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Forum Discussion
Two sets of drives for Ultra 4
Is it possible to have two separate, independent sets of drives for a ReadyNAS Ultra 4, running different firmwares?
I have an Ultra 4, currently set up running 4.2.23 with 3 drives (1-disk redundancy). I'm interested in the idea of doing some testing with different drives and also different firmware, but want to keep it separate from my normal NAS setup. So my idea is to pull out the 3 drives, put them aside, stick in a new drive (or two) and do my experimenting without having to spend ages restoring my old setup. I'd also like to try out OS 6 (yep, I know its unsupported, my NAS is out of warranty, etc).
All of this will only really be feasible if I can swap between my "working" vs "experimental" sets of drives to quickly switch back/forward between the working & experimental setups. Yes I have backups, but I don't want it to be a 24-hour process to swap between the two (for that kind of pain I'd just buy a 314, but its not really in the budget).
So is this possible? Or does changing the firmware also change the contents of the in-built flash in a way that would mean one set of drives may stop working?
I have an Ultra 4, currently set up running 4.2.23 with 3 drives (1-disk redundancy). I'm interested in the idea of doing some testing with different drives and also different firmware, but want to keep it separate from my normal NAS setup. So my idea is to pull out the 3 drives, put them aside, stick in a new drive (or two) and do my experimenting without having to spend ages restoring my old setup. I'd also like to try out OS 6 (yep, I know its unsupported, my NAS is out of warranty, etc).
All of this will only really be feasible if I can swap between my "working" vs "experimental" sets of drives to quickly switch back/forward between the working & experimental setups. Yes I have backups, but I don't want it to be a 24-hour process to swap between the two (for that kind of pain I'd just buy a 314, but its not really in the budget).
So is this possible? Or does changing the firmware also change the contents of the in-built flash in a way that would mean one set of drives may stop working?
2 Replies
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- I don't think there is any way to setup the readynas as a dual boot system.
Even if you could do this, it seems to me you'd be turning a stable system that is supposed to offer you solid data stability into a hybrid system with increased complexity and therefore probably increased risk of data loss. I realise you have a backup, but I don't think this should make anyone less complacent about looking after the primary data.
If you just want to experiment with things, why not buy a 2 bay system? - The Ultra has a 3 year warranty. When did you purchase it? If you purchased it brand new less than 3 years ago it should still be under warranty.
If you just want to experiment with ReadyNAS OS why not give running the VM on your PC a try: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=70699
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