RN104 - Installation

rebooting the NAS will make the sync start back from the beginning.
You can copy your data but this will slow down the resync, it could also create fragmentation (not sure for that) but there is a defrag utility to correct that.

Since you are in 6.0.8, I advise to get the latest version and do a factory reset to apply the newest BTRFS update.
see http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... sion-6.1.5
This will cancel the resync but at least you will start fresh on an optimal system.

I've updated the firmware to 6.1.8. After that i've done a factory reset in order to change the filesystem. The capacity changed to 5,45 TB. It is currently resyncing, that will take about 24 hours. So i'll start copying the data tommorrow. That will take about 4 days.

The expected speed over gigabit network for an RN104 is 40-50Mbytes/s in write and 85-95Mbytes/s in read for large files.
I advise to disable the antivirus for the initial transfer to get the maximum speed, you may use it afterwards (though it will slow the NAS a bit). You can also take a look at available applications and create your shares, your backup jobs and set rights on them if you want.
Please note that the share you create are managed by the OS a little bit like partitions, this means that if you want to move file from one to the other, you will have to copy it again (it seems that there is a workaround though but I advise to do things right in the first place). Everything is handled at the share level (dropbox, readydrop, rights...) so choose your subdivision wisely.
I advise to keep your actual data source(s) and use it/them as backup.

The RN104 may not be the best NAS around but, given the price for a 4bay-NAS, it does a pretty good job for home users. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Thanks for your help. I will use my linux server as backup with rsync over ssh. I have 3TB worth of backup in my server. The RN104 is currently on 63% resync, so I can start copying tonight. That will take a while because I have to cpoy about 2.7TB of data.

If you don't need a secure connection, you might try NFS instead of rsync - it should be faster. You can then re-do with rsync incremental (editing the backup job if you use frontview backup) if you like.

Ok,

I've come to the last step of my list. I will put in the last disk tomorrow. Is there any chance I will lose my data when I expand Raid with the fourth disk?

Thankx

Alexander

There is always some risk when you are manipulating disks. It is small though.

OK I'll backup the most important files first. I used remote:nfs for a backup job and it worked fine over a gigabit network.

Just to be clear on one thing (your formulation keeps things blurry).
The NAS doesn't replace a backup. The fact that you said "I'll backup" makes me think that you don't do it on a regular basis. Many kind of things can happen to your NAS, you should backup before this happens, you should have at least one fully updated backup.

@xeltros I hear you. I already have the backup jobs in place. I have reserved 3TB of backup space in my linux server.