[HOW-TO[ Single Disk NAS Hard Disk Upgrade or Replacement

[andrehj]

Single Disk NAS (TS-112 / TS-112P / TS-119P II / TS-120 / TS-121) Hard disk Upgrade or Replacement Manual

Since the official manual from QNAP still does not include a simple "How to exchange or upgrade the hard disk" chapter, I will write my own, to save others the frustrations of having to find out themselves how to perform such a basic task and for my own future reference.

Basically there are two methods:
1. Simply put the new disk in the NAS, and copy all the old data somehow back to the NAS. This method has the large drawback that all the settings are lost, so this method is NOT recommended.
2. Use the built-in QRAID-1 functionality to sync the data from the internal disk to the new disk, and than simply exchange the internal disk. Using this method all settings will remain as they were before the upgrade. This method is preferred, and will be described below:


How to use the QRAID method to upgrade the internal hard disk:
1. Make sure the new hard disk is at least the same size as the old disk, otherwise QRAID does not work.
1. To save time during synchronization of the data: delete/empty the network recycle bin before you start (this saved me over 300 GB!).
2. Put the new hard disk in an external enclosure. eSATA is preferred, since it has less overhead then USB 2.0. Something like a Sharkoon SATA QuickPort PRO is ideal
3. Connect the external enclosure to the NAS and switch it on. eSATA is hot pluggable, so you don't even need to turn off the NAS to do this.
4. There will be a message asking you to format the drive. Don't format it yet, this will be done in the next step.
5. Log in to the NAS via the web interface, go to Control Panel - System Settings - External Device - External Storage and set the Data Sharing option to "QRAID". Now the drive will be formatted and synced.
6. Wait a very long time. (On a TS 119P-ii syncing 1.2 TB took over 40 hours... )
7. When syncing is done shut down the NAS. I don't think you have to Eject -> remove the external drive first, I did that, but got a warning during boot (with the new disk) that the NAS had not been properly shut down).
8. Disconnect the power cable from the NAS.
9. Mount the new drive in the NAS, disconnect the external drive bay.
10. Turn on the nas.
11. Done! Enjoy your new hard disk.

Feel free to comment on these instructions, there may be some errors in it, since I wrote this from my memory.

[darkwind]

Thanks for this. Very instructive.

One question: what happens if the new disk is larger; do you have to expand the partition somehow or is additional space immediately available?

[andrehj]

The additional space is immediately available after the swap, you don't have to do anything to use this space. Actually, this was also my reason to swap the drive, I upgraded from 2 TB to 4 TB.

[darkwind]

Thanks for the quick response. That is very good news.

[TS4124X3TB]

ok huston, we have a problem.

This is the full description. Basically, I did all the steps above but the NAS now is unaccessable, still visible in finder though.

some details:

• Model: TS-112
  Firmware: 4.1.1 20140310
  System: Windows 7

_____________________________________
Hello

Initially I had a 1TB HDD in my NAS. After a while the SMART monitoring started showing some WARNING signs. So I decided to replace the HDD with a bigger one before this HDD fails.

I referred to this forum [ http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=182&t=88383 ] to set up an external HDD QSYNC with the internal HDD. I left it running for 7 days. Then

1) I went into system settings to eject the EXTERNAL DISK
2) Shut down the TS-112 server
3) replaced the 1TB HDD with the new 2TB HDD.
4) Switch on the Server

I was expecting the server to come up and every thing to be exactly same including the server name. But this is not so.

1) I go in QFinder and the server name is different.
2) I click on it to access it in browser, but it gives message: NAS not initialised
3) If I say YES to the above, it starts doing something then the window disappears.
4) On the NAS the Power light is ON (blue) , LAN (Blinking), HDD (Green), Status (RED Blinking)

If I click it in the browser, it goes to the address but the QTS does not load up.

Please help

Issue: what needs to be done to access the NAS. And how to ensure there is no loss of data as this HDD was QSYNCed with the original.

