Solved Going from Raid 0 to Raid 1

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Lucianp

PCHF Member
Apr 29, 2018
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first off, apologies for not getting back to you on my previous thread. Family took precedence.

I have taken another look at my LG N2A2 NAS. It's a two bay device with a single 2TB drive installed that is 50% full.
I want to add a second 2TB drive and set it to Raid 1.

Now, having time to research and set a strategy, I have come to a problem.

I was under the impression I could install a second drive and mirror it to the first as raid 1. Unfortunately not.

LG does not provide any information for my situation and very little searching the internet. Everything pointed to setting the raid when the NAS is initialized because the drives initially came pre-installed.

I found only one reference to what I want and that person found the only way he could do it was by formatting the first drive setting both to raid 1 then adding the data from backup.

Is this really how it works?

thanks
 
Sorry, can't help here and not a raid fan, use multiple NAS boxes to backup each other.
 
correct (from my experience with NAS boxes).
once the RAID is set, all drives must be wiped to change it.
so copy all your content off the one, original drive onto your PC, then change the RAID type, insert both drives into the NAS and let LG do it's initial setup.
this could well take many hours if it was anything like my Netgear initial setup.
once setup, obviously copy your data back and the LG box will look after the rest.

now the NAS is setup as RAID1 (mirroring), down the track just replacing one drive at a time to increase space will be all you need.

not sure why RAID1 wasn't the default option during initial setup and mirroring (to me) is the very reason I use NAS boxes for backups. :)
 
Bruce is correct. All drives must be wiped in order to change the RAID configuration.

In my honest opinion, if you're able to afford it, get another drive to setup RAID 5. That way you get striping, mirroring, and parity. You get the best of both worlds (RAID 0 + RAID 1). There are RAID 0+1 setups, but are slower than RAID 5.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I thought that would be the case, hoped it wasn't.

@Bruce. It was originally my sons. I got it as an empty box. I put a 2tb drive in, which was all I had at the time, thinking I could add another later so it defaulted to Raid 0 and hoped to just upgrade the raid on the fly.
My previous NAS was set as raid 1 but the box went south taking all the data with it. Luckily, I do backups.

@jmarket. It's only a two bay box so raid 5 is out of the question. Maybe in the future, funds permitting.

I have added the second drive in anticipation of the hoped for answer. I'm thinking now I should extend as a single 4tb drive (which will be a headache for backups, or partition and reorganize my data for individual backups. I'm thinking the second option.

Thoughts?
 
so you have a 2TB drive already and put in another 2TB drive?
if you make the NAS box show as 4TB then it's no longer RAID1.
so even though physically it has 4TB storage, RAID1 will logically show it as 2TB so you get your mirroring.
then, as long as only ever 1 drive dies at a time, you'll never lose data, have inbuilt redundancy (remember what the 'r' in RAID stands for?!) and not NEED to backup the NAS.

of course the caveats are;
  • only one drive dies at any one time (I've never had more 2 drives die at any one time in all my computing time)
  • the whole NAS box isn't lost in an 'unnatural act' (act of ***, fire, theft, **** kids etc)
  • the NAS is used as a backup of your PC data and not for actual storage, one-off storage (like a media library)
 
Hi Bruce,

Bruce said:
so you have a 2TB drive already and put in another 2TB drive?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Bruce said:
if you make the NAS box show as 4TB then it's no longer RAID1.
Click to expand...
Understood.

Bruce said:
so even though physically it has 4TB storage, RAID1 will logically show it as 2TB so you get your mirroring.
then, as long as only ever 1 drive dies at a time, you'll never lose data, have inbuilt redundancy (remember what the 'r' in RAID stands for?!) and not NEED to backup the NAS.
Click to expand...

Yes it will still need backing up me-thinks. The problem with my previous NAS, a LaCie, was the box going south taking both drives with it.

I'm actually thinking of completely ditching the RAID option and running it just as a storage device, which is what it was with the 2tb drive.
Now I have added another 2tb I am thinking not to go through the hassle of removing all data, setting both drives to RAID 1 and then restoring all my data. too much time.

So my questions now are,
should I extend the the drive to be 4TB
should I extend the the drive to be 4TB then partition (if there is any point to this option)
keep it as two separate drives with partitions.

keeping in mind that not all data is accessed with the same frequency would I have faster response (seeking) with partitions?
backup scheduling would be better with partitioning.

I think I'm answering my own questions here but a second point of view is always welcome.

thanks
 
I experimented with raid but after reading soooo many horror stories decided to go the simple route and just have simple volumes in my Qnap. These 4 drives are backed up/synced to another 2 similar boxes. Ok if one drive fails, and yes I've had one fail, simply replace the drive and restore it from another synced NAS. Even if a entire NAS box goes belly up my data is safe. Sure the initial outlay was a little high but I value my data and there is no raid of any sort to be concerned with.

I leave one NAS on permanently and only power up the other two when syncing, that way if I'm ever hit with anything nasty only one NAS can be affected. Yes I am paranoid about data safety due to have lost business records many years ago, and my data is now safe except for fire or theft of course. Should keep one NAS off site...

Just another opinion.
 
Thanks everyone for your input and advice. I think I'm following Gus on this one. 4TB storage partitioned by media type. Next project will be to reorganize backups but that's for another thread.

we can close this one. Thank you all.
 
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