Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[CorporateOffRoader]

The HDD's in my device are approaching 5 years old and probably nearing the end of their lives.  So my question is, what is the best thoughts on avoiding this.

I have two WD 750 gig drives set up as a RAID 1 and I am running firmware 1.08

I have the entire NAS backed up onto an external drive that I keep in the safe.  I back up every quarter just in case of a failure of the device.

What is easier to do:

1.  Do a complete backup, remove the 2 old drives, install 2 new drives (probably 2T drives) and then restore from my external HDD

2.  Purchase two new 750 gig drives and raplace one, rebuild the array, then replace the other one?

I just had the HDD fail in the PS3 tonight (7 years old last month) and the kids lost their game data.  This got me thinking of the NAS.

Thanks

[ivan]

A lot depends on what you will be happy with and if you need more storage on the NAS.

Since you are running RAID 1 you have the security that should a disk fail you can rebuild the array and carry on.  It is very unlikely that both disks would fail at the same time and you have a backup of your data but I would advise a shorter backup period than the one you have (we do nightly backups here but a weekly backup should be OK if your stored data does not change very often).

If you feel that you should change the disks then I would advise you to backup everything, replace the disks with what ever size you want, format as RAID 1 and then restore from the backup.

[CorporateOffRoader]

Thanks, I am thinking of maybe just buying a new drive like the ones that are in there and keeping it in the closet for now.  I am running 1.08 firmware and have been reading about the issues with the new AF drives.  Or non-AF drives still available?  I really don't want to upgrade to 1.10 then downgrade to 1.09 just to replace a drive.

Thanks

[JavaLawyer]

Thanks, I am thinking of maybe just buying a new drive like the ones that are in there and keeping it in the closet for now.  I am running 1.08 firmware and have been reading about the issues with the new AF drives.  Or non-AF drives still available?  I really don't want to upgrade to 1.10 then downgrade to 1.09 just to replace a drive.

Thanks

Unless you can find a vendor online that has legacy (i.e. non-AFT) for sale that meet your requirements (and price range), the firmware upgrade/downgrade will be required to format the new HDD.

DNS-323 - HDD Size and AFT (Advanced Format Technology) Support

[dosborne]

You would probably pay more for 750GB HDDs than 2TB HDDs and they would likely be hard to find. The upgrade/downgrade takes seconds to complete and isn't a big deal. The additional storage is well worth the effort.

[CorporateOffRoader]

Found some new ones on ebay for $49.99, same model number as the drives in the NAS now, going to just keep it as a spare for that inevitable day when one fails.  Just did another full back-up this morning.

Regards,