Hey, I want to upgrade my system.

 

I currently have:

 

1x2TB Parity

4x2TB Storage

1x250GB Cache

1x spare slot for an extra HDD

 

 

 

I want to expand into the 4TB territory. Can unraid support 4TB drives?

 

If so, how do I do this? I want to basically install a new 4TB to the unraid as parity. Then I want to install a new 4TB as storage. Then I want to use the OLD 2TB as new storage. therefore expanding my array by 6TB.

 

 

 

How long will this process take?

You need to rebuild parity to the new drive (~ 7-8 hours) and then it is recommended you preclear the old 2TB and new 4TB drives (~24-30 hours).

 

You should also preclear the drive you will use as parity. Even though parity does not need to be clear, running preclear on it will be a good test.

Agreed,  so thatwill add another 24-30 hours. So you are looking at a total of 2.5-3 days.

You didn't give specifics of your system's configuration, so I'll add this:  Yes, UnRAID supports drives > 2TB, but it does require that your disk controller supports these as well.    Almost any system built in the last few years does, but if you're using older hardware, you should check that it indeed supports these drives.

 

Note also that you can now get 6TB drives, so if you're bumping your parity drive up, you may want to go ahead and use a 6TB unit, so you don't have any size restrictions on what you can add to the system (at least not until drives > 6TB are available).

 

Can anyone provide a play by play on this operation. I find myself in the midst of doing the same thing. Going from a 3TB parity to a 4TB. And then adding the old parity as a datadisk.

 

Is it something like:

 

1. Preclear new parity disc

2. Stop array

3. Ubselect the 3TB parity disc

4. Select the new 4TB disc as parity

5. rebuild parity

6. preclear 3tb (old parity)

7. stop array

8. add 3TB to the array

 

Or do I need to something else?

Can anyone provide a play by play on this operation. I find myself in the midst of doing the same thing. Going from a 3TB parity to a 4TB. And then adding the old parity as a datadisk.

 

Is it something like:

 

1. Preclear new parity disc

2. Stop array

3. Ubselect the 3TB parity disc

4. Select the new 4TB disc as parity

5. rebuild parity

6. preclear 3tb (old parity)

7. stop array

8. add 3TB to the array

 

Or do I need to something else?

 

That will do the trick.    I'd just do PreClear -n   

on the old parity drive ... it's been well-tested, since it's been used extensively in your array.  The -n parameter skips the pre- and post- read operations, so the pre-clear will be MUCH faster ... it just clears the disk and adds the pre-clear signature to it.

 

Thanks!

Thank you,

 

I have the specs of my machine here:

 

Fractal Define R3 case

AMD CPU Athlon II

ASrock 8800GM-LE

Corsair 4GB RAM

 

 

will that support these drives:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4tb-hgst-0s03665-deskstar-nas-24x7-35-hdd-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-retail-box

 

 

 

I've googled about and it says I need this?

http://www.asrock.com/feature/3tb/

Any experience in installing this? Will it mess with my unraid box? I take it I'll need a monitor for this which can be problematic..

That should easily support > 2TB drives.    You almost certainly do NOT need the AsRock download ... that's apparently a utility to help OS's that don't have native support for the large drives to work with them.    As I noted earlier, the simplest way to absolutely confirm it is to just install any drive > 2TB and confirm it's "seen" okay.    As long as that's true, you're good to go with any size you want to use.

 

Worst case is you'll need to add an add-in controller card with large drive support.