phenixdragon Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 Last few days I have been looking at replacing my WHS with either a hardware RAID with WHS, FreeNAS, Drobo, Synology, and unRAID. unRAID seems like the way I want to go as it has basically the lowest cost and the most flexable without having to spend a lot on adding storage. Couple of questions though. 1) I would imagine it is a yes, but can you upgrade the unRAID software with having a change of losing your data? So like with version 5 comes out, can I simple upgrade the files without losing my data or unRAID configuration? 2) I have hardware right now that I am using for my WHS but plan on buying some new hardware. Can I simple plug the USB stick and drives into the new motherboard or will the array and everything be lost? 3) The USB stick have right now is a 2 gig stick. I would like to us something smaller. Is it possible to copy over the info onto a new stick and plug it right in and boot up? If so, how? Thanks! Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 1) I would imagine it is a yes, but can you upgrade the unRAID software with having a change of losing your data? So like with version 5 comes out, can I simple upgrade the files without losing my data or unRAID configuration? Yes 2) I have hardware right now that I am using for my WHS but plan on buying some new hardware. Can I simple plug the USB stick and drives into the new motherboard or will the array and everything be lost? If you have data on the drives you plan to use in the unRAID machine you will lose data in the switch over. All unraid drives have to be formatted as RFS and unRAID will clear them. 3) The USB stick have right now is a 2 gig stick. I would like to us something smaller. Is it possible to copy over the info onto a new stick and plug it right in and boot up? If so, how? I would keep the 2GB stick. With 5.0 on the way there will hopefully be new plugins and apps that can be installed on unRAID. Link to comment
BRiT Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 1) yes, simple upgrade no data lost. 2) yes, simple upgrade no data lost from a running unraid array on system 1 to system 2. 3) yes, but license is tied to physical USB flash drive identifier. Link to comment
phenixdragon Posted September 29, 2010 Author Share Posted September 29, 2010 Thanks for the replies. I don't mind using a large USB stick but the one I am just testing with is one I use on my keychain. How can I go about switching it to another one? I pan on ordering a new one today but it will take a few days to show up and I would like to get this up and running. And with the hardware change, new motherboard, will I need to actually do anything or can I just plug everything in and it will boot up as normal? Link to comment
Rajahal Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 You can use the free version of unRAID (Basic) on as many flash drives as you like. To swap flash drives you would just copy the contents from one to the other. However, once you start using a paid-for version of unRAID (Plus or Pro), then you are tied to one specific flash drive. So you can start using unRAID Basic today, then copy everything over to your new flash drive when it arrives, then purchase unRAID Plus or unRAID Pro and tie it to your new flash drive. You most likely won't need to change anything as far as unRAID is concerned, but you will likely need to make some changes to the BIOS of the new motherboard to get it to boot from the flash drive and not a hard drive. You also may need to specify which drives correspond to which disk numbers on the unRAID 'devices' page, so you should take a screen shot of that page before you switch the hardware. unRAID often figures it out for you, but if it doesn't you'll have to set each drive manually (based on the drive's serial number). Link to comment
phenixdragon Posted September 29, 2010 Author Share Posted September 29, 2010 Cool. Sounds good. I'm about to start copying files over and then adding new disks as each disk I have empty out. I am pretty excited to get this running. Now I am just looking for a new large, but pretty, case that I can dump in a lot of drive. And a lower power CPU/mobo setup. Link to comment
wsume99 Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 It's not clear to me, do you already have a unRAID machine running? If you don't I'd suggest getting your new h/w up and running using the basic version first and then expand/upgrade to the standard/pro version depending on your needs. That's what I plan on doing. I've got my basic system running pretty stable now and plan on upgrading in the near future. If you do and you're using the basic (free) version then you can move the files from one USB drive to another. Just prepare the drive like a new install and instead of copying a new unRAID version onto it copy over the contents from your eisting USB drive. If you're already purchased the standard or pro version then it is locked to your USB drive. So if you copy the files onto another USB drive it won't work. Link to comment
phenixdragon Posted September 29, 2010 Author Share Posted September 29, 2010 I only just plugged in a USB and a blank HDD instead my WHS box to see how easy it was to use unRAID. But I would like to to start building the drives now as I have about 5 TBs to copy over. Link to comment
Thornwood Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 Cool. Sounds good. I'm about to start copying files over and then adding new disks as each disk I have empty out. I am pretty excited to get this running. Now I am just looking for a new large, but pretty, case that I can dump in a lot of drive. And a lower power CPU/mobo setup. There are a lot of cases to choose from but I like to do the 5X3 cages, this way you can add drives as needed with usually lower amount of disassembly and reassembly. I really like my nine hundred two case but it matters on what you want to do with it. My setup has the potential to grow to 15 internal drives. That is 9 5 inch slots with 3 5X3 cages. I only have 6 drives at this time but I’m in this for the long term. You could also look a the other comunity setups they look great. Hope this helps. Link to comment
phenixdragon Posted September 29, 2010 Author Share Posted September 29, 2010 Ah yes. That is what I was looking at last night with a 8 bay tower. I plan on ordering something like that. NewEgg. has a great 8 bay Thermaltake tower for 60 that gives you access to all 10 bays form the outside. But I think I want to find something larger and now have to worry about it later down the road. Link to comment
wsume99 Posted September 29, 2010 Share Posted September 29, 2010 I only just plugged in a USB and a blank HDD instead my WHS box to see how easy it was to use unRAID. But I would like to to start building the drives now as I have about 5 TBs to copy over. So I assume that you did not purchase unRAID then. I'd do exactly what you mentioned. Start small and get the basic version up and running with two data drives and a parity drive (use a 2TB drive for parity if you have one). I think starting small will make it easier to get your new h/w up and running. I don't know what size drives you have but with 3 2TB drives the basic version can hold 4TB. Once it's stable then purchase a license and start moving more discs over from your existing server. Link to comment
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