How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Discussion on setting up QNAP NAS products.
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ultranothing
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How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Post by ultranothing »

Hi everyone! I have a QNAP TS-464-4G-US coming in today. My current setup is an 8tb SSD with Macrium backups going to a 16tb HDD, both in an OWC Mercury two-bay enclosure. So the 8tb drive is nearly full and the 16tb has backup images.

I picked up a second 8tb SSD and and an additional 16tb HDD and I want to put all four drives in the NAS. I've discovered that when I begin to set up the drives in the new NAS, it's going to want to format all the drives for its' own purposes. That'd be bad.

How would you guys go about setting up the new NAS so that I can get all my old data in there without wiping it? I've got plenty of drives and cables and options here, but I want to do it the most efficient way and I can't seem to settle on one - and I don't want to screw it up and lose any data.

I appreciate any help I get on this! :D
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dolbyman
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Re: How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Post by dolbyman »

Wipe of the drives is mandatory..so no way around it (the OS is on the disks)

So buy 4 new drives and setup the NAS from scratch, then transfer the files via LAN or attach the drives via USB and transfer them that way

Dont forget the regular external backups (always have backups!)
ultranothing
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Re: How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Post by ultranothing »

Could I set up the NAS with three drives, transfer the files from the one that has data, and then add that data drive? And then it would format that 4th drive, but that's okay because I already transferred that data amongst the other 3?
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Gaudi
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Re: How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Post by Gaudi »

ultranothing wrote:Could I set up the NAS with three drives, transfer the files from the one that has data, and then add that data drive? And then it would format that 4th drive, but that's okay because I already transferred that data amongst the other 3?
You can’t do that, if you insert a used drive in your NAS it will be wiped.
Use any or your so many cables to connect the disk to the NAS as an external drive (usb) and transfer the files.
If the system uses QuTS Hero you won’t be able to expand the RAID group.

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diwiwi
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Re: How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Post by diwiwi »

ultranothing wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:29 am Could I set up the NAS with three drives, transfer the files from the one that has data, and then add that data drive? And then it would format that 4th drive, but that's okay because I already transferred that data amongst the other 3?
Yes you could, you can expand the RAID afterwards: https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/faq/arti ... ng-a-drive
(the TS-464 uses QTS and does support RAID expansion, seems the above replier did not really read your post..)

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dawsonkm
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Re: How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Post by dawsonkm »

Just keep in mind with two 8tb and two 16tb you’ll loose capacity if you try and raid them all together.
Forgot. Mixing ssds and hdds in a raid would make me nervous. Eventually something bad would happen
TS-431X2 QTS 4.4.3.1439 - Static Vol 4 x 8TB Hdd Raid 5 Using 10GBE
TS-431X2 QTS 4.4.3.1439 - Static Vol 4 x 8TB Hdd Raid 5 Using 10GBE
TS-431P2 QTS 4.4.3.1439 - Static Vol 4 x 8TB Hdd Raid 5
TS-431P2 QTS 4.4.3.1439 - Static Vol 4 x 8TB Hdd Raid 5
TVS-1282T QTS 4.5.4.2012- Static Vol 8 x 16TB Hdd Raid 6, Static Vol 4 X 8TB SSD Raid 5 Using 10GBE
Kunzite
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Re: How to set up old (filled) drive in new NAS?

Post by Kunzite »

ultranothing wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:29 am Could I set up the NAS with three drives, transfer the files from the one that has data, and then add that data drive? And then it would format that 4th drive, but that's okay because I already transferred that data amongst the other 3?
Indeed, any drive you'd insert into the NAS will be wiped up.
You could, however, insert only 3 of them and connect the other (with your data) through USB, as an external drive. And, after you'd copy the data, you would put it into the NAS and expand the RAID.

There's a big problem with that: there are no backups. And you'd have no backups while performing risky operations like a RAID expansion.
You should rethink what you want to do, making sure you have a backup all the time. And, a backup is a backup only if it's on a separate device (e.g. an external drive can be a backup, a HDD in the same NAS won't).

The previous post already talked about mixing SSDs and HDDs, and disks with the same capacity in a single RAID array.
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