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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: jer.lawrence on January 12, 2010, 09:11:57 AM

Title: Mirroring existing NTFS Drive
Post by: jer.lawrence on January 12, 2010, 09:11:57 AM
I'm sure this has already been covered, but I haven't found anything through searching.  I apologize if it's a repeat question, feel free to link me if this has been answered.

A little background -- I have a 500GB WD drive, it's the only copy of this data I have (not critical, mostly music, pics, etc).  The drive that was mirroring it went bad, so I've ordered another fresh 500GB drive.  I've previously used a USB enclosure that mirrors the two drives, so they've always been mirrored in NTFS before.  I wanted a NAS because there are several PC's on the network that need access, and the FTP feature is cool too.

SO!  Here's what I'd like to do.
-Format the new drive in the DNS
-Copy data to the new drive off of the old NTFS drive
-Format the old drive in the DNS
-Mirror the drive.

Will this work as I'm expecting?  As it's only 500GB (ONLY..), I'm sure that I can copy it all onto a separate drive if I absolutely need to, but it just seems like it would sort of be a waste.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Mirroring existing NTFS Drive
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on January 12, 2010, 10:38:03 AM
Well, I'd have a backup to that extra drive in any case.  RAID of any level is NOT backup, so even in a RAID-1 array, you really still only have one copy of the data.

It is possible to add a second drive and then mirror them, at least a number of people have reported doing it successfully.  It could take a long time to synchronize the volumes when you stick the second one in.

I think I'd just do a proper backup of the data and then stick the two drives in the box and configure them for RAID.