Author Topic: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives  (Read 6637 times)

gquiring

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 13
Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« on: March 12, 2009, 11:07:41 AM »
   

I just received my Linkstation QUAD LS-QL/R5 with firmware v1.05.  After some searching on this forum I guess it's not an easy task to upgrade the 250's to 1TB's. If I had known the OS is on the drives I would not have bought this....

 

What's the best way to go about replacing all of the drives with 1TB's?  I currently have no data to loose if that helps.  


JoshC

  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1110
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2009, 03:05:20 PM »
Well first of all we wont support it if you upgrade the drive size.  But if you do, do it then you have to take one drive out at a time and rebuild the array then move on to the next drive then rebuild the array so on so forth.

gquiring

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 13
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2009, 03:36:39 PM »
   Kinda saw that coming after googling around.  That's really disappointing.  So after the last rebuild it's smart enough to know the array is all 1TB drives or will I have to also reformat/redo the RAID 5 to gain the disk space?

JoshC

  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1110
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2009, 03:50:33 PM »
Just rebuild the raid to what you want if you dont mind the data loss.  Its all up to the user what raid you want and your starting out with new drives.

gquiring

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 13
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2009, 07:15:41 AM »
   

Each drive rebuild was about 4 hours.  I just started the RAID config and it's going to take 24 hours to complete.  This is beyond belief that is has to reverify each disk when changing the RAID config.  All tolled 40 hours to swap out the drives.  It reminds me of the old days (1990) when preparing a Novell 2.x system.

 

An option should be added to assume the disks are good and you just want to reconfig the array.  Also a better way should be developed to get the OS image on new drives more quickly.  


Dustrega

  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1394
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2009, 05:55:29 PM »

gquiring,

 

   Sorry for the inconvenience in this scenario but if you want to keep the BOOT image on the drives this is one of the ways we recommend. The "OS" image isn't really the problem it's the BOOT image that tells the NAS what to do on startup (i.e. check all connections and see if a HDD is there and of course load the operating kernel). The way this is retained is by rebuilding the RAID so that the firmware stays and of course if you take out more than one HDD then the RAID (at least in a RAID 5 setting) fails.


gquiring

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 13
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2009, 07:09:08 PM »
   

Dustrega wrote:

gquiring,

 

   Sorry for the inconvenience in this scenario but if you want to keep the BOOT image on the drives this is one of the ways we recommend. The "OS" image isn't really the problem it's the BOOT image that tells the NAS what to do on startup (i.e. check all connections and see if a HDD is there and of course load the operating kernel). The way this is retained is by rebuilding the RAID so that the firmware stays and of course if you take out more than one HDD then the RAID (at least in a RAID 5 setting) fails.


What would happen if someone lost two drives?  I know it's rare but it can happen.  I know the data would be lost but how would get your NAS back up and running?


Dustrega

  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1394
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2009, 07:23:05 PM »

gquiring,

 

   Usually, replacing the hard drives and booting to EM and attempting a firmware update. However, there are many scenarios in which a single HDD can be lost and other methods would need to be attempted.


tlh523

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2009, 09:56:02 AM »
   gguiring,  I am looking to upgrade my 1TB Quad to a 4TB Quad.  How did this work for you?  What model disk did you use for your upgrade?

gquiring

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 13
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #9 on: May 01, 2009, 11:04:19 AM »
   The only way is to swap each drive and let it do a rebuild.  That will take 16 hours.  When you are all done it will still only show 1TB.  You then drop the RAID and create a new RAID.  That will take about 24 hours.  All tolled 40 hours to upgrade the QUAD to a 4TB disks.  I used a mixture of Seagate, WD and Samsungs.

tlh523

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: Linkstation QUAD upgrade hard drives
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2009, 02:17:48 PM »
   

So it sounds like when I create a new RAID I will need to backup all my existing data before creating a new RAID...