October 23, 2025Oct 23 Hi everyone,I am trying to figure out the best path forward.I currently have a single 14 TB parity drive with 3 14 TB and 1 12 TB array drives.I just bought 2 new external 26 TB drives. I was going to use them to replace a partiy drive and then expand the array by one. I started a Pre-Clear on them last week to check them before shucking them in case I needed to return one. In preparation for the drive's finishing the preclear, I started a partiy check yesterday on my current array. Most of the check finished fine, and around the 99.2 percent mark, I got a notification - Disk 2 reallocated sector ct is 1, current pending sector is 8. I left it be, 10 minutes later I get a notification - Disk 2 reallocated sector ct is 2, current pending sector is 16. Another 10 minutes later, I get this notification - Disk 2 in error state with 2672 read errors. I would just replace it with the new drive, but the new drive is bigger than my parity drive. In the current state, what is my best way to add these 2 new drive to my system to replace the dead/dying 14 TB drive?I appreciate any help you can offer!
October 24, 2025Oct 24 Author Thank you Jorge! I read over the parity swap document, and it makes sense. During the parity swap, can I add the 26TB drive into the array at the same time as I replace the parity drive with the 26TB? Or do I have to wait for the parity process to complete and then add the 26TB drive?Follow-up question, if I decided to use the 14TB Parity drive for a different purpose. Is the recommended method to follow the parity swap process, move the 14TB drive to the array, wait for it to complete the copy of parity info, and then remove it and replace it with the 26TB drive?
October 24, 2025Oct 24 Community Expert 15 minutes ago, davbay1 said:can I add the 26TB drive into the array at the same time as I replace the parity drive with the 26TB?Nope, you can use the old parity to replace the disabled data drive, and the new larger disk will become parity. After that is done, you can add new disks or replace/upgrade any existing ones.
October 26, 2025Oct 26 Author Thanks for the clarification!I started the parity swap. Once it completes and I move onto step 15 which is “Start the array to begin the data rebuild.”Can I add the second 26TB drive before starting the rebuild? Or is it better to let the rebuild complete and then add the drive after it finishes?
October 27, 2025Oct 27 Community Expert 3 hours ago, davbay1 said:Can I add the second 26TB drive before starting the rebuild? Or is it better to let the rebuild complete and then add the drive after it finishes?No. You need to let the parity swap process complete (I.e. the rebuild) before making any other change to the array
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