So here is my problem, sorry for being such a noob. My existing tower consisted of a converted Dell computer I bought 5 years ago. Looking to expand, I bought a new case and planned to simply move everything over to a new case (then turn it back on and the software would not even know that the tower simply switched cases). Just as I started to gut the Dell and about to put motherboard in new case, I realized that the motherboard is a BTX form factor which my new case does not support ( and I guess its not very common size?).

 

So my question is, now that I will need to buy a new motherboard and processor, will unRAID "freak out" when I boot it back up? There will be a significant amount of hardware changes (motherboard/processor and maybe RAM). The hard drives and power supply and Flash drive will remain the same.

 

I did write down the SATA ports that the hard drives were tied to on the previous system. Unfortunately, I forgot to back up my Flash drive before gutting it (though I do have a backup from when I first got my tower up and running 4 months ago, not sure if that helps).

 

Thanks in advance and pardon for my lack of knowledge. Any input would be great!

unRAID does not have any response to changes in RAM.

 

I don't think unRAID will have any response to a change in processor, but your bios sure should give an indication to the effect that "CPU replaced, press F1 to continue", so you better have the tower hooked up to a monitor and keyboard in order to go past this warning.

 

As for the motherboard, it is a straightforward process. You just need to note down the drive assignments, and edit the network.cfg file to reflect the new mac address if you intend to use the older mobo/ network adapter on the same network.

Thanks for the response.

 

So now I have a NIC/Upgrade question. I was running unRAID 4.7 final, now that I have to get a new mobo I'm thinking of getting the ASRock B75 PRO3-M LGA 1155 which has the Realtek 8111E LAN Chipset, thus I will likely have to upgrade to a beta of UnRAID 5. I have two options and just want to make sure which one I should do.

 

#1 Use my existing unRAID 4.7 Final Flash drive and use this thread to Migrate: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Migrating_from_unRAID_4.7_to_unRAID_5.0

 

#2 Use a brand new Flash drive and just install unRAID v5.0-rc11 on it directly.

 

The question is, can I go down #2 route (with a brand new Flash drive) if my data on the hard drives were all previously from a 4.7 Build?

Unless you are using only a few drives (and the free version of unRAID) then only option #1 is viable as  your unRAID license is tied to the GUID of your USB drive.  You would need a new license to use a different USB drive.

Unless you are using only a few drives (and the free version of unRAID) then only option #1 is viable as  your unRAID license is tied to the GUID of your USB drive.  You would need a new license to use a different USB drive.

 

As of right now I am running the free version, so I should not have to worry about the GUID of my USB drive yet. However, if I went with #2 and installed a brand new v5.0-rc11 would it work correctly with my 4.7 hard drives? Or would the only thing I lose are my user shares that I had on my 4.7 setup (which I assume are stored as settings on the USB drive)?

Do you have parity? If so upgrade #1 will let you keep the disk configuration including correct parity and your user shares. You should probably get used to doing it that way anyway or you will be forever starting over whenever you want to upgrade.

 

I would suggest upgrading unRAID and when that is working OK upgrade the hardware. Or upgrade the hardware and when that is working OK upgrade unRAID. Don't try to upgrade unRAID and your hardware at the same time. It's always easier to troubleshoot if you don't try to change too many things at once.

 

I have upgraded unRAID several times with my original hardware. Since my latest unRAID upgrade to 5rc11 I have upgraded mobo/CPU/RAM. I never started over with any of it and so have never lost my disk configuration and parity or user shares. The most I have needed to do was install or uninstall some addons along the way.

 

In any case your disks and data should be fine with either hardware and either unRAID.

 

Thanks, I will go with your suggestion of going down the upgrade route with the existing USB device.