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As the title says I want to increase drive size in LS520D Raid 1 from 4TB to 8TB. Currently I have 2x 4TB drives in it. My intention is to buy 2x 8TB drives now this is where things get interesting. I plan to rebuild the array as Raid 1 again but with the 2 new 8TB drives in. I need to copy everything off the older 4TB drives but don't have a disk big enough right now. My question is, what's the best way of doing this? I plan to get an external drive enclosure and plug it directly into the back of the LS520D for maximum transfer rate. I presume this USB3 speed will be quicker than my 1Gbit network speed?

Option 1: Remove 1 4TB drive from NAS
Format it to a windows readable drive
Copy everything from NAS onto this via usb3 external enclosure
Insert 2x new 8TB drives and build new Raid 1 array.
Copy everything back via usb3 enclosure to new array.
Hopefully everything is good but I have twice the space.
Question: Does the NAS function with just 1 drive of the previous Raid 1 array so I can copy off it? I know it will technically be in a degraded state but will it function?

Options 2: Format one of the new 8TB drives and put that in the enclosure
Copy everything from the NAS onto that.
Take out both 4TB drives and insert 1x 8TB drive into the NAS and set it up.
Copy everything from the external drive onto the NAS.
Wipe the external drive and then insert that into the NAS
Allow the NAS to rebuild the array into Raid 1 again.
Question: Is this even a viable route? Will it work or will it struggle to build the Raid 1 array if it started out as just one disk in there?

If the external drive enclosure plugged right into the back of the NAS isn't a good idea I can always just stick the drive directly in my PC and copy over the network. It's not as fast but it will work that way I guess.

If I can help it, I really don't want to buy another 4TB external drive just for this copying of data. I'm going to end up with 2x redundant 4TB drives as it is so don't really want to spend even more.  Any opinions or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Really don't want to lose the 4TB of data I have so don't want to start just unplugging things.

You can't increase the capcaity without erasing whats on the existing array.

Did you read my post at all or just the title? I know I need to rebuild a new array. I'm asking what's the best way to get the data from my old array into the new 8TB array.

My main question was, will the NAS function if I pull a single 4TB out of it? I can then use this removed drive to copy everything onto, which I can then copy back into the newly build blank 8TB drive.

Quote from: ChimpsInTies on June 08, 2022, 03:57:36 AM
My main question was, will the NAS function if I pull a single 4TB out of it?

No, that won't work, the only option is to back it to to another external HDD of some sort.

Quote from: davo on June 08, 2022, 06:02:23 AM

Quote from: ChimpsInTies on June 08, 2022, 03:57:36 AM
My main question was, will the NAS function if I pull a single 4TB out of it?

No, that won't work, the only option is to back it to to another external HDD of some sort.

Are you sure? Everything I'm reading about RAID 1 says it should carry on working if one drive fails. I mean, isn't that the point of raid 1? By removing one drive that's just as if one failed, right?! All I will do is remove one drive, format it, stick it in an external enclosure then use that to copy everything from the (hopefully) still working NAS. Yes it will be complaining there is a drive down but again, isn't that the point. One drive can fail until you can replace it. Then I have an external copy of everything I can do whatever I want with. In my case, I will just re-copy it back onto my newly built 8TB raid 1 nas.