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Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

reburns
Aspirant

Upgrading NAS disks

Hello,

I have a RN316 with four 4TB WD40EFRX disks and I might like to upgrade those with 6TB WD60EFRX disks now to be more future-proof. The RN316 currently has 9TB of low-grade data... i.e data that I can replace, but data that I don't personally back up... however replacing that data will mean taking the NAS to another user in another city, which is a hassle that I'd rather avoid. I'm looking for a way to migrate in new 6TB disks and remove the 4TB ones.

Also I have an older Pioneer with six 2TB drives and it has 2.6TB free. Between that and other internal computer HDD's I have 5TB of disk space available to help with a data shuffle. I also have esata/usb external HDD caddies and probably enough other spare HDD's around if the solution is to off-load all 9TB of the RN316's data (tho I can have troubles with big disks in those caddies). All my critical data is backed up on HDD's I store off-site, but the non-critical 9TB of data isn't backed up.

If the upgrade can work, then I was wondering about recycling the four freed-up 4TB drives into the Pioneer and upgrading it's capacity too. The 4TB WD40EFRX drives are NOT on the Pioneer's comparability list, as the only 4TB compatible option listed for that NAS is an expensive Hitachi 4TB.

Thanks in advance, Ralph
Message 1 of 16
vandermerwe
Master

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

You can just replace the disks one by one, allowing a resync between each.
Alternatively you can copy the data off, put in all four 6tb disks then factory default, then copy the data back.

I suspect the former option may be quicker if you need to first copy data off via USB.

The disks will be ok in the pioneer. If it's still under warranty you'll be denied support though.
Message 2 of 16
reburns
Aspirant

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

Thanks Vandermerwe!

So to get the RN316 one-by-one/resync replacement job done, do I need to get the same number (four) of the 6TB disks for the resync to work properly? Or can I get the job done with three disks and postpone buying more of those 6TB disks for later?

Also when I replace the disks in the Pioneer, again one-by-one/resync, will I end up removing a good matched set of six drives that can be re-installed all together again? I.e a backup set in case the swapping job goes poorly? And again, would I need six of the 4TB drives to complete the swap? And would I need to do any kind of format after removing the 4TBs from the RN316 before going into the Pioneer?
Message 3 of 16
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

You just need two 6TB disks installed for vertical expansion. For horizontal expansion you could add a disk to one of the empty drive bays.

Personally I would feel much more comfortable with dual-redundancy than the single-redundancy you are using. With dual-redundancy you would need four 6TB disks installed to get vertical expansion.

Have a look at http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23138/~/how-do-i-add-protection-to-a-flex-raid-volume-...

If you disable X-RAID, add a disk to an empty drive bay, choose the Add Parity option, wait for the resync to complete, then re-enable X-RAID, and replace/add further disks.
Message 4 of 16
reburns
Aspirant

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

Can I check in with you all on this again before I start? I'm currently backing up the 9TB of RN316 data.

- I bought four 6TD WD60EFRX drives to replace the four 4TD WD40EFRX drives currently in the RN316.
Q: do I want to hot-swap or power down? I'm assuming to remove one of the current 4TB drives, replace it with a 6TB and allow a resync until all are swapped.

- Three of the four 6TB HDDs came from AmazonWarehouse as "open box". I saved some, but not much. While one of those HDDs came sealed in the anti-static, the other two came with the anti-static bag opened.
Q: Is it bad to use those opened two HDDs? I can easily exchange them for new ones.
Q: What if a HDD that is being swapped in has been formatted elsewhere? Will that matter? After I'm done upgrading the RN316, I'll want to reuse the 4TBs in my older ReadyNAS Pioneer. Do I need to worry or reformat these after coming out of the RN316 before putting them into the Pioneer, or will they get automatically formatted?

Thanks much, Ralph
Message 5 of 16
vandermerwe
Master

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

Hot swap.
Yes for the replace, allow resync.

