).
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