Changing a disk for a larger one

[DavidJG]

I have a NAS 314 with Xraid (Raid5).

I have three disks installed 2 x 4TB and 1 x 1TB.

My question is:-

Can I change the 1 x 1TB ONLY to a 4TB to enlarge storage for Vertical Expansion?

The manual seems to suggest I need to add TWO larger drives.

[DavidJG · Accepted solution]

Thanks very much.

I changed the disk for a larger one, and after several hours of rebuilding hey presto! all is working fine with the greater capacity I now need.

Wonderful!!

[StephenB]

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@DavidJG wrote:

Can I change the 1 x 1TB ONLY to a 4TB to enlarge storage for Vertical Expansion?

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Yes.

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The manual seems to suggest I need to add TWO larger drives.

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The manual seems to assume all the installed drives are of equal size.

If you were running 3x1TB, you would have needed to install two larger drives.  But you essentially already did that, since you have 2x4TB + 1TB.  Your existing setup is already vertically expanded (though it may have done that silently during the factory install).  

Now you have a "base" raid layer of 3x1TB RAID-5, with an upper layer of 2x3TB RAID-1 - giving a 5 TB aggregated volume.  When you upgrade the disk, the upper layer will convert to 3x3TB RAID-5 - giving an 8 TB aggregated volume.

[DavidJG]

Thank you. Lets now see what happens....

[DavidJG]

OK, thanks.

so, if I gracefully power down the system, change the 1 x 1TB for a 4TB, and power up, will the system rebuild ALL the data from the former 1 x 1TB onto the 4TB disk?

The system has been running 9 months and has many snapshots on it.

[StephenB]

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@DavidJG wrote:

 so, if I gracefully power down the system, change the 1 x 1TB for a 4TB, and power up, will the system rebuild ALL the data from the former 1 x 1TB onto the 4TB disk?

You have 2x4TB + 1TB and are using XRAID, correct?  If so, you can replace the 1 TB with a 4 TB.  There will be no data loss if the already installed 4 TB drives are healthy.

Though Netgear always does recommend a backup (and I agree with them on that).

FWIW you don't need to power down - you can remove the 1 TB drive and insert the new 4 TB one with the system running.

[DavidJG · Accepted solution]

Thanks very much.

I changed the disk for a larger one, and after several hours of rebuilding hey presto! all is working fine with the greater capacity I now need.

Wonderful!!

[FramerV]

Hi DavidJG,

Thank you for sharing your resolution and/or workaround. We appreciate your contribution to the community. 

Feel free to post any suggestions, questions, recommendations or anything about your NAS that you think needs attention or will help others.

Regards,