Get new drives. I'm pretty sure the warranty on those drives is not 3 years as it will be for new drives.
It's worth testing new drives with lifeguard before using them in the nas, if there are any problems you can return it straight away.
The nas should deal with any drive as a new drive if you hot insert it. You could first delete any existing partitions, you definitely don't need to format new drives, the nas will do it.

You're going to use the other nas as a backup after this?
Message 6 of 16
reburns
Aspirant

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

Thanks!
Warranty check says the opened 6TB is covered until August 2017. That would be close enough.
However, haha, I now see that the other opened drive is actually 3TB. Time to talk to Amazon! Guess I'll send back both opened drives.

I currently use one NAS for work and one for music, but having ample storage will allow me to make backups between the two. I have been taking backups to other spare HDDs offsite in case the house burns down. I use an external HDD dock to make these offsite backups, but have been having troubles using the dock with larger HDDs and my Windoze 7 laptop. When I removed the 2TB drives from the Pioneer, then those can be used for the offsite backups. I only get around to refreshing the offsite backups about once every six months. I do make daily backups of current files from my computer to the NAS. Yes I have many big files for my work, photos and music.

If I use lifeguard, then I suppose that'll mean using the external docks. Given that they've caused me trouble, confidence is not high doing this. I do have access to a couple of Windoze 8 machines.
Message 7 of 16
vandermerwe
Master

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

I use a simple USB to sata adapter for things like drive testing, erasing drives, cloning and this works with 4tb seagate drives. They are cheap.
Message 8 of 16
reburns
Aspirant

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

Message 9 of 16
vandermerwe
Master

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

No, it needs power. Essentially it's a dock without the case but it handles everything.
Message 10 of 16
vandermerwe
Master

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CPG ... 69T5R24D4T


Edit: or the USB 3.0 version in the next post.
Message 11 of 16
StephenB
Guru

Re: Upgrading RN316 from 4TB to 6TB disks

Or the USB 3 version: http://www.amazon.com/SABRENT-5-25-INCH ... dapter+3.5

I have an older SABRENT, it comes with a power brick (not shown in the picture in the link).
Message 12 of 16
reburns
Aspirant

Re: Upgrading NAS disks

Hello -

I successfully upgraded the RN316 from 4ea 4TB disks to 4ea 6TB disks and will add a 5th later this week. All ended well, however after disk 1 it took level 3 support to do a day's wrangling before the 2nd disk would rebuild.

I'm trying to recycle the 4TB disks into my Pro Pioneer 6. Those 4TB WD40EFRX are not on the Pioneer's compatability list, but based upon Vandermerwe's post #2 above, I'm giving it a go. The data is backed up elsewhere. I hot-swapped the first 4TB disk into the Pioneer; this disk came directly out of the RN316 without any re-formatting. I hot-swapped 18 hours ago, and don't think anything is happening (the data is still accessible). The logs read like:
- A disk was removed from the ReadyNAS...etc
- New disk detected.....etc
- Data Volume will be rebuilt with disk 1...

Is 18 hours long enough? Where would I see progress? Got suggestions for my next step? I won't get Netgear support on this one. Thanks in advance for your suggestions! - Ralph
Message 13 of 16
StephenB
Guru

Re: Upgrading NAS disks

You should see progress in Raidar and Frontview. Try hovering your mouse over the disk icons (for instance at the bottom of the frontview home page).

If you are replacing all the disks in the pro, you are better off removing all your existing disks and doing a factory install with the new disks in place. Otherwise you might hit the two expansion ceiling (8 TB growth limit in the volume, 16 TB total size). Also, it is faster. You would need to restore your data of course.
Message 14 of 16
reburns
Aspirant

Re: Upgrading NAS disks

Thanks StephanB -

Hovering over the Frontview Disk icon reports, "Channel 1 Dead". I'll recheck my backups and proceed with a full swap and then perform a factory default. Ya?
Message 15 of 16
StephenB
Guru

Re: Upgrading NAS disks

Sounds good.
Message 16 of 16
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