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[Walter2009]

Hello. I just purchased a DNS-321 and am waiting for the HDD to arrive and I figured I probably should get this straight before I start loading it up.

I plan to use one 1TB drive initially, then as that fills, add a second. When I do have two drives, I would like to have this configured as a JBOD. A JBOD with one drive is no different that a standard drive configuration and the questions start to pop up when I need to add another drive. The questions are:

• can/should I configure the first drive as a standard drive or format for JBOD?
• If I am able to format the first drive for JBOD, what will happen when I add the second drive? Will it require reformatting both drives?
• What happens if I keep the first drive in standard format and then add the second drive, will I need to reformat both drives to get to a JBOD config?
  
• Any one have any recommendations or a better way to go about this?
  

Any suggestions or comments would be really helpful.

[JavaLawyer]

If you configure your HDDs as JBOD and one of the two HDDs die, then you will lose all of your data.  If you use standard configuration, then both HDDs will exist as independent volumes.  If you want ensure the integrity of your data (and you have no additional backup drives), then using two standard volumes will increase redundancy (using one HDD to backup the second).

[jamieburchell]

If you configure your HDDs as JBOD and one of the two HDDs die, then you will lose all of your data

Not strictly true, although this would be the case in a RAID0 config. There's still a chance you could salvage your data spread over two disks in a JBOD config. Agree that I would prefer two standard drives however

[Walter2009]

Thanks guys... sounds like I will go with Standard drive config. Though a JBOD would be easier for others on the network in that they wouldn't have to remember which drive contained what.

What happens if I start with the standard drive config and then convert to JBOD? Will I lose all data in the conversion?

[jamieburchell]

Thanks guys... sounds like I will go with Standard drive config. Though a JBOD would be easier for others on the network in that they wouldn't have to remember which drive contained what.

What happens if I start with the standard drive config and then convert to JBOD? Will I lose all data in the conversion?

It might want to reformat the drives, have a backup to hand.

[dkarim]

Walter, from your comment stating that people would have to remember which drive their data is in, it sounds like you are not too concerned about redundancy. I say that because if you are using Volume_1 to store data and then other people use Volume_2 to store data, you really have no recourse to do backups. The idea behind setting up the 2 drives as independent volumes is to use only 1 of them directly and then set up a script to back up from one to the other so everyone should be using only 1 volume even though they could potentially see and use the other one. You really have to decide if you are buying that extra 1 TB for extra storage or for redundancy.

[Walter2009]

Walter, from your comment stating that people would have to remember which drive their data is in, it sounds like you are not too concerned about redundancy. I say that because if you are using Volume_1 to store data and then other people use Volume_2 to store data, you really have no recourse to do backups. The idea behind setting up the 2 drives as independent volumes is to use only 1 of them directly and then set up a script to back up from one to the other so everyone should be using only 1 volume even though they could potentially see and use the other one. You really have to decide if you are buying that extra 1 TB for extra storage or for redundancy.

Thanks and yes, Redundancy is a secondary priority at this time and having an easy to access NAS for extra storage is the primary goal. Backup and fault tolerance are secondary needs. That's why I had considered a JBOD config initially. I had hoped that with 1 drive, configured as a JBOD, then when I add the 2nd drive later, the JBOD would expand to fill the new drive without formatting the first drive.