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I have a ReadyNAS 104, with 4 bays. I already have a pair of 6TB drives in RAID, and the other two bays have always sat empty. I've just got another two drives and inserted them into the two empty bays, but I can't seem to get them to add. In the Adminpage, under Volumes I can see the two new drives in grey. I've clicked 'format' on each of the new drives but can't see how I'd set them as a new pair in raid. They just stay grey. Yet the total free space listed is showing the total number. Have I somehow set these all as one huge raid drive?
Anyone care to talk me through how to add these as a new pair in raid? Thanks
You cannot add two smaller drives to your array nor can you create a second array in XRAID mode. If you click on the XRAID button to the left and turn it off, then accept the warning, you will see some extra options. .You can use "add group" to add a second RAID0 of the new drives to the existing volume, or you can create a separate volume (assuming you have OS 6.8.0 or better where "add group" was added). Or you can create one ot two separate RAID0, RAID1, or JBOB volumes of just the new drives.
Any way you do it will not be the best use of the drives. A single RAID5 of all of them would be best. But to do that, you have to start with the smaller ones and add the bigger, meaning you have to back up your data and start from scratch.
The absolutely best thing you could have done was purchase just one more 6TB drive. You'd get a 3-drive RAID 5 and use the new 6TB to it's full extent while maintaining a single, redundant volume and you'd still have room for another, which would add another 6TB. The best you can do with two new 4TB's is 4TB of redundent space or 8TB of non-redundant.
You cannot add two smaller drives to your array nor can you create a second array in XRAID mode. If you click on the XRAID button to the left and turn it off, then accept the warning, you will see some extra options. .You can use "add group" to add a second RAID0 of the new drives to the existing volume, or you can create a separate volume (assuming you have OS 6.8.0 or better where "add group" was added). Or you can create one ot two separate RAID0, RAID1, or JBOB volumes of just the new drives.
Any way you do it will not be the best use of the drives. A single RAID5 of all of them would be best. But to do that, you have to start with the smaller ones and add the bigger, meaning you have to back up your data and start from scratch.
The absolutely best thing you could have done was purchase just one more 6TB drive. You'd get a 3-drive RAID 5 and use the new 6TB to it's full extent while maintaining a single, redundant volume and you'd still have room for another, which would add another 6TB. The best you can do with two new 4TB's is 4TB of redundent space or 8TB of non-redundant.
Thanks for that. So I'll turn off X-Raid and set them as another pair in Raid1 (If I've got that right! A pair using 4tb with one drive being redundancy of the other)
Raid 5, would that just see one 10TB space? I don't think blanking the lot off and starting again is something I'm in the mood for right now though!! What I don't understand is you say I could have bought just one more 6TB - surely there's no room for a redundant volume without adding two more?
Thanks for the help, I now have my 6tb Raid-1 and a new 4tb Raid-1, using two 4tb drives I had spare!
If I copy files from one drive to another, using Windows Explorer is it all traveling via the network? Seems very slow! Can I copy / move files using the ReadyNas admin?
Yes, drag and drop goes via your computer over the network; and yes, you can right-click and copy/cut and then paste in another share or volume to copy/move files in the GUI. If you are adept at linux CLI, doing it via SSH is even easier. Do understand that a "move" between volumes is a copy-then-delete, so still takes some time.
Great, I'm doing that now! Could you just clrify the earlier comment about adding just one 6tb drive - how would there be any redundancy by adding just one drive?
If you had added one 6 TB drive, XRAID would have switched to RAID-5, which also has single redundancy. You'd have had a single volume of 12 TB (10.9 TiB).
RAID-5 achieves redundancy through the use of partity blocks. The contents of any disk can be computed from the other two disks.
