HI All,

I have a 2 slot array, 1 parity and 1 data disk. Unfortunately, the data disk is on NTFS (self stupidity ) and I notice this just after 1 week of creating share, fill it with data and installed apps.

I read the instruction of changing file system here: https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/file-systems/

but still dont understand it fully. My concern is I dont want to loose data and share I created in the data disk.

Can I treat this as replacement of failed disk, meaning I stop the array, unassign the data disk, format to XFS, and assigned back to data disk slot and start the array? The data would by synced with parity disk.

If changing the file system will erase all data, I understand I need to back up the content. How to restore everything as previous state with all share setting and everything?

Thank you.

Edited March 13Mar 13 by hbpary

27 minutes ago, hbpary said:

Can I treat this as replacement of failed disk, meaning I stop the array, unassign the data disk, format to XFS, and assigned back to data disk slot and start the array? The data would by synced with parity disk.

Unfortunately not; a rebuild will always rebuild a disk as it was, including the original filesystem. You would need to back up, reformat, and then restore the data.

51 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

Unfortunately not; a rebuild will always rebuild a disk as it was, including the original filesystem. You would need to back up, reformat, and then restore the data.

Thanks. What is the correct procedure of restoring back up to maintain the share setting, link etc?

29 minutes ago, hbpary said:

Thanks. What is the correct procedure of restoring back up to maintain the share setting, link etc?

The only thing is to use a backup method that means on a restore you have the same folder/file structure as is currently present on the drive. If you do that the change of file system will be handled transparently.

An alternative approach if you have enough spare space on the array is to first empty the drive by moving its contents to other drives in the array. As long as you are on the latest stable release this can be done using the mover application that is part of Unraid.