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[littledummy]

I have 323 with two 1TB drives in raid 1.  I want to swap them out for two 2TB drives and run them in raid 1 also.
What is the easiest and quickest way to do this and maintain my data?

Thanks.

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'd use this EXT2 driver: http://www.fs-driver.org/

Remove one of the drives and connect it to a computer, make sure you can read it using the above mentioned driver.

Remove the other drive, install the two new drives and format them in RAID-1.  Copy the data back from the removed drive connected to the PC.

This keeps at least one backup of the data during the process.

Please note that RAID-1 is NOT backup, so even after the switch you still need backup for the NAS.

[littledummy]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I was hoping for a faster way.
What happens if i take out one of the 1TB drives and put in one 2TB, then rebuild the drive from the first one? then put in the second 2TB and rebuild it from the first 2TB? Will they both be limited in size by the initial 1TB drive?

I also thought that raid 1 is a mirroring of drives alllowing a type of backup in the sense that if a drive physically dies, I can recover from the second?

Thanks

[gunrunnerjohn]

If you try to rebuild a RAID array with a 1TB and a 2TB, you'll end up with a 1TB RAID array and 1TB left over in a non-RAID partition.

There is no faster way that has any amount of safety associated with it.

[jamieburchell]

I also thought that raid 1 is a mirroring of drives alllowing a type of backup in the sense that if a drive physically dies, I can recover from the second?

If a drive fails the data will be accessible from the other BUT what gunrunnerjohn is saying is this is still not a backup of your data. What if you delete some files by accident or a virus wipes them out? Whatever happens on one drive happens on the other.

You could try plugging an Ethernet cable between your computer and DNS. If you had a gigabit network adapter that would be quick. Or if you are feeling adventurous you could write a fun_plug script to restore the data from an external USB drive. Both methods will be quicker than a transfer over Wifi or 10/100 network.