Linkstation 421e RAID1 to "Normal"

[neuikc]

Question regarding a device for a friend.

He's currently got the 421e in a RAID-1 configuration (mirrored) but would like to expand his storage capacity by breaking these drives out of that state. I know we can't move to RAID-0 or JBOD without rebuilding the drives and losing the data on them, requiring backing up the current data and reformatting the drives and building RAID-0 or JBOD. This is as I understand it.

Is there a way to "split" the drives though so drive 1 retains the current data of the RAID-1, and we can format drive 2 and make it an additional destination for backup, independent of the data on drive 1? All this without losing data retained on drive 1 and in the current RAID-1 config?

I don't have the device on hand, so I haven't been able to fuss with it too much. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[davo]

It is not possible to upgrade the capacity without data loss.

[neuikc]

Maybe I need to clarify. I'm not trying to upgrade the capacity, other than attempting to change the current RAID-1 configuration to a "simple/normal" configuration where each drive acts as independent volumes on the device, while retaining the data of one drive from the RAID-1 configuration, and formatting the second drive to be a clean newly available volume/share.

This seems possible since I'm not changing RAID proper configuration and only using the Buffalo device as a two drive enclosure at this point.

[neuikc]

Any input on my clarified needs/desires?

[davo]

In order to do this you will still need to delete the existing array, which in itself will erase the data.