Remove disk for backup

I would power the unit down, remove Disk 2, then power it back up and check you can still access the shares. If so, what your proposing should work. I wouldn't do it personally, I'd copy stuff across various drives on the Desktop which have got space, as your going to need to recreate your shares and config anyway, but I can't see any reason why It shouldn't work, assuming both drives don't have any latent issues (Check SMART status).

Don't you know someone who can lend you a drive?

Thanks, will try that.
If it doesn't work (accessing the shares), can i safely place back disk2 without losing any data?

I'll aks around for a disk, that ofcourse will be easier.

frankp wrote:
If it doesn't work (accessing the shares), can i safely place back disk2 without losing any data?

Yes, just be careful to power down first. Hot-add will likely look like a new disk insertion, and it would be wiped!

frankp wrote:
I'll ask around for a disk, that of course will be easier.

Or buy one. You should have a backup strategy in place anyway...

I wait for our local Maplin store to have sub £100 deals on USB hard disks.
Then buy the largest one (2T or 3T) and backup critical data form the NAS to it.
You can never have too many backups.

As StephenB says, replacing the disk with the unit off is the easiest route. Wiping the replaced disk (if in the original NAS) will trigger a resync event, that could take anywhere up to 6 hours or more, depending on the size of the disks. Also, a resync will stress the disk, so it's best avoided unless absolutely required.

Just started with the backup. Did power down the system, as mentioned.
It worked fine as described.

Hello new NAS :)

Happy Days Frank. ;)

I wouldn't expect your task not to work but just remember that if your restoring you probably want to take out the first disk and end up resyncing on the other after power up or your going to format your backup and make it useless.

Sorry I'm not up on my U.k shops but seagate has been upping ad's in the U.S. so I'd think to check their homepage for sales or so far my recommendation for Western Digital Drives with a collection of them always on amazon (since it does have an "I found a better price" link on each item).

Kinda disappointed* though the jedi/admins didn't chip in about that not being a really good option and chime in with replicate ad's and links to faq for recommended backup source/destination disks. I know there's probably more safer ways to make a backup like when you do a factory default but I can't think right now (there covered I think in yoda or chirpa's signature[I think].

*not disappointed just expecting

techman05 wrote:
I wouldn't expect your task not to work but just remember that if your restoring you probably want to take out the first disk and end up resyncing on the other after power up or your going to format your backup and make it useless.

I don't understand why you are saying that. He's restoring to a different NAS. And the disk he removed was reformated to ntfs.

If he wants to keep his existing NAS mirrored, the right procedure is to hot-insert the disk he removed into its original slot (perhaps deleting the windows partition first).

techman05 wrote:
Sorry I'm not up on my U.k shops but seagate has been upping ad's in the U.S. so I'd think to check their homepage for sales or so far my recommendation for Western Digital Drives with a collection of them always on amazon (since it does have an "I found a better price" link on each item).

Seagate's are cheaper, but the number of folks who've posted here with issues with both the ST2000DM001 and the ST3000DM001 is concerning. I stopped buying seagates a while ago (after a run of failures), so perhaps I'm biased. However, at this point I'd get a WD red, even though it isn't the cheapest.

techman05 wrote:

Kinda disappointed* though the jedi/admins didn't chip in about that not being a really good option and chime in with replicate ad's and links to faq for recommended backup source/destination disks. I know there's probably more safer ways to make a backup like when you do a factory default but I can't think right now (there covered I think in yoda or chirpa's signature[I think]. *not disappointed just expecting

He didn't give the model for his new NAS - I was kind of assuming it was not Netgear. I also wasn't sure if he was reusing both disks in the new NAS, but it seemed likely (otherwise frontview backup would have worked, and been safer).

Though frankp should consider keeping his nv+ running, and using it as a backup device.

NV+ is sold, I use an external 1Tb USB drive for backup of the most important docs (not movies and music). But i wanted to save the movies and music i had.
And StphenB you're right, i'm not upgrading to another netgear, but to a synology.