Main: Ultra 4Plus (with 3x 3TB HDD so one bay empty, latest firmware) Backup: NV+ v2 (with 4x 2TB HDD, used to backup the Ultra 4Plus, latest firmware)
I've reached capacity & trying to work out the best use of HDD slots so I don't buy more addition HDDs than need be.
so questions...
1) If I buy an additional 3TB, could I put that into the NV+ v2 and pull the 2TB out & put in the Ultra 4Plus? 2) I seem to recall doing some sort of fresh build on the 4Plus to make use of better disk access speeds for the larger disks (??!?) Would putting a 2TB impact that? 3) Which bay should the 3TB go in the NV+ v2? and similar question on compatibility? 4) Is there any disk size limitation in either Nas if I decide to go bigger than the 3TB?
Many thanks in advance for your advise
Model: ReadyNASRND4000v2|ReadyNAS NV+ v2 Chassis only,ReadyNASRNDP400U|ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus Chassis only
1) If I buy an additional 3TB, could I put that into the NV+ v2 and pull the 2TB out & put in the Ultra 4Plus?
--You could put the new 3TB in the NV+ v2 and pull the 2TB out, *but* the NV+ v2 would still only be able to use only 2TB of the 3TB's of space. You would need at LEAST 2x3TB drives to be able to gain a single extra 1TB of space in the NV+ v2. If you are going to upgrade another one later then this is a good idea, otherwise you will be wasting the extra 1TB of space.
--If you put the 2TB in the Ultra 4Plus you will not be able to utilize any of the additional 2TB's of space unless you do a factory reset. This is because the current XRAID config needs at least 3TB of space on a new drive so it will fit in with the other available dives. If you do a full reset on the Ultra 4Plus you would be able to have 3x2TB and 2x1TB for a total of 8TB of availbale space with 1x2TB and 1x1TB for a total of 3TB of space being used for redundancy.
2) I seem to recall doing some sort of fresh build on the 4Plus to make use of better disk access speeds for the larger disks (??!?) Would putting a 2TB impact that?
-- I'm going to guess you mean a factory reset when you say "fresh build" here... and yes, if you go with your proposed solution youw ould need to do the factory reset to be able to access any of the space on the 2TB drive.
3) Which bay should the 3TB go in the NV+ v2? and similar question on compatibility?
-- It does not matter, use whichever one you want. I typically start from the top and work my way down when replacing drives.
4) Is there any disk size limitation in either Nas if I decide to go bigger than the 3TB?
-- No, as long as the dirve you are inserting is of equal or greater size there is no limitation to the size of the drive you can use. Take in mind that you always need at least 2 drives of the same size to use any of the extra space on the drives you are inserting that are lager thatn the ones currently in the array.
Are you sure you have an NV+ v2? The v2 runs 5.3.x firmware, the older v1 runs 4.1.x.
A lot of v1 owners think they have a v2 (due to an unfortunate combination of branding and labeling decisions made by Netgear some years ago).
This matters, because the v1 can't take disks bigger than 2 TB.
Assuming a v2:
Adding a 2 TB drive to the ultra is possible, but requires a factory reset - which destroys the data currently on the device. Shifting a 2 TB drive from the NV+ makes your backup vulnerable. So it would be a bit risky. If I did this I'd install the 3 TB on the NV+ v2 first, and wait for resync. Then add the 2 TB drive to the ultra, do the reset, and then restore the data from the NV+ v2.
I'd also look at skipping 3 TB drives in favor of 4 TB models.
With 4 TB drives you'd need two installed in the NV+ v2 in order to match the space on the upgraded ultra (8 TB). One of the replaced drives you are re-using, so you only waste one working 2 TB drive (and you can keep that as a spare).
If you go with 3 TB drives you'd need three of them to get the same 8 TB volume size. That's almost certainly more expensive (for instance using current US prices - three WD30EFRX cost around $330, and two WD40EFRX cost around $290). It also requires more resyncs.
