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Replacing drives in Dlink DNS-323 NAS

  • 18-11-2010 4:32pm
    #1
    Calibos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,816 ✭✭✭


    I didn't post this in Servers because that forum seems to be all about enterprise class questions.

    This is probably a silly question but here goes.

    I have 2x DNS323 NAS devices on my network. 1 has 2x 750gig drives and 1 has 1x 1TB and a 300gig drive. Both setup as JBOD.

    I am running out of space and neither do I have any content mirrored. Ultimately I want to build an unraid server. However I can't afford to spend that kind of money yet.

    I was wondering as a stopgap can I do the following:

    Purchase 4x 2TB drives. I can afford that 3 or 4 hundred euro cost now and I get to re-use them in the unraid server in the future.

    Just whip out both drives on one of the NAS. Replace them with 2 of the 2TB drives. Copy the 1.5tb of content from the other DNS323 Nas across. Then whip out the 1.5TB of drives out of that NAS, pop in the old drives from the first NAS and copy across their 1.3tb of content.

    So now the first NAS with the 4TB of new drives has all my content on it with a TB to spare.

    Now I pop the other 2 new 2TB drives into the second NAS. I mirror my 2.8 TB of content across to the second NAS.

    Now I have all my content backed up and about 1TB free space on each. This free space will last me a year and I know my content is safe for a year by which time I will have the Unraid server bought and up and running.

    I also have all the old HDD's from the NAS that can go into the unraid server eventually too.

    Basically what I want to know is how will the NAS react to my powering down, removing old drives and replacing with new or whipping out a pair of drives with x content and replacing with the drives from the other NAS with y content. Does the NAS care whats on any of the drives. Like does the NAS store an index of the drive contents in its own memory or firmware or something and then throw a wobbly when I boot it back up with new blank drives or with different sized drives with different content than it was expecting.


Comments

  • #2
    bhickey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,340 ✭✭✭bhickey


    According to the manual (available here)that all sounds reasonable. Do upgrade to the latest firmware first though if you're going to use 2TB drives.


  • #3
    Razzuh
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 184 ✭✭Razzuh


    I think that would work. If you want backup though, why not take advantage of your new equal capacity drives and set them up in RAID 1? That would only leave you with approx 1tb of space of course but it would be 1tb of backed-up space.


  • #4
    slave1
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 19,482 Mod ✭✭✭✭slave1


    In a similar situation myself, I'd sell all your existing gear and start fresh.
    I went for a 4 bay DAS from Ebuyer at £147, then 4 2TB also from Ebuyer to spread my P+P costs. For convenience I went with this model as it includes a PCI E1, SATA port multipler, essentially allowing one SATA cable to provide 4 separate drives. You could source the multipler separately and get a cheaper DAS here, here or here but I just couldn't be arsed.
    I did look at this 8 bay for future proofing but not convinced based on web reviews, shame.


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