Author Topic: Does adding a new drive to an array delete data?  (Read 1206 times)

tedrox

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Does adding a new drive to an array delete data?
« on: December 03, 2020, 11:18:10 PM »
I'm to lazy to look but I believe I have a terastation ts400D.  Its a 4 drive station.

My current situation.  I built all 4 drives into a RAID 5 array and went good.  Fast forward to now, I have 2 good drives, 1 drive unformated and 1 drive failed.

My questions are;

1.  If I format the drive and add it to the array main array(thus I believe rebuild the array?) it seems like that would delete all data on the array?

2.  To be safe, I need to back up all my current data, format that drive, get a new drive and add them in and rebuild the array then copy it all back over, correct?

3.  Stupid question 1, all the drives need to be the same size?  If I buy an HP 500gb one and a seagate 500gb one, would there be issues?

4.  Stupid question 2, I have read of ways but is there actually a way to put in bigger drives than what is allowed?

I appreciate any and all help.  This is my first foray into using RAIDs and NAS's and such.

Thanks.

I'm pretty concerned about losing my data as this *is* my backup. 

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Re: Does adding a new drive to an array delete data?
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2020, 01:41:42 AM »
"I'm to lazy to look but I believe I have a terastation ts400D.  Its a 4 drive station."
ask nasnavigator
https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/buffalo-downloads/NASNavigator2.zip
i think you have https://www.buffalo-technology.com/de/productpage/terastation-1400/

1) "If I format the drive and add it to the array main array(thus I believe rebuild the array?) it seems like that would delete all data on the array?"
 The nas can repair a raid with one missing drive. With 2 demaged disks you have lost your data.

2)" I need to back up all my current data"
you should not able to read date from an not running raid
"format that drive, get a new drive and add them in and rebuild the array"
No, that takes a long time. Delete the old array and create a new one.

"3.  Stupid question 1, all the drives need to be the same size?  If I buy an HP 500gb one and a seagate 500gb one, would there be issues?"
The replacement have to be bigger. If you try 2 differnet 500GB drives, the new one have to be the same or bigger. One missing kb can be a problem.

"4. Stupid question 2, I have read of ways but is there actually a way to put in bigger drives than what is allowed?"

No, your kernel can only handle disks up to 16TB and the whole volume can not be biggen than 16TB. So the optimal soltion is 4x 5TB with Raid5.

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Re: Does adding a new drive to an array delete data?
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2020, 11:06:47 AM »
I believe TS4000 in Intel-based and should be able to handle volumes >16TB

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Re: Does adding a new drive to an array delete data?
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2020, 05:38:34 PM »

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Re: Does adding a new drive to an array delete data?
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2020, 05:42:25 PM »
Oh
You’re right.

16tb limit applies.