Need help upgrading my HDDs

[Stubbs]

I am currently running a 10TB array: x1 3TB parity, x2 3TB storage and x2 2TB storage - 10TB storage total.

I decided I wanted to upgrade and my new x4 10TB Seagate Ironwolfs arrived in the mail today. How should I get the data off my current array and onto the new drives?

I cannot add the 10TB drives to the array because I have 0 SATA slots left on the motherboard.
I cannot use my HBA Card because the only PCIe x16 slot on the motherboard is being used by my NIC which I pass through to my pfSense VM. Disconnecting it for a long period of time is not an option cause its literally my router and I refuse to use anything else.

 

I'll hopefully be getting a new motherboard with one or two more PCIe x16 slots soon. In the meantime, is there anything I can do to transfer the data safely?

[JonathanM]

Assuming all the drives involved are perfectly healthy, just replace one at a time starting with parity and Unraid will rebuild your data to the new drives.

[Stubbs]

11 hours ago, JonathanM said:

Assuming all the drives involved are perfectly healthy, just replace one at a time starting with parity and Unraid will rebuild your data to the new drives.

Wouldn't this be very taxing on the parity drive compared to just moving the data directly from each old drive? Or using external storage? Is rebuilding from parity more reliable in some way compared to manually allocating data from an external source?

I also kind of want to re-arrange where my data is stored across the array for better efficiency. With the old array I just used high water allocation for everything.

 

Also slightly unrelated question, but if I preclear a drive over a USB-C connection, then swap it to a SATA connection, can it still be loaded straight into an array without waiting?

[DarthKegRaider]

Don't rush it Stubbs, more chance of inadvertently wiping your precious data.

 

Personally I'd just follow the methods described on the wiki, and many other forum posts. like this one for example.

 

 

SpaceInvader One has a video which may also help.  

 

Good luck, stay safe!