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[Warchild]

Hiya,

Just want to play it safe and double-check what I think I know.

Ok, my drives are just about full. I'm running Raid-1, so am I correct in the understanding that I can simply remove one of the drives (with all data intact for temporary storage until I can burn it all), pop a new drive in, and either do a format or "rebuild" the mirror? (There are a few things I'd prefer to keep online for easy access, and it's a bear trying to load this sucker quickly, so I'm thinking a rebuild might be the best idea, then just delete everything I've already backed-up on the pulled drive.)

On a side-note, I'm curious how well the DNS-323 holds up in resale value. Mine's about a month or so old, and I bought it by mistake (thought I was buying a USB style raid box), and I'm thinking about selling it and just grabbing a cheap USB raid-1 box, now that I know the difference and what to look for. Anybody know how much I could fairly ask for it if I list it someplace? What are they going for "lightly used?" I just don't have good enough hardware to really take advantage of this box's features (no speed to speak of without a major upgrade to my network, which I can't afford right now).

Thanks for any replies.

[dosborne]

Can you clarify what your intentions are in removing one of the drives and installing a new one?

If you want to do this to keep a copy of the data so that you can sell the unit, you can do that. Reading the drive down the road is a bit tricky and you need a driver to load the drive as it is formatted in Linux.

You could simply remove one drive and reformat the one that is left in the DNS323 as a single drive rather than raid and sell it that way.

As for what you can get for it, it all depends on who wants to buy it. Resale on anything you will take a significant loss.

Personally, I've been the USB drive route and the advantages of a NAS are significant even if you don't have the infrastructure for it now.

[Warchild]

Hello,

Apologies for the confusion. I was referring to removing one drive with, hopefully, all the data intact, and just setting it aside so later on I could back everything up to disc from it (I've already installed a driver so I can read the disc on a Windows system). Then, if I ended up keeping the unit, I would add another (new) drive to replace the one I pulled, and then either format both or rebuild the mirror, since there are some files I like having on it all the time. That's the plan, anyway, but I wanted to make sure that's how things worked before I do anything.

As for selling it, I would remove any drives prior to doing that. I had a drobo, and really loved it, but when the drobo croaked, I realized the problem with using one of those: the data isn't accessible without a working drobo. No popping the drives into an external enclosure and reading them from Windows. That really bothered me, so I decided to switch to something that wasn't proprietary. Drobos are all about protecting data in the event of hard disc failure. Nobody ever thinks about what would happen if the unit itself failed. Definitely not good.

Ended up buying the DNS-323, but didn't realize it was strictly a network device (I misunderstood the listed USB capability). I did manage to use it direct-to-PC briefly after a little tinkering with IP addys and such, but it was a hassle, and although the network idea is nifty, the PCs in this house, along with the router, just can't support any decent speeds. It's incredibly slow to move even the smallest files across. Very frustrating.

So yeah, I'd much rather have a simple USB-type raid-1 box attached to my computer, and will go hunting for a decent one as soon as I can afford it (I saw a couple of really nice ones with good feedback for about 60 bucks). I just don't want to lose my shirt on the DNS-323. I know I won't be able to get back what I paid for it (and man, was it ever expensive, about $160 if I remember correctly --I'd have to double check the invoice), but with any luck I won't have to knock off too much. Just gotta poke around, I suppose, and find out what "used/like new" units are selling for and then cross my fingers.

[dosborne]

I guess the short answer is, yes, you can run the unit with only one drive. It will show the raid status as "degraded" since the mirroring will not be taking place. Usually, when someone posts the initial question you did, they are expecting to be able to remove a drive, then replace it with a larger one, then magically increase the size of the raid partition, then insert another larger drive. This is of course not possible without copying all the data to another location or at least copying it from one of the original drives, but is not an "in place" upgrade. I don't see any issues in your proceeding with what you want to do though.

[Warchild]

Wow, this is getting confusing.

Ok, I'm not wanting to run the unit with one drive. Never said that. (Although that is an interesting option I hadn't considered --not "safe," per se, but could come in handy in the interim until I could afford a new drive.)

I'm wanting to remove one of the drives, because it's full and loaded with data I want to keep. Assuming it truly is one of two mirrors (identical data on both drives), pulling and setting aside one of the drives would be fine. I could then, at any time, pop that drive into an enclosure or something, and read it from my PC (as stated, I've already installed a driver so that I can read EXT2 partitions under Windows). I had just wanted to be sure I was understanding things correctly about it being a full copy/mirror of the data when using Raid-1, not bits of it spread out over both drives.

As for running the DNS-323 after that, I'd merely buy a new, replacement drive, install it (bringing me back up to two mirrored 1GB drives again), and either format them both to start from scratch, or, if possible, try and rebuild the mirror because it would be handy to have some of those files on it (since everything would be effectively backed-up on the drive that was pulled, I could just delete most of what's on the dupe, keeping copies of just the stuff I want to remain there perpetually).

Sorry if I caused any confusion with my earlier descriptions.

[jamieburchell]

I had just wanted to be sure I was understanding things correctly about it being a full copy/mirror of the data when using Raid-1, not bits of it spread out over both drives.

Yes, you understand correctly.
Note that if you buy a drive larger than your RAID capacity, it won't make it any bigger.
You shouldn't have any issues putting in a new drive and having the array re-built again.