Hi,

 

I'm fairly new to unriad, so forgive in advance if this question seems silly. I hope this is the right place

 

I am almost ready to create my new array.

 

I currently have a DLINK DNS 343 NAS (with 4 2tb WD EARX) which is full of data (6TB)

 

Can I insert these 4 drives into the new unraid tower then put in a new 2 TB and create a parity disk? Or do I have to format my drives with data on them?

 

Is that possible? It would save me from losing 6tb of data. I may be able to get a friend to port my data for me but I figured this would be an easier option.

 

I'm pretty sure the DLINK's parity is across all 4 drives. The DLINK will operate with one HD removed from the array.

 

Thanks!

 

xSylaRx

Unraid will need to reformat your drives to reiserfs file format which will erase all of your data. You can't add the drives and create a parity in the way you want without losing data. If you have the ability to have a friend hold the data while you add your drives to the array then transfer the data back that would work.

Since you are already full, you are going to need new drives soon anyway. If I were you I'd get 2 new 3TB drives, preclear them in your new unraid box, then set them up as 1 parity and 1 data. You could then copy across some of your data, play with unraid and get comfortable with it. Or... you could use both 3TB drives as unraid data drives without protection, and copy all your data to it and leave the Dlink alone as a backup, then later you could add a third 3TB as parity, and be more comfortable reusing the drives out of the Dlink and gain 8TB of space. In any case, you need to be aware that having no backup for all that data will probably bite you at some point, so unless the data really isn't all that important, I'd suggest not breaking down the dlink array until absolutely necessary. RAID or unRaid is not a substitute for backups.