How do I shrink my array?

[d.bech]

I thought I could just remove a 2 1tb drives and replace them with 1 4tb drive. I've been able to replace one of the drives with the 4tb but I don't appear to be able to shrink the number of drives in the array. how do I do this?

[itimpi]

I thought I could just remove a 2 1tb drives and replace them with 1 4tb drive. I've been able to replace one of the drives with the 4tb but I don't appear to be able to shrink the number of drives in the array. how do I do this?

Reducing the number of drives is slightly different to increasing the size of existing drives.  Since the process involves invalidating parity it should never be done if you think any other disk has problems (unless it one you intend to remove).

 

The following will work:

• Make a note of the serial numbers of the drives (in particular the parity drive)
  
• Go to Tools-New Config to clear the current configuration
  
• Assign the disks you wish to keep.  Do NOT check the trust parity box as removing a drive invalidates parity.
  
• Start the array.    This will start a parity sync to build new parity consistent with the drives you now have left.
  

[trurl]

I thought I could just remove a 2 1tb drives and replace them with 1 4tb drive. I've been able to replace one of the drives with the 4tb but I don't appear to be able to shrink the number of drives in the array. how do I do this?

Assuming you rebuilt a 1TB to the 4TB, then if you still have any data on the other 1TB you need to copy it to the 4TB. Then do as itimpi said.

 

There is a wiki for what you were trying to do: Replacing Multiple Data Drives with a Single Larger Drive

[d.bech]

I thought I could just remove a 2 1tb drives and replace them with 1 4tb drive. I've been able to replace one of the drives with the 4tb but I don't appear to be able to shrink the number of drives in the array. how do I do this?

Reducing the number of drives is slightly different to increasing the size of existing drives.  Since the process involves invalidating parity it should never be done if you think any other disk has problems (unless it one you intend to remove).

 

The following will work:

• Make a note of the serial numbers of the drives (in particular the parity drive)
  
• Go to Tools-New Config to clear the current configuration
  
• Assign the disks you wish to keep.  Do NOT check the trust parity box as removing a drive invalidates parity.
  
• Start the array.    This will start a parity sync to build new parity consistent with the drives you now have left.
  

Sweet, this worked. (((thank)))