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[chrislee]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I have a DNS-323 with two 500 gigabyte drives formatted as RAID-1.

I have not run out of space yet but can see this happening in the next few months.

If I replace the drives with larger ones, what is the best way to migrate the data, given that they are already larger than anything on my PCs?

Do I  have to download half the data to a PC, replace the drives in the unit, upload that half, put the original disks back and repeat for the second half?

Or is there a better way?

The whole point of getting the DNS-323 was for larger, more reliable storage than on a single PC disk.

Thanks in advance

Chris

[gunrunnerjohn]

Well, to move the data, I'd consider the following procedure.

• Remove one disk from the unit, verify that the remaining disk still functions and allows access to the data.
  Connect the removed disk to your computer, format it, and copy all the data from the NAS to this disk.
  Remove the other disk from the NAS.
  Install the new disks and format them
  Move the data back to the NAS.

The second disk that was not connected to the computer still has all the data that the DNS-323 can read if anything goes wrong with this process.

[redant2u]

Yes - I have done something similar in the past just using a USB/SATA drive bay to access the one drive i took from the DNS and copy the info across to that, once done - new 1.5TH Samsung SATA HDD x2 - and copy the data back to the DNS 323... took some time but worked.

[gunrunnerjohn]

Any solution that involves trying to copy directly between disks in the DNS-323 would make me nervous.

[fordem]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I have a DNS-323 with two 500 gigabyte drives formatted as RAID-1.

I have not run out of space yet but can see this happening in the next few months.

If I replace the drives with larger ones, what is the best way to migrate the data, given that they are already larger than anything on my PCs?

Do I  have to download half the data to a PC, replace the drives in the unit, upload that half, put the original disks back and repeat for the second half?

Or is there a better way?

The whole point of getting the DNS-323 was for larger, more reliable storage than on a single PC disk.

Thanks in advance

Chris

The unstated information in your post tells me that the data stored on your DNS-323 is not backed up elsewhere - have you considered how you'll deal with data loss if or when it occurs?  RAID1 is not a form of backup, it is subject to many of the same causes of data loss as a single drive, and still needs to be backed up.

And for the record, larger, more reliable storage than on a single PC disk, although that may be a benefit of NAS (network attached storage), it's not the whole point, you can do that with DAS (direct attached storage) such as a USB, eSATA or firewire enclosure - the whole point of NAS is to have the storage on a network where it can be accessed from multiple systems.

[ke00]

On the topic of Larger Drives for the DNS-323 ....  what is the current supported capacity that the DNS-323 can handle?

I have but 2 x 2TB Seagates into my unit - but it aonly sees them as 2 x 1TB drives   

I have tried Firmware  1.06, 1.07 and 1.08 ..... now gone back to 1.07.

Have I missed something?  Probably ...  still new to this ... 

Thanks All

[dosborne]

IIRC 1.08 supports 2TB. I know for sure it supports 1.5TB as I just bought a second DNS323 and installed and configured it with a 1.5TB HDD.

[gunrunnerjohn]

Many folks have them with 2TB drives, I have a pair of 1.5TB drives in mine with no issues.

[chrislee]

The unstated information in your post tells me that the data stored on your DNS-323 is not backed up elsewhere - have you considered how you'll deal with data loss if or when it occurs?  RAID1 is not a form of backup, it is subject to many of the same causes of data loss as a single drive, and still needs to be backed up.

And for the record, larger, more reliable storage than on a single PC disk, although that may be a benefit of NAS (network attached storage), it's not the whole point, you can do that with DAS (direct attached storage) such as a USB, eSATA or firewire enclosure - the whole point of NAS is to have the storage on a network where it can be accessed from multiple systems.

It's used as both backup for several PCs and also a shared archive. Stuff gets written to the archive and not modified so RAID is satisfactory for that.

The only active.modified data are the email databases - which are also backed up.

I didn't think it was necessary to say this. It's way better than file sharing on multiple PCs because it does not need everything to be permanently powered on and is more secure.
 

[chrislee]

Yes - I have done something similar in the past just using a USB/SATA drive bay to access the one drive i took from the DNS and copy the info across to that, once done - new 1.5TH Samsung SATA HDD x2 - and copy the data back to the DNS 323... took some time but worked.

I don't know enough about Windows, but I always assumed the USB external drives used the NT file system, while the DNS-323 is Linux. Or do the USB boxes also use Unix internally?

If that works it is probably the best way. Empty USB drive boxes are cheap. Although USB is as you say, slow.

[gunrunnerjohn]

USB connected disks for Windows use NTFS or FAT32, not a Linux filesystem.

[chrislee]

USB connected disks for Windows use NTFS or FAT32, not a Linux filesystem.

That's what I thought, so putting the disk in a USB drive box or in the PC won't work.

[gunrunnerjohn]

Well, it's certainly unlikely on the DNS-323.  FWIW, the Synology DS209 reads/writes NTFS disks, but the writing is not all that fast, on the order of 6-8mbytes/sec from my tests.  There are NTFS drivers for Linux, but I suspect the limited processor and memory of this box would be an issue.

[fordem]

That's what I thought, so putting the disk in a USB drive box or in the PC won't work.

Ever heard of ext2ifs?  It's an installable file system driver for Windows, and it will let you connect an external USB drive with the ext2 file system to a Windows system and read it.

Also - for what it's worth - USB is quite a bit faster than you might think - USB2.0 is capable of 480mbps, faster than a DNS-323 on gigabit.

[chrislee]

Ever heard of ext2ifs?  It's an installable file system driver for Windows, and it will let you connect an external USB drive with the ext2 file system to a Windows system and read it.

I just googled that. I hadn't heard of it - it's a must have.