Hi, I have been lucky and have not had any bad disk failures in almost 10 years of Unraid usage. 

But we all know it is just a matter of time. Therefore I am considering upgrading my oldest disks to larger or newer ones.

 

This is my setup:

12TB array 75% full

 

Parity WD RED 8TB  (new, 2 month power on)

Disk 1 WD RED 4TB  80% full (9 yrs power on) (has some smart errors and needs to go)

Disk 2 WD RED 4TB  80% full (7 yrs power on)

Disk 3 WD RED 4TB  50% full (2 yrs power on)

 

not in the array:

Disk 4 WD RED 4TB  former parity disk (almost new 0.5 yrs power on)

Disk 5 WD RED 8TB (new, not installed yet)

 

Disk 1 and 2 hold the oldest data and are accessed less frequently

All new data goes to disk 3 at the moment.

My important data is also backed up offsite to the cloud. 

 

please sanity-check my plan

option 1

1) install and pre-clear Disk 5 (8TB)

2) remove disk 1 and let it rebuild onto disk 5

3) remove disk 2 and let it rebuild onto disk 4 

-> result: the 2 oldest disks are removed and an extra 4TB is added to the array / no spares / 4 drives in the array

 

option 2

1) install and pre-clear Disk 5 (8TB)

2) remove disk 1 and let it rebuild onto disk 5

3) move data from disk 2 to disk 5 

4) remove disk 2

-> result: the 2 oldest disks are removed but no extra storage is added / disk 4 as spare for 4TB drive or extra storage / only 3 drives in the array

 

Does it make sense to load the new disk with the old data that is not used often?

 

Any other option I should consider?

 

Thanks

 

Edited October 20, 20241 yr by roland

Which option would better suit your needs really boils down to whether some extra space is likely to be useful.
 

With option 2 you would normally use the New Config tool to remove disk2 which then means you have to rebuild parity (and potentially move disk3 into the disk2 slot in the GUI at the same time) so do not forget that step.

 

With option 1 there is no reason not to keep disk2 as an emergency spare as you say it is currently exhibiting no sign of problems.   A variant on option 1 would be to keep disk2 in the array and keep the old 4TB parity drive as a spare for failures in disk2 or disk3.

 

Thanks for confirming the approach is valid.

 

Going with option 1. 

Your extra option of keeping disk2 in the array is not an option as I run out of slots for disks in the case. To increase capacity I will upgrade more disks as required.

Currently, I am in the process of rebuilding disk1 onto disk5.

then pre-clear the old parity disk (disk4)

then rebuild disk2 onto disk4 

 

This will give me 4 disks in the array all less than 3yrs old

with an extra 4TB of space.

and the old disk2 as a spare for the 2 4TB drives. 

next I will look for good deals on  8TB disks (as spare and as capacity extension)

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