Hi.

 

So I have read several posts and guides for replacing drives, but was wondering now with all the changes in the last few releases if there was any other or easier/faster way to replace multiple drives now?
Atm I have a 14TB parity and an array with 11 disks, from 14TB down to 3TB. I'm going to replace two of the drives (8TB and a 4TB) so I bought a new 14TB drive to replace both the old drives. 

My first thought is to just swap the 4TB with the new 14TB, but as I have enough space, is there an easier way to do this now if I empty the drive and just swap it so I don't need to rebuild? Or would the normal "replace drive" method still be the way to go?

After this, is the "Remove drives then rebuild parity with new config" still the way to go as explained here? https://docs.unraid.net/legacy/FAQ/shrink-array/ 

 

Removing a drive slot completely will always entail copying the data off the drive to be removed, then either rebuilding parity without the drive, or forcing the drive to be removed to be filled with all zeroes so it doesn't effect parity when it's removed.

 

Rebuilding parity is safer, the steps to wipe a data drive with zeroes are inherently dangerous as accidentally specifying the wrong drive to zero will always result in irreversible data loss on whichever drive is zeroed.

 

Are all your drives perfectly healthy?