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Re: RAID5 - one old drive and 3 new drive of the same type: howto?

Eekimmerman
Aspirant

RAID5 - one old drive and 3 new drive of the same type: howto?

I have a ReadyNas 104 which currently runs on one hard drive, WD Red 4 TB. Because this drive is almost full, I purchased three same hard drives for running it in RAID 5 My first thought was to first put in the three drives in RAID 5 and then copy the data from the old drive to the RAID 5 drives. Later, I format the old drive and add to the RAID 5 drives.
On the internet I read that it is more convenient to directly convert all the disks in raid5. Unfortunately I have no external harddrive for 4 tb. Is the way i described above, the best way to do this? Or is it better to buy an external hd and then copy the data to it and format the old drive and then put all 4 drives in raid5? I would appreaciate hearing your thoughts on this.

Message 1 of 5
Eekimmerman
Aspirant

Re: RAID5 - one old drive and 3 new drive of the same type: howto?

Already posted a question (https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS/RN104-Expansion/m-p/943102#M76112) but dont have proper answer...

Message 2 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: RAID5 - one old drive and 3 new drive of the same type: howto?

Definitely make a backup first. 

 

One option is to hot-insert the 3 new drives (one at a time).  The NAS will resync the array after each.  The new drive will add redundancy, not space. The second will increase your storage to 8 TB, and the third to 12 TB.  Do make sure the array is in x-raid before you start.  Each resync will take a while - data is accessible during the resync, but performance will be extremely poor.

 

 

The second option is to

(a) note and uninstall any apps

(b) save the NAS configuration

(c) insert the three new drives (all at once)

(d) Do a factory reset (either from the boot menu or the web ui)

 

After the reset and resync complete

(e) restore the configuration

(f) reload the data from backup

(g) reinstall any apps.

 

Though a more complicated, the second procedure is likely a bit faster in your case.

 

With XRAID, both options result in a RAID-5 volume of ~12 TB.

Message 3 of 5
Eekimmerman
Aspirant

Re: RAID5 - one old drive and 3 new drive of the same type: howto?

Dear StephanB, thank you for your quick clear reply. If it is always necessary to make an backup, then I could also format the old drive (after transferring data) and put all four drives in the ReadyNAS (and use your mentioned second opties/method)? Besides it all, is it then also necessary to run it in Netgears X-RAID?

Message 4 of 5
StephenB
Guru

Re: RAID5 - one old drive and 3 new drive of the same type: howto?


@Eekimmerman wrote:

If it is always necessary to make an backup,


My first option doesn't strictly require a backup, but I strongly recommend it.

 

My second option reformats the disks, so it is absolutely needed there.

 


@Eekimmerman wrote:

then I could also format the old drive (after transferring data) and put all four drives in the ReadyNAS (and use your mentioned second opties/method)?


You don't need need to format the drive.  It's enough to insert the new drives, and then run the factory reset procedure - that will wipe drive 1 for you.  Reformatting the old drive often gets in the way (there are some checks in the firmware to prevent people from accidently losing data by inserting a used disl).

 


@Eekimmerman wrote:

Besides it all, is it then also necessary to run it in Netgears X-RAID?


No, you can switch to flexraid if you want to.   But there's no benefit to using flexraid if you want one volume with RAID-5.  With 4x4TB, X-RAID still gives you an ordinary RAID-5 volume. BUT X-RAID gives you more expansion options later on (for instance, if you upgraded two disks later on to 6 TB, you'd grow from 12 TB to 14 TB of storage).  

 

Also, you can switch to flexraid later on (w/o losing data) if you like.

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