Update Synology Disk to a larger sized one??

kirkster · 13 Oct 2021 at 09:51

Hi all,
I have a DS216+ with a single 8TB disk in it. Great NAS by the way. I want to upgrade it to a 14TB disk. Other than drag all the data off of the current NAS disk onto something else (that "soemthing else" needing to be very big!) , install the new 14TB disk and then copy all the data back onto it, what are my options? Is there a way to install the new 14TB disk side by side and then copy the data in-site - i.e. within the Synology and then when it's done to remove the existing 8TB drive?

Many thanks.

kirkster · 13 Oct 2021 at 09:54

....I could buy two 14TB disks, put one temporarily in my PC, copy the data from the NAS onto the PC, install a new 14TB (the second one) disk into the NAS, copy the data back onto the NAS and then move the one from the PC into the NAS for redundancy (which should do anyway). However, 2 x 14TB disks = £££££££. I would liked to have split this over a few months but I can't see how to migrate otherwise.

Snapshot · 14 Oct 2021 at 12:08

It would be easy enough to put the new drive into your NAS and use File Manager copy the data across. The snag is that any system files on the old drive won't get copied across so the new drive won't boot. It also won't copy any users you've created.
What I would do is remove the 8TB drive, insert the 14TB and make it the new system volume. Make sure you take a system backup of the 8TB first as restoring it to the 14TB will re-create all your users and data structure. Then add the 8TB as a separate volume and copy the data across. You can then remove the 8TB and keep it as a backup. However, I would still want to have a separate backup of the data, just in case.

kirkster · 14 Oct 2021 at 13:02

Hi, thanks.
I have a few 1G portable drives plus a 4G on my workstation. I may just copy stuff over to them, swap the disk in the Synology and then copy back. I can then redeploy the 8TB disk as extra storage in my PC

SexyGreyFox · 14 Oct 2021 at 13:08

I'd like to jump on this thread if I may.

I have a DS218j with 2x 4TB drives running in the RAID where both drives are the same (not an expert).
I'd like to put 2x 8TB drives in.
Can I just swop 1 drive to an 8TB, copy everything over and then get the other 8TB for backup?

Or can I turn the DS218j into an 8TB drive with the 2x 4TB drives without losing anything?

Snapshot · 15 Oct 2021 at 07:23

At the moment you're using RAID1 which is good. Your second option is to change to RAID0 which isn't good as it offers no protection against disk failure. I don't know if it's possible to convert RAID1 to RAID0 but the answer is probably in the user manual.

It's easy enough but a little tedious to swap your 4TB drives for 8TB: pull one 4TB, replace it with an 8TB and let the system repair the RAID. Then do the same for the second 4TB. Finally get the system to grow the RAID to use all the new drives. Again, instructions for this are in the manual.

SexyGreyFox · 15 Oct 2021 at 08:20

Snapshot said:
At the moment you're using RAID1 which is good. Your second option is to change to RAID0 which isn't good as it offers no protection against disk failure. I don't know if it's possible to convert RAID1 to RAID0 but the answer is probably in the user manual.

It's easy enough but a little tedious to swap your 4TB drives for 8TB: pull one 4TB, replace it with an 8TB and let the system repair the RAID. Then do the same for the second 4TB. Finally get the system to grow the RAID to use all the new drives. Again, instructions for this are in the manual.

Thanks

Anchundan · 27 Mar 2022 at 09:34

I would also like to jump on this thread as I have a similar question (but slightly different).

I have the Synology DS213air, with 2x4TB drives. I don't have it as RAID so I get the full 8TB (well, 7.2TB), I need storage space as opposed to redundancy. in "Control Panel, Info Center, Storage", it's showing as Volume 1 , 99% full 7.1TB / 7.2 TB. Underneath it displays my two hard disks, both in Storage Pool 1 (whatever that means).

I too was wanting to double my storage, and grab a couple of 8TB drives. But I don't know if I can just pull them out and stick them in my PC to see all my files? I really don't understand how it's showing as 1 volume and not two? I don't know what will be on drive 1 and what will be on drive 2?

I've tried searching, but it seems everyone else has their two drives in RAID, and I haven't found anything that explains it. and the DSM Help doesn't work, it just says "This content is blocked. Contact the site owner to fix the issue." which is kind of frustrating.

Snapshot · 28 Mar 2022 at 09:27

In Linux (& FreeBSD, etc.) drives first have to be assigned to a storage pool then to a volume and finally to a RAID array (or whatever). You need to find the Storage Manager app to see the real detail of how your drives are assigned but I'd guess it's RAID0 as a result of selections you made during the initial configuration.

The drives, whether they're in RAID0 or not, will not be readable on a PC and, as you only have one volume, the data is spread across both drives so they cannot be separated to up upgraded one-at-a-time. You will have to copy the data off to an external drive so you can replace both drives at the same time.

Anchundan · 29 Mar 2022 at 08:47

Thanks for this information, very thorough. I cannot seem to find the Storage Manager app, but I'm pretty sure you are right in it being RAID0, I bought it in 2014 and I can't remember.

I looked at the specifications on the Synology website for the DS213air and it says

Max Internal Capacity 8TB (2X 4TB hard drives) (The actual capacity will differ according to volume types.)

So it looks like I couldn't fit larger drives in there anyway. So it might be time to start again, buy either a DS220j or DS218play and two 8TB drives for it, then I can copy my old data across. Then maybe format my old drives, and create a RAID1 for it, just for the data I truly don't want to lose.

Bubo · 29 Mar 2022 at 10:02

Anchundan said:
I too was wanting to double my storage, and grab a couple of 8TB drives. But I don't know if I can just pull them out and stick them in my PC to see all my files? I really don't understand how it's showing as 1 volume and not two? I don't know what will be on drive 1 and what will be on drive 2?

Whatever you do, do do what this guy did. He was replacing 6x2TB drives in his NAS with 6x18TB, and apparently didn't even have any full backups, just a few files. He was relying on 2 drive redundancy. Anyway, ultimate face palm territory as he could have easily just slapped one of the 18TB drives in his main PC and backed everything up, then installed the 5 drives in NAS and copied over, that add the last 18TB drive to the NAS after wiping it. Instead he lost everything. I imagine you could do the same, i.e. use one of your new larger drives as the back up drive, while the other in setup in the NAS, then add the backup drive in the NAS after copying everything. Still slightly risky though, not having any backup drives ultimately separate to the NAS.

edit: saw the comment about the limit on drive size, so yeah new NAS time by the sounds of it. But this guys story is just so epic, I thought I'd share.