Reiserfs to XFS Conversion - Keep Old Disk

[rockbox948]

I am converting 2 drives from Reiserfs to XFS following these instructions; the drives being converted are one 4 TB and one 8 TB drive.  If I have two 10 TB drives available, is it possible to just remove the old drives from the array after Step 14 without formatting them?  I'm a bit paranoid and would like to keep the data on the drives just in case I find an issue later on.  With two empty 10 TB drives available, I don't need to reuse the old drives at this point.

 

Also, Step 15 is a little confusing to me.  Wouldn't the new drive have the correct XFS filesystem at that point?  Thanks.

[Frank1940]

I have make a screen capture of the part that is confusing IF you don't read it very carefully!

 

Notice that I connected the action required for each disk if the condition specified is found.  At the point Disk 10 should be formatted as XFS and Disk 11 should still be formatted as ReiserFS.  As I recall, at the time when these instructions were written there were earlier versions of Unraid where the disk format on the actual drive was not properly detected.  (There still may be folks running those versions, so the instruction has never been changed. ) Do the check and if it is correct, go on to the next step. 

 

PS----  I actually made up a table for each action step in this procedure with the proper disk number or disk serial number for each step.  As I finished each step, I checked it off.  I also made a printout of the instructions as I work best from printed copy rather than reading from a screen.  This procedure can take days to complete some steps and knowing where you are can prevent mental stupidity.

 

[rockbox948]

@Frank1940 Thanks for your reply.  That part is confusing but those arrows helped!

 

Any thoughts on my other question - Am I able to pull the old drive out of the array without losing the data on it since I do not need it anymore?  If so, are there specific steps to do so?

[Frank1940]

I believe you can do this with a different set of switches for rsync.  (However, I am not a Linux Guru so I will not attempt to provide advice about that.  I know just enough to be really dangerous...) 

 

If you actually remove the reiserFS disk from the array after copying its contents, you will have to rebuilt parity.  See here:

 

     https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Storage_Management#Removing_disks

[rockbox948]

Thanks!  I appreciate your help.