I have a ReadyNas RN214. On purchase I had installed a 2 TB HDD, and had the setup complete. Now I have two 1TB HDD lying around. I tried inserting and using it, unfortunately it's not letting me use the addition space. It is not allowing to FORMAT, saying that new space should be greater or equal to old space. So I tried removing my old 2TB, and inserting only the new two 1TB drives, the device is now kinda reset, and my login to the Readynas is also not available, the device is displaying the default name and is displaying "Resync data:". Can someone give a step by step procedure to install these and use it for my storage purpose. Or a youtube link/ document which suggests how to do this.
I had installed a 2 TB HDD, and had the setup complete. Now I have two 1TB HDD lying around. I tried inserting and using it, unfortunately it's not letting me use the addition space. It is not allowing to FORMAT, saying that new space should be greater or equal to old space.
That is correct. With XRAID new disks need to at least as large as the biggest disk already in the volume.
One thing to keep in mind is that the capacity rule for XRAID single redundancy is "sum the disks and subtract the largest".
2x1TB+2TB XRAID gives you 2 TB of storage - the same as you had with the single 2 TB HDD. It would be redundant, but wouldn't be any larger. If you additionally added another 2 TB drive, you'd end up with 2x2TB+2x1TB, and would have 4 TB of space.
So I tried removing my old 2TB, and inserting only the new two 1TB drives, the device is now kinda reset, and my login to the Readynas is also not available, the device is displaying the default name and is displaying "Resync data:".
Everthing is on the disk(s) and the system boots from the disks. What happened here is that the system performed a factory install, and is creating a 2x1TB RAID-1 array on the disks. The admin password for this is password (since it is a factory install).
After the factory install completes, you can power down the NAS and remove the two 1 TB disks (label them by slot as you remove them).
Put back the 2 TB drive by itself, and power up the NAS.
Backup all the files, and make a note of the share names (and any other configuration you've done).
Power down again, and remove the 2 TB drive. Put the 1 TB drives back, and power up.
Hot-insert the 2 TB drive, and format it. It should then be added to the array.
Re-create your configuration, and restore the files from backup.
A fair amount of work, and as noted above, you'd still have a 2 TB volume. But the volume could be expanded later.
Another option is:
Power down the NAS and remove the 1 TB drives
Reinsert the 2 TB and power up the NAS
Re-insert the two 1 TB drives with the NAS running
Switch to FlexRaid (clicking on the XRAID control on the volumes page).
Create one (or perhaps) two volumes with the two 1 TB drives (see the manual for details).
You'd end up with 3 TB total storage if you create a RAID-1 volume with the two 1 TB drives. You'd have 4 TB of space if you create two JBOD volumes (one on each 1 TB drive). You'd create new shares on these volume(s).
Note you could create a single RAID-0 volume using the two 1 TB drives, but I don't recommend that. RAID-0 is quite fragile - if any disk fails, then you lose all the data. JBOD is safer, as you would only lose the data on the failed disk when it fails.
A third option is to give up using the 1 TB drives
Power down the NAS and remove the two 1 TB drives
Reinsert the 2 TB drive and power up the NAS
Purchase two or more 2 TB (or larger) drives, and add them to the NAS
Get either Seagate Ironwolf or WD Red Plus drives (NOT WD Reds).
