I haven't been able to track down an authoritative answer to this:
It would seem reasonable to me that I could
- Shut down my ReadyNAS NV. - Completely remove all my disks and store them (call this set 1). - Put in some new disks and initialize them as a new volume (call this set 2).
Then in the future, if I wanted the data from set 1 back, reverse the process:
- Shut down my ReadyNAS. - Remove the disks. - Put the set 1 disks back in.
the os and config are stored on the disks, as long as you keep them in a set and they are not damaged (by static or careless handling, etc), then you can move the disks as a set to the same nv+ or any other nv+.
However, you should know that while possible, this is not recommended on a regular basis. The connection for SATA drives is not designed to be cycled frequently, and actually can be quite fragile. I have lost two drives (not ones used in my ReadyNAS) because they got bumped and the plastic cover over the data connectors broke off. This left the brass contacts hanging out in mid air.
Some users think this can be used as a backup set, but of course you can't copy files from set 1 to set 2 with only one NAS, and if there is a problem with the NAS, you are still without a backup. If you are going to do this, you might see if you can purchase either a set of Seagate retail drives or Samsung. The Seagate retail drives (at least the last ones I bought) came in a plastic shell they call SeaPak and the two Samsung retail drives I purchased came in similar packing. This will help to protect the drives while stored.
