Added Drive, changed from JBOD to Raid 1, can I change it back?

Question

I had a ReadyNAS 212, with&nbsp; one 4tb drive...&nbsp; &nbsp;Netgeat site says to add more storage, just add another drive to bay 2.&nbsp; When I added another 4 tb drive, it changed me from JBOD to RAID 1.&nbsp; &nbsp;I don't want RAID 1, how can I get back to JBOD with 8tb of storage?&nbsp;Running the latest firmware and software (as of 9/13/17), on Windows 7.

StephenB · Answer

michaelst wrote:
When I added another 4 tb drive, it changed me from JBOD to RAID 1.&nbsp; &nbsp;I don't want RAID 1, how can I get back to JBOD with 8tb of storage?
&nbsp;

Unfortunately once it does that you need to start over - either with a factory reset, or switch to flexraid and destroy the volume. &nbsp;Both are destructive, so you might as well back up the data, pull one drive, and then do the reset.
&nbsp;
After that, switch to flexraid on the volume page, and then insert the second disk. &nbsp;You'll be able to create a second 4 TB volume.
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Then of course recreate the shares, and restore the data.

michaelst · Answer

geez.. thats a bummer.&nbsp; I have almost 1tb ripped and saved, with about 4 more to go.&nbsp; I have no place to back up 1tb.&nbsp; It would have nice if this were explained somewhere - about changing to flexraid to preserve the JBOD when I added the new drive.&nbsp; It happened automotically - no choice or notification that it was changing to RAID 1.&nbsp;What would happen if I removed the drive?&nbsp; Would it revert back to JBOD?&nbsp; if it did, I could them change to flexraid and add the drive, which I could reformat and clean the duplicated data.

StephenB · Answer

michaelst wrote:
&nbsp;
What would happen if I removed the drive?&nbsp;

The volume would become degraded. &nbsp;You'd be able to switch to flexraid, but you wouldn't be able to change to jbod.
&nbsp;
However, you would still have access to your data, so you could temporarily reformat the removed drive, and copy the data off. &nbsp;Then do a reset, switch to flexraid, reconfigure the NAS shares, and restore the data.
&nbsp;
michaelst wrote:
I have no place to back up 1tb.&nbsp;

Then at some point you will lose your data. &nbsp;After you get through this, you should put a backup plan in place (USB drives are one way that is pretty affordable).

michaelst · Answer

As I understand it, FlexRaid like like JBOD, but safer (according to Wiki.flexraid.com).So, If I remove Drive 2.&nbsp; Switch to Flex RAID, re-add the Drive 2 and reformat it, I'll be able to see all 8tb as a single volume, just like JBOD, without losing any files or settings, right?&nbsp;As for back up, I'll pick-up a seagate or WD 2tb at Best Buy to back up my current media files just incase.This is my first NAS, but I've been building my own PC's since the late 80's and have yet to have a drive fail.&nbsp; But then, I've always had a back up in place.&nbsp; I'm sure if I didn't, i would have had a failure.

StephenB · Answer

michaelst wrote:
As I understand it, FlexRaid like like JBOD, but safer (according to Wiki.flexraid.com).
&nbsp;

I don't think JBOD is safer than RAID-1 - JBOD with one volume per disk is basically as safe as an internal disk in PC. &nbsp;If the disk fails, you lose the data (though recovery might be possible).
&nbsp;
FlexRaid just gives you more control over the raid modes than XRAID. &nbsp;In some cases you can choose a RAID mode that has more redundancy than XRAID, but that's not your situation. &nbsp;With two disks, your choices are RAID-0 (one volume), JBOD (two volumes) and RAID-1. &nbsp;

RAID-0 with one volume is a bad idea (you lose everything if either disk fails). &nbsp;
JBOD with two volumes is useful if you want to maximize storage.
RAID-1 offers the best availability (data remains available if one disk fails). &nbsp;It's still not a substitute for backup, since there are failure modes that can corrupt both disks.

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Added Drive, changed from JBOD to Raid 1, can I change it back?

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