Hi everyone, I'm new to the unraid forums, and unraid itself in general. I have a Windows 10 box that currently runs a Plex server, with 27 drives of various sizes 8tb-22tb, for a total of around 320tb. These drives are in a NetApp disk shelf connected via PCI-e HBA card.

Windows is getting a little unruly, and I want to build a new server and move to Unraid, but I'm not quite sure of the logistics.

I know that the drives I have now are formatted in a way that Unraid can't see them, so I will need to do a drive-to-drive move. But during this time, I would love for my family, and my friends who are also on Plex, to continue to be able to watch stuff off my server until it's entirely migrated. I definitely do not have the budget for an entire set of new storage, but I can swing 2 free drives that are as large as the largest on my server.

Given this situation, which I can't believe is TOO uncommon at least in a smaller footprint, what's recommended here? Am I just going to be down for however long it takes to copy over 320TB of data drive by drive (or at least, stuff is going to be less and less playable because the content is gone from Plex)? Can I mitigate that issue in any way?

Thanks in advance for any ideas. Happy to answer any questions you might have to help.

10 hours ago, PearsonFlyer said:

I know that the drives I have now are formatted in a way that Unraid can't see them

How are they formatted? Unraid 7.2 can mount NTFS disks.

Another thing you can consider: Plex can be configured to have multiple folders in a Library. As you migrate from one server to another, it can pull media files from both servers to play.

5 hours ago, ConnerVT said:

Another thing you can consider: Plex can be configured to have multiple folders in a Library. As you migrate from one server to another, it can pull media files from both servers to play.

Where would Plex have to be installed to see both my Windows disks and my Unraid disks? I'm assuming my JBOD can only be connected to a single machine, so it would be connected to my Windows box where it is now. This means that Unraid wouldn't really be able to see those disks.

I guess that's another part of my issue. Where do I put those disks I've converted to Unraid disk format? Putting them in my JBOD wouldn't really work until they're all connected and I change the HBA over to my new box.