I have the ReadyNAS Duo [X-RAID], RAIDiator 4.1.15 [1.00a043] on WIN 10.
I only use it to download with transmission so i have a 1GB drive on slot 1 and have no need for a second drive.
I wanted to have a 2 GB drive instead and since i had a 2GB WD GREEN lying around i decided to use it.
I have this NAS since forever but had it sitting for at least 5-6 years so I started looking around and I'm pretty sure i came across some instructions saying that i could install the 2gb disk in slot 2, let it sync and then remove disk 1, reboot the nas and it will use the full 2gb capacity of the drive as it would be the only one installed.
Well it didn't work. It just flashes the slot 1 led, the raidiator shows the first disc missing and capacity is still 921GB even though on "volume settings" it recognises that the WD has a capacity of 1862GB.
I'm not sure if I did something wrong. I tried rebooting it and having it perfom "volume check" and "check and fix quotas" but still nothing. So I decided to put the first disc back inside and ask for your help.
Do I remove the first disk while the NAS is still on and then reboot it or do i turn it off and remove the disk and then restart it???
Or what i've read is wrong altogether and I'm wasting my time???
You obviously had your NAS is XRAID mode. If it were in FlexRAID mode, you could have formatted the 2TB drive as a separate volume and then removed the first. In XRAID mode, the system assumed you wanted the 2TB to be added as redundancy for the first drive, and it can only use 1TB of that drive for that purpose. When you removed the first drive, you removed the redundancy, which causes the NAS to complain that the volume is degraded (missing its redundancy). And since it's still expecting you to replace that drive, it won't expand the volume.
Unfortuantely, you also can't go back to what you had. The initial drive is now also part of a two-drive redundant volume.
On a 4.x OS system, you can't move between XRAID and FlexRAID like you can on an OS 6.x system. You would have had to do a factory default, which it would have done automatically if you had just removed the original drive and replaced it with the new one. And that's still the only way you can get to where you want. Another option would be to add another 2TB drive, whihc will sync and then grow the volume to 1TB with redundancy.
BTW, a WD green is a poor choice of drives for any RAID system due to their "intellipark" power saving system. Using WDIDLE, you may be able to make it work better.
1. On X-RAID if I install a second drive there's no turning back, it is used as redundancy drive with the lowest size and they have to be both in. If I take one out it will show error... so the only chance of increasing size is by changing both.
2. If i take them both out and install a new one (or the 2GB in the first slot where the 1GB was) will it reset to default and recognise it as a single drive again with it's full capacity?
3. My best choice would be to backup my stuff and change my NAS to flex-raid which would recognise the drives separately so i could have 1GB + 2GB or even 2GB+2GB in the future. Right???
It seems I'll start searching how to change to Flex-Raid....
1. On X-RAID if I install a second drive there's no turning back, it is used as redundancy drive with the lowest size and they have to be both in. If I take one out it will show error... so the only chance of increasing size is by changing both.
Well, upgrading the original drive to 2 TB, which I think is what you meant. Ideally upgrading it with a WD red or Seagate Ironwolf.
2. If i take them both out and install a new one (or the 2GB in the first slot where the 1GB was) will it reset to default and recognise it as a single drive again with it's full capacity?
If you remove the two drives, and install a blank 2 TB drive instead, then the system will do a factory install. If would be recognized as a single disk with full capacity. There will be no data, and everything will set to factory default settings.
There's about a 5 minute window after you turn on the system to switch it to flexraid (you do that with RAIDar 4.3.8). After that time expires, the NAS sets it up for XRAID.
Your second scenario (power down, remove disk 1, and move disk 2 to slot 1) is very different. That should boot up with a degraded 1 TB volume, and your data is preserved. It won't get you anywhere useful, unless you use the boot menu to do a factory default.
3. My best choice would be to backup my stuff and change my NAS to flex-raid which would recognise the drives separately so i could have 1TB + 2TB or even 2TB+2TB in the future. Right???
That gets you the most storage, but of course no RAID redundancy. You do want to have two volumes (C and D). If you go this route, I recommend doing the factory reset and switch to flexraid with only the 2 TB drive in place, and then add the second volume later. That tends to minimize the risk of getting the wrong RAID mode accidentally.
FWIW, my own duo is set up that way (C and D volumes of 2 TB each).
Powered it down, removed disks, installed a 2GB drive on slot 1, powered it up again holding reset until disk leds blinked for second time, run raidar, run setup, chose Flex Raid (auto).
System is now up shows RAID 0, hope that's correct...???
Updated it to 4.1.16, installed transmission 2.84 but something's wrong...
I cann't seem to have access to the root of the drive c:
I found out when trying to locate /c/addons-config/ to set up transmission... i can only access two shares: media and backup...
When I access the \nas-ip\admin page I use the admin credential, when I access the drive using windows file explorer and network where it shows the nas it doesn't ask me for username and password, it just opens and shows media and backup.
I'm pretty sure that on the admin page on the shares tab besides media and backup i also had c as a share and it showed up everywhere without any problem.
I don't remember how i had done it but i'm sure it was in the shares too...
I've changed the password while in the wizard setup after the reset...
when I access the drive using windows file explorer and network where it shows the nas it doesn't ask me for username and password
There are a couple of ways to fix this. One is to set up a windows credential in the windows credential manager for either the IP address or the hostname, that specifiies the admin credential. If you (for instance) use just the IP address, then any SMB access using the IP address will automatically use the admin credentials,but SMB access using the hostname will not.
If you only want temporary access to the C volume you can open CMD and enter
net use * /delete
net use t: \\nas-ip-address\c ./user:admin nas-admin-password
Be careful on spaces and slash direction, and of course use the real values for the stuff in italics. That should mount the C volume as drive letter t.
I rebooted the NAS and had it do all the checks and now it shows addons-config as shared and when I try to access it it asks for user/pass and I use admin and then it also shows c and everything... so that seems solved too!!!
Thanks guys for the help!!!
So I suppose now if everything is set correctly when I add another drive it will add a 😧 drive or do I have to do anything???
I know you suggested going to a WD red but since I only had a green I went with it. If I add a second drive and transfer everything to it could I simply remove the first (WD GREEN) and replace that too or will it destroy everything?
