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[Bruegge]

Hey,
Let’s say I set this thing up with 2× 750GB disks in RAID 1, and I use it for a few years. Now I need more space, and I would like to upgrade my system to 2x 2TB disks (Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARX). The actual firmware version 2.02 should support 2TB disks.

I tried the following:
1. Replacing one 750GB disk with the 1st 2TB disk
2. Format the new disk as RAID 1
3. I've used the Auto-Rebuild-Function which should rebuild the RAID
Up to this point everything work great - the sync finished successful.

In a next step I tried the same thing with the second disk:
4. Replacing the 2nd 750GB disk with the 2nd 2TB disk
and so on. But after I replaced the 2nd disk the system did not show the 2nd 2TB disk e.g. in the System Status. That means I also couldn't format the 2nd disk and sync it with the 1st 2TB disk. Another strange thing I recognized is, that the system capacity still shows 750GB for all the two disks both have 2TB. Then I tried to switch the slots of the two new disks. After that the 2nd disk which was not recognized by the system earlier showed up but the other one not. Hopefully there are no issues with this slot. Today I will try to set up the system with the old disks agian to see what happens. In a second step I would try to sync the 2nd new disk based on an old disk similar to how I did it with the first disk. Let's see what's happening..

Any other ideas / thoughts / tips?
Thanks, Thomas

[JavaLawyer]

What you're describing is called RAID scaling, a functionality the DNS-320 does not support. Once the RAID-1 array is created, the Volume size is fixed and cannot be increased even if both HDDs are incrementally replaced with larger capacity HDDs.

Unfortunately, you will need to create a new RAID-1 array with your new HDDs and migrate the data from your existing RAID-1 array.

[Bruegge]

Hm, that doesn't sound good for me.. 

So, I have to format both new disks and create a new RAID-1 array. But how can I migrate the data once I have created the new RAID-1 array? How can I sync or copy the data over to the new disks?
Thanks

[JavaLawyer]

The cleanest method is to use one of the software products posted on a sticky at the head of this board to mount the RAID-1 array in a PC and copy the data over: http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=41400.0

[Bruegge]

I don't even have PC in which I could mount the RAID-1 array. So I guess the only way is:
1. put the old 750GB disks back into the DNS-320
2. copy the data on a PC or an external drive
3. put the new 2TB disks into the DNS-320
4. create a new RAID-1 array with the new disks
5. copy the data from the PC/external drive back on the new RAID-1 array

OR: buying a new NAS Server for the new disks.. 

[JavaLawyer]

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately those are your options.  

[Bruegge]

Anyhow, thanks for your help! It's not your fault - at least I know about my options now..

[JavaLawyer]

Good luck and post back when you resolve everything. 

[ivan]

I just did what you are contemplating doing for a client.  The tools needed are a SATA to USB adapter and a PC that can read the linux file system, be it a linux based PC or a windows one with an IFS driver.

First I removed the original RAID 1 drives and attached one to the adapter and via it to the PC to check that the data that was on the disk could be read.

Next I installed the larger drives in the NAS and set them up as a RAID 1 array.

Lastly I copied the data from the old disk to the new RAID 1 array on the NAS.  This was the longest part of the operation.

Result one happy client.

You should be able to do the same, just take care.

[Bruegge]

Oh, sounds great. So you are saying I could use an external hard disk case? Anybody has a hint what IFS driver to use for Windows 7 to read the data?

[shabuboy]

Hmmm... I will be doing this pretty soon, I was under the impression there was a way to upgrade the HD capacity without the need for an external copy.

1: Take out one of the current Raid 1 disks
2: Add new disk and config as standard
3: Copy files from one volume to the other
4: Remove old Raid 1 disk
5: Add new disk as Raid 1

Will that work or not?

[Bruegge]

I put in my old disks again, but now the system does not show any disk anymore.  
Any ideas?

[JavaLawyer]

I put in my old disks again, but now the system does not show any disk anymore.  
Any ideas?

Are you sure you put the disks in the correct order? (i.e. are they reversed)

[JavaLawyer]

Hmmm... I will be doing this pretty soon, I was under the impression there was a way to upgrade the HD capacity without the need for an external copy.

1: Take out one of the current Raid 1 disks
2: Add new disk and config as standard
3: Copy files from one volume to the other
4: Remove old Raid 1 disk
5: Add new disk as Raid 1

Will that work or not?

Unknown... If you attempt this procedure, you should make sure you have a separate physical backup of your data. I realize this caveat defeats the intent of leaving one HDD in your ShareCenter, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

If you try this procedure, please post your results.

[Bruegge]

Are you sure you put the disks in the correct order? (i.e. are they reversed)

The problem was that one disk seems to be not really connected. Now I have access to my data again and the system shows the 750GB capacity again.
But, the system still does not show the 2nd disk. I'm really afraid that something is wrong with the 2nd slot, since it is always the right slot which does not show up. I'm pretty sure the disks are in the correct order.
Do you think a reset of the firmware could help?