Transplanting drives from RN516 to legacy Pro BE

[garyd9]

I know it's unsupported...  I already have backups...

I have a RN516 running 6.5.1.  I also have an old RNDPiForgotTheModelNumber-100 (The old ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition) running 6.5.1.  

I'm going to be replacing all the HDD's in the 516 and doing a factory reset on it.  While I'm doing that (and re-building all the shares, etc), I'd like to keep the existing shares active.  If I pull the drives from the 516 and put them in the older ProBE, will it boot up and work? 

My gut feeling is that it should work - both are using the exact same firmware (6.5.1), and the same platform (x86_64.)...

Thanks

Gary

[garyd9 · Accepted solution]

It works.  No need to reinstall anything.  I did have a bit of network trouble, but that was my own fault for not dropping the ADS connection and NIC teaming modes before switching.  

That does lead to one comment for netgear, in regards to the RN516:  THANK YOU.  Opening up this old ProBE reminded me how much hotter and noisier it is, and how much of a royal PITA those tiny f'ing screws are.

(The heat I'm referring to is HDD heat.  I can't fairly compare CPU heat as I switched CPU's in the ProBE...)

[StephenB]

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@garyd9 wrote:

 My gut feeling is that it should work - both are using the exact same firmware (6.5.1), and the same platform (x86_64.)...

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My gut feeling says it should work also (though perhaps an OS reinstall might be needed).

If you go for it, let us know the outcome.

[BrianL2]

Hi garyd9,

As long as the Firmware, architecture (processor) are the same, this should work fine. Since the data has been backed up, do this at your own risk.

Kind regards,

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

[omicron_persei8]

It should work. Both are x86.
In my opinion though, an OS Reinstall is exactly the thing to avoid. I never tried it, but from my understanding OS Reinstall extracts some files from the flash to the OS volume. Both OS being completely different, you might completely kill the OS.

But HDDs from OS4 x86 into an OS6 x86 chassis works fine, so other way should be ok too 😉

[garyd9]

they're both x86 running 6.5.1.  OS reinstall should effectively do nothing.  I'll be trying this tonight or tomorrow morning...

[Retired_Member]

if you have installed 6.5.1 on your Pro, then OS Reinstall should not be a problem. But is probably not even necessary

[BrianL2]

Hi garyd9,

Just update this thread once done 🙂

Kind regards,

BrianL

NETGEAR Community Team

[garyd9 · Accepted solution]

It works.  No need to reinstall anything.  I did have a bit of network trouble, but that was my own fault for not dropping the ADS connection and NIC teaming modes before switching.  

That does lead to one comment for netgear, in regards to the RN516:  THANK YOU.  Opening up this old ProBE reminded me how much hotter and noisier it is, and how much of a royal PITA those tiny f'ing screws are.

(The heat I'm referring to is HDD heat.  I can't fairly compare CPU heat as I switched CPU's in the ProBE...)

[StephenB]

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@omicron_persei8 wrote:


In my opinion though, an OS Reinstall is exactly the thing to avoid. I never tried it, but from my understanding OS Reinstall extracts some files from the flash to the OS volume. Both OS being completely different, you might completely kill the OS.

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When you convert a legacy x86 NAS to OS6, part of the process installs OS 6 on the flash.  So the OS aren't diffferent.

But I wasn't completely certain if the firmware install/reinstall includes any device-specific drivers - that was why I suggested that an OS reinstall might be needed.  It's useful to confirm it was not.