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[LeeC2202]

After all the hassle I had with my NAS recently, and after spending a good period of time with support, it seems my DNS-345 is indeed faulty. So I have to send mine back, and get a replacement.

My question is, if I remove the drives and then install them in the new device, in the same order, will the existing data be recognised, or will the drives have to be se up all over again? I have close to 3TB of data on there, but I don't have 3TB of storage space to back everything up right now.

If I am going to lose everything, then I need to start thinking about what to save, and what to consider gone.

[ivan]

First, how were your drives setup RAID level and so on?

In theory, assuming the replacement unit has the same firmware level as the old unit you may be lucky and have the new unit accept the drives as they are.

Again, without knowing how your drives were setup it is almost impossible to advise you of a reasonable strategy should you need to reformat and set them up again.

[LeeC2202]

Ah, sorry, didn't realise that made a difference. I have four drives set in a Raid 5 configuration.

[ivan]

Sorry for the delay in replying but we have been rather busy.

RAID 5 does complicate matters should you need to recover your data because it is striped over all the disks rather than being mirrored.

The only way I know of to recover data from a RAID 5 array is to use R-Studio (see http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=47326.0 and a computer that will accept the disks. 

I remember one of my tech guys saying something about the detail of recovery from RAID 5.  I will ask him about it on Monday and if it is relevant post it here.   

[LeeC2202]

My unit had to go back to D-Link on Tuesday, so I just had to save as much as possible and then take my chances. I have marked each drive, so they can go back into the replacement NAS in the same position that they came out.

It either works or it doesn't... not much else I could do, other than go out and buy a 4TB drive, but I simply can't afford to do that, so I'll have to take my chances.

[ivan]

I hope that all goes well for you when you get your replacement NAS box.

I would also recommend that you look at getting some smaller 1TB to 2TB usb disks and using them as backup for your data even if it does appear to be like shutting the stable door after the horse has gone.

[LeeC2202]

Just to update this, for anyone else with a similar question.

My update unit arrived today, popped the drives in, ran none of the setup software, just logged into the device through IE. It took me straight to the disk management page, and gave me a message about "A volume being migrated from another sharecentre", can't remember the exact wording. It told me to basically "click OK to integrate it into the setup", and all was done.

So the outcome... no files lost, everything exactly as it was. I just had to recreate the mapped network drives, as the unit had a different name. I could have renamed the device, but re-mapping the drives was simple enough.

[JavaLawyer]

That's great to hear! I'm glad the migration process completed without issues.