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Expanding RN104 to 2-2TB and 2-4TB

BJB
Aspirant
Aspirant

Expanding RN104 to 2-2TB and 2-4TB

I have my RN104 currently running with two, 2TB drives in default RAID mode. I want to add the maximum capacity I can via the 2 open drive slots and maintain my RAID mirror.
I see that the 4TB ST4000DM000 Seagate Barracuda drives are on the approved drive list. Is this the current maximum capacity? From the list it appears to be the case.

The manual states that if I "horizontally expand" my unit by adding 2 drives, "when you add a third or fourth disk, the new disk is used to increase your storage capacity". But....

I have two 2TB drives and adding two 4TB drives. So when I add them, what will my storage capacity be??

And will adding these 4TB drives (which appear to be a little slower than the 2TB drives in there) slow down the RAID significantly? I still need it to be fast enough for Video capture writing and reading for HD video to either streaming devices or a PC for editing.

Also, what is the best way to add 2 drives. Just shut it down and add the two both at once and power up?

Thanks,
BJB
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vandermerwe
Master

Re: Expanding RN104 to 2-2TB and 2-4TB

If you add one 4 tb disk your capacity will increase by 2tb (approx), when you add another 4 tb disk you should get another 4 tb of space. This assumes you're are using xraid.
See here: http://kossboss.siigna.net/xraid.html
4tb is the current max capacity, however there are very few drives of this capacity on the hcl, if you won't need the extra 1 tb, you may want to look at 3 tb disks where you have more choice. Western Digital are supposedly releasing a 4 tb version of their red drive soon, and a 5 tb version at the end of this year. You may want to wait but remember it seems to take netgear a very long time to get new disks onto the hcl.
I don't think the disk speed will make any noticeable difference, however whenypu add these disks you xraid will effectively change from raid 1 to raid 5, raid 5 has slightly lower write speeds than raid 1 I believe.
Adding the disks, it's best to add 1 at a time, while the unit is on, and wait for the volume to expand before adding the 4 th disk. You can add 2 at once and they will be processed 1 at a time. This is not the preferred method though.

It's always wise to test the disk using vendor tools before putting them in the NAS.
Always make sure you have an up to date backup.slightly more important when doing vertical expansion, but you should have one anyway.
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