Upgrading drive size from 3TB to larger on ReadyNAS 212

[DKgooner]

Hi. Completely non-technical noob here so pls be idiot-proof in responses 🙂

i have a ReadyNAS 212 with 2 x 3TB disks in - th second being a straight RAID copy of the first.

I need to upgrade the disk size to at least 4TB - but how do I do this? Would I simply instead the new 4TB drive into the second drive slot, let the RAID copy take place, then make the RAIDed drive the ‘master’? 

Thanks for for helping me out.

[JohnCM_S]

Hi DKgooner,

Welcome to the Community!

If you are planning to increase the volume capacity size, you will need to replace both disks with a larger-capacity disk. You will replace any of the two 3TB disk with the new 4TB then let it sync. When it is done syncing, you can now replace the other 3TB disk with another new 4TB then let it sync again. The volume size should expand to approximately 4TB after that.

Regards,

[DKgooner]

Thanks John - I’ll give it a go...
Brgds

[Sandshark]

This statement has me confused:  "the second being a straight RAID copy of the first".  If, by that, you mean you have an XRAID RAID1 volume and the "copies" are managed by RAID, then the instructions John gave are correct. 

If you really mean you have two JBOD or RAID0 volumes that are manual copies of each other, then the instructions are not correct.  That, frankly, is a bad configuration.  The NAS will use one drive for the home and app folders, and they are not easilly transferred to another drive when drives are swapped in this configuration.

[robmash]

You have just described my current situation - RN102 with two drives as independent volumes (no RAID) with manual copies between each.  The reason I did that was the drives I had available were different sizes - 3TB and 4TB.  Now the 3TB is full and I need to replace it.  The problem is exactly the one you describe- the Home folders are on the 3TB drive and moving them is going to be a challenge.  I have looked at the forums and found a thread (https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/Move-home-to-another-volume/td-p/15...) which talks about moving the references to the home folders in systemd, but after doing this the web gui was knocked offline. 😞

Is there any 'official' way to move home folders to another volume?

[StephenB]

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@robmash wrote:

Is there any 'official' way to move home folders to another volume?

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I suggest backing them up (for example to a USB drive).

Then delete the volume.  It's possible the NAS will migrate them to the remaining volume. (I've seen it migrate the apps folder, but since I personally don't use the home folders feature I'm not sure if it would migrate data for home or not).

If it doesn't then you'll need to restore the home folders.  

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@robmash wrote:

between each.  The reason I did that was the drives I had available were different sizes - 3TB and 4TB. 

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You could still have gone with XRAID - you'd have had a 3 TB volume, but it would have worked.