[TS-230] - New disk added cannot expand storage

[MeHigh]

Hello,

I really hope that someone can help me with this. So i have had my TS-230 since about 5 months with only one HDD 6TB, now I have decided to add a second HDD the same manufacturer, same size, so now i have two 6 TB HDDs occupying the both bays. Now, i wanted to expand the pool storage form 6 to 12 TB and keep it as a single volume. Yet, I am stuck.

Yesterdat, I have used the Migrate option so now I have a RAID 1 group, which sees both HDDs, since previously it was configured as Single.https://im.ge/i/FgCukD.

If I go and select storage pool -> Manage as described I can see both HDDs under the raid group: https://ibb.co/YTmzn32.

Now if I select Expand Pool -> Add new disk(s) to an existing RAID Group: https://ibb.co/B3JGbQg --> click Next, now I cannot select anything, none of the HDDs are visible: https://ibb.co/zfPq7xV.

Any Idea if or what have I done wrong pressing that Migrate button and how to corectly configure it to have my storage extended?

Thank you!

[dosborne]

If you configured RAID1, then you can't expand. RAID1 create a mirror of the drives, so DISK1 is a copy of DISK2. Therefore there is no room to expand.

Also, running a single volume across multiple drives means that should any 1 drive fail, all your data is at risk. I hope you keep good backups if that is what you want to do.

Personally, I would have suggested just going for a larger drive rather than getting another small drive if increased storage was really what you are after. The price differential, at least where I live, between a 6TB and a 10TB, 12TB or larger, is only a few dollars. Worst case, I'd suggest running both drives as distinct volumes, and of course still ensure you have a good backup plan.

[MeHigh]

Yes, as shown in the screenshots, they both appear now under as RAID 1. I just want to have a clear understanding, since my NAS only has 2 bays, and i have already ppurchased the 6TB one(not going to invest some other money in this), should i keep it like this as it will allways automatically bacck up the data on the second HDD? So tis way i would also have a good back-up plan in case one of the drive fails?

I mean, yes, i was plannig to have like one single combined drive of 12 TB, but since I am not back-ing up the data anywhere, it is better how it is now, right? https://ibb.co/YTmzn32

Thank you very much for your support!

Cheers!

[dosborne]

Raid is NOT a backup. Raid is protection against a single drive failure. This is NOT a good backup plan.

If you delete a file by accident, if the NAS fails, if it gets stolen, flood, fire, dropped on the floor...... all your data is gone.

What you do now is up to you. You can continue with RAID1, you can put your data more at risk by expanding the volume across both drives, or you can opt for something different.

The current drive could be connected with a usb cable/sata hub to allow you to backup externally and store it somewhere safe. You could look at cloud backup, etc.

But, if you need more space then that is still a completely separate issue from backup.

Only you can decide how important your data is, how much you need to keep, what it would mean if you had a virus, ransomware, flood, fire, theft, data deletion, etc.

[MeHigh]

Okay, got it! Thank you very much for the detailed explanation!