I have been running a N100 mini PC and an external hard drive enclosure connected with USB3.1 for a couple of months now without any issues. I know this is not the best way to do it but money was tight so it's what I went with.

 

The current configuration is one 22TB array made up of 4 hard drives, 1 x 10TB parity drive, 1 x 10TB and 2 x 6TB storage drives. 1 x 500GB m.2 SSD (as a cache pool) and the RAM has been upgraded to 1 x 32GB DDR4-3200. I use the cache pool for faster downloads which are then transferred to the hard drives and the appdata is also stored on the SSD.

 

I recently got my hands on an old workstation PC for really cheap. I want to use it to instead of the mini PC but I have a few questions regarding the setup and the implementation.

 

The setup I was thinking of would be to keep the array the same, but instead get 2 x 250GB 2.5inch SSD's (which would be connected via SATA due to the limitations of the motherboard) and create a mirrored pool with them and exclusively use them for appdata. It should be more than enough storage since I currently only have 10GB of appdata data. And then I would get another 1TB SSD, also connected via SATA to allow for increased download speeds as a separate cache pool.

 

The new server would have an intel i7-4790, 4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 RAM and I would need to use a PCIE to SATA convertor so that I can have enough SATA ports. I do plan on increasing the number of hard drives in the future.

 

The new unraid server would probably only give me a slight uplift in performance. The current set up does not have any performance issues except for when downloading and and unzipping a lot of files in sequential order, like a series.

 

So would this be a valid set up? Any improvements I could make?

 

For the implementation part, I would like it to be as smooth as possible without losing any data of course. In other words, can I just move everything to the new system and start it up or is it not that simple? Perhaps assigning the hard drives the same way would not be possible since I would be using a new controller? Would Unraid see the different hard ware and freak out? I could probably just restore all my docker apps with backups? Is it possible to transfer my license to new hardware?

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

invest in a hba. 

 

think it reluctant to share or assist as running usb HD in the unraid array/pool is ill-advised.

keep old system up to copy data off of...
 

Here are some points to consider for your setup and migration:

 

SSD for Appdata (Mirrored Pool)

Using two 250GB SATA SSDs in a mirrored (RAID 1) setup for appdata is a great choice for redundancy.

It’s plenty of storage for appdata, and since it's mirrored, it will protect against SSD failure.

If your motherboard supports SATA SSD caching via Unraid, ensure you configure it properly.

 

1TB SSD as Cache Pool

A dedicated cache drive for downloads will help with speed.

Ensure it has good endurance (TBW rating) if you’re doing a lot of writes (such as torrents or Usenet).

 

PCIE to SATA Converter

Since you plan to expand your storage in the future, go for a high-quality PCIe SATA controller (preferably one with an LSI chipset flashed to IT mode). Cheap SATA controllers can cause instability, drive dropouts, and data corruption.

Avoid port-multiplier-based controllers if possible.

 

CPU and RAM

The i7-4790 is decent for basic NAS duties, Docker, and some lightweight VMs.

16GB RAM is adequate for Unraid, but upgrading later (if needed) is wise.

Unraid doesn’t need high-speed RAM, so DDR3-1600 should be fine.

 

Migration Strategy

Moving your Unraid installation from the mini PC to the new system should be fairly smooth, but there are some steps to take to ensure data integrity.

1. Backup Everything

Backup your USB drive that contains Unraid's OS (/config folder).

Use Unraid’s built-in Flash Backup tool (found in the web UI under "Tools").

Backup appdata and any important configurations.

 

2. Moving Unraid to the New Hardware

Unraid is very hardware agnostic, meaning it will usually boot up fine on a new system.

Shut down the old system properly before moving the drives.

Plug all drives exactly as they were assigned before (same parity/data/cache setup).

Plug in your Unraid USB drive to the new server and boot.

Unraid should detect the array and keep assignments. If any drives are unassigned, carefully reassign them based on their previous roles.

If needed, you can go to Tools > New Config to manually reassign drives while keeping data intact.

 

3. Dealing with New Controllers

If your new motherboard or PCIe SATA controller presents drives differently, Unraid might show "wrong disk" errors.

In this case, manually reassign them to their previous locations without formatting.

Double-check that parity and data drives are correctly assigned before starting the array.

 

4. Docker and Appdata

Since you’re migrating appdata to a new mirrored SSD pool, you’ll need to:

Copy appdata from the old SSD to the new SSD pool.

Reconfigure Docker to use the new pool in Settings > Docker.

Restore appdata from your backup if needed.

 

5. Licensing

Your Unraid license is tied to the USB stick, not the hardware.

You can move your license by plugging in the same USB drive.

If you want to replace the USB stick, Unraid allows you to transfer the license.