Replacing a single disk

[Grill-n-Chill]

I need to replace a failing hard drive in a ReadyNAS 102 (6.7.3).  It's only got the single drive in it and is a redundant backup so it's not the end of the world if the data is lost but it would nice to make this as simple of a swap as possible.  The drive is still functioning, it just fails the scheduled checks.  Is there a procedure I can try to insert a new drive and have it copy over, then remove the old drive?  Thank you.

[jak0lantash]

Assuming that X-RAID is enabled, if you insert the new drive, your volume will be converted from a single disk JBOD to a two disks RAID1 volume. When you'll remove the failing disk, your RAID1 volume will be left "degraded". It will continue working but it's not a clean solution.

Cloning your existing disk to the new one would allow to retain your system, settings and data.

You can try cloning with the tool of your choice, but ddrescue is easy to use (on Linux) and allow to simply check the output log with a viewer.

1. Gracefull shut down the NAS.
2. Remove the failing HDD.
3. Clone the failing HDD onto a new HDD.
4. Insert the cloned HDD.
5. Boot the NAS.

[jak0lantash]

Or you can:

1. Turn off X-RAID.
2. Insert the new HDD.
3. Create a new volume and your new shares (the names will have to be different).
4. Transfer your data. I recommend to use an rsync backup job.
5. Remove the failing HDD.
6. Turn on X-RAID.

If you want to keep the same names for the shares, you can try to create temporary shares with a different name, transfer the data to it and after you remove the failing HDD, maybe you'll be able to re-use the original name, but no guarantee.

[Grill-n-Chill]

Beautiful, that's exactly what I was looking for.  I'll try it when the new drive arrives in a few days.  Thanks.