ReadyNas NV+ Expansion for Dummies

tlceventsgroup wrote:
...I am using my ReadyNAS for storage of business files and drives #1 & 2 are mirrored. I am NOT using this as a RAID array...

"Drives are mirrored" and "not RAID" are contradictory. Mirrored is RAID-1.

If you log into Frontview, and look at the home page, there will be a "Volume C:" line. What does it say?

Also, is there a Volume D?

I see Volumes 1 & 2 - they say "Allocated"
Volumes 3 & 4 are not allocated but they are now showing at least. How do I activate them?

I think you are telling me the drive usage, not the volume info I asked for.

under Volumes in RAIDar, I only see "RAID settings":

RAID Disks:
Ch 1 : Seagate ST3500630NS [465 GB] 461 GB allocated
Ch 2 : Seagate ST3500630NS [465 GB] 461 GB allocated
Available Disks:
Ch 3 : WDC WD10EFRX-68JCSN0 [931 GB] 928 GB free
Ch 4 : WDC WD10EFRX-68JCSN0 [931 GB] 928 GB free

How can I "allocate" Ch 3 and 4 so that I can see them on my network and save files to them???
I am so confused...sorry for being a bit "blonde" on this, but my forte is meeting planning, not computer stuff. :-)

Go to the home page of Raidiator (not raidar) - https://NASNAME/admin

On the home page, there will be a "Volume C:" line. What does it say?

You are in Advanced Control mode. In Advanced Control mode, you have access to additional options not available in the Setup Wizard mode. Some of these options can be destructive so care should be taken in this mode. If you are performing the setup for the first time, it is highly recommended that you first follow the Setup Wizard to completion.
Hostname: TLC-NAS
Model: ReadyNAS NV+ [X-RAID]
Serial: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.1.10 [1.00a043]
Memory: 256 MB [2.5-3-3-7]
IPv4 address:: 192.168.1.193
Volume C: Online, X-RAID, 2 disks, 68% of 451 GB used

I am resyncing the volume but it says 3 hours....will this solve my problems (the computer ones at least) or is there something else I need to do?

Thanks. You are running XRAID, so drive 1 and drive 2 are in a RAID-1 array.

-To get the configuration you want (Drive 1/Drive 2 as one mirrored 500GB pair, Drive 3/Drive 4 as a second mirrored 1000 GB pair) you will need to start over with a factory reset, and switch to flexraid. You'd lose all your data and configuration - so you'd need to do full backup first, and then restore from the backup after the reset.

-The path you are on will expand your system to use RAID-5 with 4x500GB volume. This would have 1.5 TB of space (the same amount of as the configuration you want). There would be 500 GB of unused space on each of the new drives. If later on you replaced drive1 and 2 (one at a time) with 1 TB models, your system would expand to RAID-5 4x1000 GB( 3 TB space total). This is not mirrored, but you would have protection against any single drive failure.

I am not sure why your system hasn't already added the two new drives to your existing array. Wait for the resync to complete, and then report back on your array status.

I suggest you think through whether RAID-5 is acceptable, or if you really want the two mirrored pairs, and also post that info. Then we can outline how to get there.

Hmm...Okay, I think I am willing to take your suggestion and set it up as RAID-5. I finished resyncing the volumes last night but they still show as before. I am going to try shutting it down and then restarting the NAS to see if it "finds" them .

tlceventsgroup wrote:
Hmm...Okay, I think I am willing to take your suggestion and set it up as RAID-5. I finished resyncing the volumes last night but they still show as before. I am going to try shutting it down and then restarting the NAS to see if it "finds" them .

Ok. You only have one volume btw. Disks are not the same as volumes.

If this doesn't help, then I suggest removing both of the new disks, and then hook them up to a PC and delete the partitions. Then insert one drive, and wait until resync is complete, and see where you are. Do all this with the NAS running (including removing/reinserting the drives).

To delete partitions on a Windows PC, you right-click on "computer" and select "manage". A management app will launch that includes a disk manager that shows each disk. Right-click on every partition (picking the right disk!) and choose delete. This process works even If Windows can't mount the drive (in this case, it can't mount it, since it doesn't support ext file systems).