[brum]

Hi,

I have just tried this to upgrade the disk of my TS-121 running FW 4.1.2 from 2TB to 4TB using the described method, but I run into some problems:
I used an SATA/IDE-to-USB dock to set up the Q-RAID for synchronising the new disk (I have no dock with eSATA). The TS recognised the new disk, and synchronised with the existing one.
After a couple of days the disk data in the web interface read "Ready" instead of synchronising, I shut down the TS and swapped the disks, so the previously internal one was in the external dock, and the new one was in the TS.
However, when booting up again, the TS stops with a blinking red led. I am able to find it using Finder from a computer and read the NAS's details (including the type of the new disk), but the login screen just flashes before displaying a completely white page. If I swap the disks back again it boots normally.
As this method obviously has worked for other people, I just wonder if the USB vs eSATA mounting of the external disk may have anything to do with it?
Have anyone who have made this work used USB to mount the external disk?

[brum]

An update to this - Just managed to get it working using a slightly different method: (https://justus.berlin/2014/12/replacing ... -qnap-nas/)

1. Fit your new (and bigger) disk into an external hard drive enclosure with USB or eSATA and connect it to your QNAP.
2. Go to the QNAP Webinterface, select the Control Panel und move into the External Devices section. Allow it to use the new (external) drive as a Q-RAID 1 mirror of the internal drive. You will have to wait quite a while for this process to complete – mirroring approx. 1TB of data took my TS-110 more than a day.
3. Once that process is finished, backup your settings from the device (not manually, there is an option to download them).
4. Power the QNAP down.
5. Disassemble the QNAP and take out the ‘old’ drive.
6. Power up the device (yes, without connected drive!), wait a couple of minutes.
7. Either use QNAP Finder to find your NAS’ IP address or look into your DHCP server’s lease list and point your browser to http://<IP>:8080
8. If everything went well, you should now see your NAS complain about a missing hard drive. Solve the ‘problem’ by hot-plugging the new drive.
9. The website should automatically update and tell you that a hard drive with QNAP signature was detected. Select to “Restore Factory Settings” and “Start” the firmware download.
10. After ca. 10 minutes the NAS will beep 3x (long). A couple of minutes later again 1x (short). Another few minutes later there will be another short beep. About 10 minutes later the NAS will beep (long) again. Time to steer your browser to the web interface again.
11. Login with admin/admin, open the Control Panel, goto System Settings > Backup/Restore and restore the system settings with the backup bundle you created before. When it asks you to do so, confirm that the NAS shall restart.
12. Connect to the web interface again (which might now have a different IP, the old one) and check if everything is the way as with the old drive. If it is, sending me some special beer from your region.

Seems it had nothing to do with eSATA/USB - the trick was to let the NAS boot once without the new disk installed; then everything went according to plan.
As far as I can see, after the final restart everything works!

[onehans]

well it does not work for me
it wants to erase everything from hdd

[gkf9]

I'm getting confused about the Qraid capacity, says on the manual that Qraid 1 can only be used on hd upto 2tb, I've already got a 2tb disk that needs replacing, can I replace with a 3TB disk?

[pwilson]

I'm getting confused about the Qraid capacity, says on the manual that Qraid 1 can only be used on hd upto 2tb, I've already got a 2tb disk that needs replacing, can I replace with a 3TB disk?

As your drive is over 2TB, it is not compatible with QRAID-1. Please follow my advice in your other (duplicate ) thread: Failing drive please help.. Going forward, please do not create duplicate threads, as this may lead to no solutions being offered whatsoever, as Community helpers do not like answering the same issue in multiple threads from the same individual, as this wastes our time,

[gkf9]

Hi Patrick again.
Sorry about the duplicate thread, but this is where I'm getting confused about the 2tb limitation on Qraid 1.

Andre in one of the post above says he placed 4tb in the the Nas by using the Qraid method, But I thought that couldn't be done?

