Buffalo Forums

I have an LS-QVL NAS with four 1 TB drives and setup for Raid5. I would like to replace the drives with 2 TB drives to increase the capacity.

I have backups so don't care about losing what is on the existing drives.

Can I simply replace the four 1 TB with 2 TB drives and then create the RAID5 array? Or are there additional intermediate steps?

Thanks

Option 1:

Replace disk1 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Once done,
Replace disk2 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Once done,
Replace disk3 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Once done,
Replace disk4 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Then delete and recreate the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Only once you delete/recreate the RAID will you see the high capacity.

Total time -> 90 to 120 hours.

Option 2:

Or get the recovery file for the LS-QVL -> Replace all the disks at once and load the recovery file to install the OS onto the new disks.
Total time for this -> 30 mins  -> 1 hour.

If it is the LS-QVL/E you can also install the firmware via Buffalo's "Quick Start" method. That method is described in the "Quick Setup Guide for LS-QVL/E" here:
http://buffalo.jp/support_ap/support/products/ls_qvl.html


**Again this only applies to the LS-QVL/E, if this is a LS-QV4.0TL it won't work.

Otherwise you can do a fresh firmware install using the recovery files like davo suggested. That procedure is described in this post:

https://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=25358.msg90493#msg90493

I have posted a description on how to recover a LS-QVL/E unit here:

http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=25014.msg92441#msg92441

Quote from: davo on October 22, 2018, 06:01:59 AM
Option 1:

Replace disk1 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Once done,
Replace disk2 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Once done,
Replace disk3 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Once done,
Replace disk4 with a high capacity disk -> Rebuild the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Then delete and recreate the RAID -> Wait 18-24 hours for the rebuild to complete.
Only once you delete/recreate the RAID will you see the high capacity.

Total time -> 90 to 120 hours.

Option 2:

Or get the recovery file for the LS-QVL -> Replace all the disks at once and load the recovery file to install the OS onto the new disks.
Total time for this -> 30 mins  -> 1 hour.

hi, I am using Buffalo LS-QVL also and planning to expand the Hard disk capacity. After rebuilding for all 4 hard disk is done, if I delete and recreate the RAID, all the data will be lost? And During recreating of the RAID, can I still access the data?

The data will be lost, you can't increase the capacity of the unit without erasing the data so back it up first.