Adding a second HDD to the ReadyNAS Duo expanding total storage capacity

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Doma wrote:

I've been looking a bit on the internet, and it appears, that adding an additional disc to the 2nd bay (out of 2), it will be a disc that is used for some sort of "backup" of disc 1, in case it malfunctions.

 

1st question: is this how I am supposed to understand how the X-RAID works?

 

2nd question: in case 1st question is "yes", then how do I make my second HDD, appear as extra storage?

 

So far I've only used 1 disc (1tb), and I just added a 2nd disc (also 1 tb)... Both of the was formatted before I added them to the 2 bays and booted the NAS.

 

After a few minutes of "starting up" and "installing" and a lot of noise from the NAS, it shows (in the RAIDar programme) that disc one is ready, but the 2nd disc is resyncing.

I assume this has to do with that X-RAID thingy.

 

Will this turn out as I fear, stated above, or will this make me able to have a total of 2TB og storage on my NAS?

 

The NAS has the newest firmware RAIDiator 4.1.14

 

Looking forward to, hopefully, some help, or questions answered. :)

 

Cheers

Thomas

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X-RAID means that when you add a second disc the NAS will run RAID 1, which means that the same content will reside on both discs. This is the way I had my Duo with 2 TB discs, and I am glad i did run X-RAID.

After approx. 4 years disc one started to fail sp I pulled it and inserted another disc without losing any data. If you don't run RAID 1 you might lose data.

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Doma wrote:

 

 

Will this turn out as I fear, stated above, or will this make me able to have a total of 2TB og storage on my NAS?

 

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You will end up with the same 1 TB volume size you have now.  Lundmilo did a nice job of explaining the benefits.  Even with xraid, you still need backups to keep your data safe.

If you want 2 TB of space, then you have options:

(a) buy two 2 TB disks (for instance WD20EFRX), and replace your current drives.  You'd do that one at a time with the NAS running (making sure that the resync for the first drive completes before you do the second).  It'll cost you a little bit, but this is the easiest way.

(b) save all your data on a backup disk.  Then remove one drive and do a factory reset.  You have about 10 minutes after you initiate the reset to go into the NAS setup with RAIDar and select flex-raid (raid-0).  After the setup completes, you can add a second drive, and create a separate "d" volume.  Create some shares on each volume, and restore the data from your backup disk.

Note the need for backup on (b) - the reset will destroy all your existing data.  You'll also need to redo the configuration and reinstall any add-ons.