HS-DH1.0TGL/R5 - To upgrade drives or not

[jmcvickar]

   

Greetings.

 

First, just to address the hosts concerns, I understand that changing drives would void my warranty on the unit.

 

I currently have 2 Buffalo's running at home, both units running Raid 5 and offiste backups via external USB drives.

Original is HD-H1.0TGL/R5 - 4 years, only had 1 drive fail and system functioned as expected (hoped) when new replacement drive added.  Primarily used for file server.

Latest addition is HS-DH1.0TGL/R5 - installed November 2008 - Now maxxed out at 99% full.  Family photo/video only.

 

My challenge is I'd like to buy some time to determine a strategic approach, just throwing in a new NAS every year is going to be expensive and more difficult to maintain the server room/closet as additional power cords and UPS needs are added.  In the meantime, I'm really out of space and would like to get through a couple of months before I need to make a decision.

 

As I began my intial research into next options, it became clear some of the newer options on the market allow for drive upgrade, thus an expandable unit.  Would be very desirable at this time but understand that's not how the product was sold. I found several postings that seem to support that a drive upgrade can be done, but most are from earlier in the year, so I thought I would reach out and see if there were any folks who had upgraded since that would share their experience.  Any specific problems, gotcha's or oops that you ran into?  Drive brand and size?

 

Kochrk posted his intructions as follows and so far was the best I had to proceed with mine.  Feedback? 

 

Edited --> Additional question.  The approach below has you work the new drives in one at a time.  Is it not possible to just pull all 4 drives, put on shelf to preserve data (although I would still have an external backup to restore from) and drop in the 4 new drives?  I know I must be missing the obivious on that approach.  Does it require additional setup to get the drives configured?  Software installed?  Why would you not just replace all drives at once versus individually?

 

 

http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Changing-harddisk-on-Terrastation/m-p/1446">http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Changing-harddisk-on-Terrastation/m-p/1446

Re: Changing harddisk on Terrastation

11-11-2008 07:23 PM

I thought I would share what I have done to 4 TS-Live 2.0s, 1 TS-Live 1.0 and a TS-Pro II.

 

First upgrade to the latest firmware...

 

I used 4x Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB SATA and they are quiet and

fast. Some may argue to use the RE2 RAID Editions.

 

1. IMPORTANT: BACKUP ALL DATA from TS to external drives or another TS. Another

TS will be faster.

 

2. Delete all Data on TS (I deleted the shared folders)

 

3. Delete Raid Array

 

4. Turn off TS

 

5. Replace 2nd HD with new one (1TB)

 

6. Reboot TS

 

7. Format the new HD

 

8. Repeat Step 4 to 7 for the drives 3,4 and 1.

 

9. Restructure RAID array (RAID 0 will be pretty quick, RAID 5 or 10 will take

overnight. I never tried RAID 1)

 

10. Create new share folders and copy the data from the external drives (or 2nd

TS) back to your upgraded TS.

 

Posts I've already reviewed:

http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Suitable-1-5TB-drives-to-upgrade-Terastaton-Live/m-p/7511#U7511">http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Suitable-1-5TB-drives-to-upgrade-Terastaton-Live/m-p/7511#U7511

http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Terastation-Live-HS-DH1-0TGL-R5/m-p/10089#M1333">http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Terastation-Live-HS-DH1-0TGL-R5/m-p/10089#M1333

http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Storage/TeraStation-HD-HTGL-R5-Upgrade/m-p/3654">http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Storage/TeraStation-HD-HTGL-R5-Upgrade/m-p/3654

http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Changing-harddisk-on-Terrastation/m-p/1446">http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Changing-harddisk-on-Terrastation/m-p/1446

 

 Feedback appreciated!

 

Sincerely,

Jack

[jmcvickar]

   

I'm in a pickle, need help.

 

Started following instructions to upgrade to new drives, instructions below.

 

 

http://forums.buffalotech.com/t5/Solved-Storage-Threads/Changing-harddisk-on-Terrastation/m-p/1446" target="_self">Drive upgrade

 

Thought I was off to a good start, but somehow, the other NAS took the instructions and broke the array.  I'm now stuck.

 

NAS I wasn't updating is shutdown with ARRAY broken.

 

NAS I wanted to updated keeps booting into emergency mode but not sure what to do next.  Should I just swap out the drives and reinstall the NAS OS?

 

Help Please!

[jmcvickar]

   

Good news on the NAS I was updating, appears to have finally booted up and took the firmware. 

 

Curious if anyone knows how long it might take to span 4 x 1tb drives.  Has been running for approx 24 hours now, no errors and regular, occassional lights flashing on the front panel.  Was able to see via NASNavigator2 which showed the same, spanning.

 

Not sure what to do.  Seems like it's been spanning forever but no real way to tell what its doing.  Any recommendations?