I'll not post here again sorry.

[pbu50w]

Hi,
after searching the forums for an easy way to upgrade my drive without having to purchase any further hardware, I couldn't find anything so I though I'd post the method I have successfully used here to help others.

Here's the steps I followed:

• 1. Remove the old drive from the enclosure (I have a QNAP TS-112, but this method should work for everyone)
  2. Insert the new drive and initialise it as per the normal procedures - I used https://start.qnap.com
  3. Install the following to a computer on the same network as the QNAP NAS - http://www.ext2fsd.com/
  4. Connect your old drive to a free port on the same computer and using the software just installed mount the drive in read only mode (you only need to mount the largest partition)
  5. Copy the contents of the old drive to the QNAP NAS over the network from the computer the old drive is attached to

Depending on the amount of data you are copying and the network speed you have, the last step can take quite a while (36 hours in my case), but the result is perfect.

[cs96and]

An update to this - Just managed to get it working using a slightly different method: (https://justus.berlin/2014/12/replacing ... -qnap-nas/)

1. Fit your new (and bigger) disk into an external hard drive enclosure with USB or eSATA and connect it to your QNAP.
2. Go to the QNAP Webinterface, select the Control Panel und move into the External Devices section. Allow it to use the new (external) drive as a Q-RAID 1 mirror of the internal drive. You will have to wait quite a while for this process to complete – mirroring approx. 1TB of data took my TS-110 more than a day.
3. Once that process is finished, backup your settings from the device (not manually, there is an option to download them).
4. Power the QNAP down.
5. Disassemble the QNAP and take out the ‘old’ drive.
6. Power up the device (yes, without connected drive!), wait a couple of minutes.
7. Either use QNAP Finder to find your NAS’ IP address or look into your DHCP server’s lease list and point your browser to http://<IP>:8080
8. If everything went well, you should now see your NAS complain about a missing hard drive. Solve the ‘problem’ by hot-plugging the new drive.
9. The website should automatically update and tell you that a hard drive with QNAP signature was detected. Select to “Restore Factory Settings” and “Start” the firmware download.
10. After ca. 10 minutes the NAS will beep 3x (long). A couple of minutes later again 1x (short). Another few minutes later there will be another short beep. About 10 minutes later the NAS will beep (long) again. Time to steer your browser to the web interface again.
11. Login with admin/admin, open the Control Panel, goto System Settings > Backup/Restore and restore the system settings with the backup bundle you created before. When it asks you to do so, confirm that the NAS shall restart.
12. Connect to the web interface again (which might now have a different IP, the old one) and check if everything is the way as with the old drive. If it is, sending me some special beer from your region.

Seems it had nothing to do with eSATA/USB - the trick was to let the NAS boot once without the new disk installed; then everything went according to plan.
As far as I can see, after the final restart everything works!

This method worked for me, though I cloned the disk using EaseUS Todo Backup Free, rather than using Q-RAID. You could probably Clonezilla or something else instead. I put my method here
http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... 49#p537549

[thomas_DE]

Hi,

I'm just trying to upgraade a TS-112 from 2TB to 4TB.

I connected the 4TB disk via eSATA to the Qnap. In the menu I choose the 4TB disk, the QRAID1 and confirmed the upcoming window. Right after that the shown 4TB disk in external deivce disappeared. Also the "1" at the icon for external device (in the headline of the main windows) disappeared.

Now I don't see that anything is going on. Just the LED at the 4TB and the Qnap are blinking. The system load is approx. 60% higher than normal.

Is the system doing something? Or does it hang up?
Should be there any information or incrementing counter in external device window?
Should I just wait 3 days for the 2TB to mirror?

Many thanks for your help.

Thomas

[TauTau_de]

I want to change the dying disk in ma TS-112P, but will put a smaller disk into it, so a raid solution won't work. I don't need to keep the data, but I'd like to save the settings, is there no way to do this?