Hi,

 

can I change two disks with 2 TB with only one 4 TB disk?

 

I have 10x2TB disk in my Server and do not want to buy 10 (only 5+1 new) new 4 TB disks, but I want to change all disks.

 

Thanks!

As long as your motherboard supports > 2TB disks, you can certainly replace your disks with the same amount of storage by using fewer disks with more capacity.

 

For example, 10 2TB disks provide you with 18TB of protected storage (parity + 9 data disks).

 

You could have the same 18TB total with 4 6TB drives (parity plus 3 data disks);  or you could have 20TB of protected storage with 6 4TB drives (parity plus 5 data drives).

 

There are a variety of ways to do the upgrade, but since you're going to replace all of your disks; I'd do the following:

 

(1)  Run a parity check to confirm your array is healthy -- no sync errors; no disk errors.

 

(2)  Replace ALL of the disks with the new disks you've purchased; and do a New Config on the flash drive (or, if you're not running the current version, rebuild the flash drive with the latest release .... either the v5.0.5 stable or the latest v6 Beta -- your choice).    If you're rebuilding the drive, be sure you keep a copy of your key file so you can restore it to the newly rebuilt flash drive.

 

(3)  Boot the new configuration and run a parity sync;  then, when done, do a parity check to confirm all went well.

 

(4)  Install the free Linux Reader [http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/ ] on a PC; and then, one-at-a-time, attach your old data drives to the PC and copy all of the files to your new array.  This process will take a few days, but when it's completed you'll have your new, smaller array fully populated; and you'll still have a set of backup disks for your data (your old 2TB drives).

 

Thank you for your answer.

 

When I change two 2 TB disks and put only one new 4 TB disk in the Server: The interface says that one disk is missing.

Thank you for your answer.

 

When I change two 2 TB disks and put only one new 4 TB disk in the Server: The interface says that one disk is missing.

There is no supported way to reduce the number of drives that are used while maintaining parity.  The only way to reduce the number of disks is to do a 'new config' and re-assign the disks as you want them, and then recalculate parity.

 

This raises the question of why you want to reduce the number of disks rather than keep the same number but of increased capacity for each drive.  That is the way I [personally would go.  It means that you do not need to replace all drives at once, but can do it as needed.    The other question is whether you should be going to 4TB disks or perhaps migrating to 6TB ones now that they seem to have reached general availability.

Thank you for your answer.

 

When I change two 2 TB disks and put only one new 4 TB disk in the Server: The interface says that one disk is missing.

There is no supported way to reduce the number of drives that are used while maintaining parity.  The only way to reduce the number of disks is to do a 'new config' and re-assign the disks as you want them, and then recalculate parity.

 

This raises the question of why you want to reduce the number of disks rather than keep the same number but of increased capacity for each drive.  That is the way I [personally would go.  It means that you do not need to replace all drives at once, but can do it as needed.    The other question is whether you should be going to 4TB disks or perhaps migrating to 6TB ones now that they seem to have reached general availability.

That is how I have always done it. Just rebuild one of the smaller disks onto a larger disk, and then later you can rebuild the other onto a larger disk.

Thank you for your answer.

 

When I change two 2 TB disks and put only one new 4 TB disk in the Server: The interface says that one disk is missing.

 

That's correct -- you can't simply replace one of the disks unless you change your configuration ("New Config").    Since you said you wanted to replace ALL of the disks, I'd simply do that all at once and use a New Config ... that's by far the simplest way.

 

Alternatively, you can simply replace one disk at a time with larger capacity drives ... growing your system's capacity as needed and keeping the same total number of disks.

 

ok thank you for your answers. than i will create a new config.

 

i maybe change every disk because of the new server disks:

 

http://geizhals.at/de/hgst-deskstar-nas-4tb-7200rpm-h3iknas40003272se-0s03665-a1060887.html

or

http://geizhals.at/de/western-digital-wd-red-pro-4tb-wd4001ffsx-a1143817.html

 

At the Moment i have only normal disks running.