Hello all,

 

Dont really want to screw this up, so thought I'd ask for some help 

 

Currently running 4.2.1

 

I have an 8 disk array, well 7 + parity.

 

4 of the disks in the array are older WD 40gb hds I had lieing around and figured what the heck, I'd put them in.  They currently have NO data written to them.

 

I want to remove them completely from the array.  I will be adding two new drives back in afterwards (500gb + 400gb).

 

The manual states this:

 

How do I remove a hard disk that I don’t plan on replacing?

 

In this case you should reset the array configuration data so that the system can generate new parity information.

 

So.....

 

I stop the array.

Go to devices and remove 1 disk?  All the disks?

 

Either way, when I go back to the main screen, I've got either 1 or 4 disks that are Red since they are missing.

 

Which button do I press next?  Or should I power down and remove the disks before 'reseting' the conifguration?

 

Thanks for the help!

 

obi

 

 

You should configure the hard drives the way you want them , i.e., remove the ones you don't want, install the ones you do want.

 

When server boots up, the Main page will look "confused" - that's ok.  Go to the Devices page and ensure all your hard drives are set up the way you want.  Make sure you have the correct hard drive assigned to Parity - this is important - once parity sync starts it may be impossible to recover user data on that disk.

 

Next go back to Main page and click 'Restore' button.  Now click Start.

 

In essence what you're doing here is simply building a "new" array - make sense?

will I lose all my user shares by doing this?

 

If so, I'll just live with the electric bill hit due to having the extra 40gb drives hooked up that never get written to....

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

obi

will I lose all my user shares by doing this?

 

No.

thanks!