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Hard Disk Expansion and Replacement: Protected volumes
Review the instructions below before adding or replacing hard drives.
Removing healthy disks from a protected volume
A protected volume can be:
- SimplyRAID (single or double security)
- RAID 1/RAID 1+Spare (two disks minimum)
- RAID 5/RAID 5+Spare
- RAID 6/RAID 6+Spare
Removing a healthy hard disk from a protected volume while the LaCie 5big NAS Pro is powered on will render the volume unprotected. If the volume has double-disk security, removing two healthy hard disks while the LaCie 5big NAS Pro is powered on will render the volume unprotected. While removing healthy disks is not recommended, you can avoid breaking the RAID by shutting down the LaCie NAS first. Return the hard drives to their proper bays before powering on the LaCie NAS.
If a healthy disk has been removed while the LaCie 5big NAS Pro is powered on, you can reinsert it into the enclosure slot and NAS OS will synchronize the RAID. It is important to note that during synchronization:
- NAS performance is reduced due to a heavier demand upon the CPU
- RAID protection is not available until the synchronization is complete
- Older hard drives can fail, especially models that are not constructed for NAS
Important info on NAS backup: It is recommended that all users back up data to DAS or another NAS as further protection against disk failure or secondary points of failure (e.g. hardware, network, etc.). See Backup Jobs for details.
Hard Disk Expansion and Replacement with Protected RAID Configurations
Important info: If a hard disk that you have purchased from LaCie fails, please contact your LaCie reseller or LaCie Customer Support.
Expand a volume's storage capacity: Add disks to the enclosure
The instructions below pertain to storage expansion in a LaCie 5big NAS Pro with available or empty drive slots. If you are exchanging an existing hard disk in your enclosure for a hard disk of greater capacity, please follow the instructions in Repair a failed disk or expand storage capacity.
LaCie NAS OS gives you the freedom to configure volumes and RAID for your network. While it is not possible to list every option for expansion, review the examples below and apply them to your situation.
Adding hard disks: Make certain to add a new hard drive without data. While data on the volume is safe, performing the steps below will delete files stored on the new hard drive you are adding to the volume..
Repair a failed disk or expand storage capacity
Follow the instructions below to:
- Replace a failed hard disk.
- Expand a volume's total storage capacity by removing a hard disk and replacing it with a larger capacity hard disk.
Important info: It is not possible to replace existing hard disks with lower capacity hard disks.
Important info: All data stored on the replacement disk will be deleted.
Hot-swapping
If your volume is protected, you can remove one hard disk from the volume while the product is turned on without losing data. This process is referred to as “hot-swapping”. It is highly recommended that hot-swapping be performed when replacing or expanding a hard disk that is part of a protected volume.
When replacing or expanding hard drives in a protected RAID volume:
- Perform the operation while the LaCie NAS is powered on (hot-swapping).
- Use clean hard drives (without data).
No Replacement Disk - Reset the Volume's RAID
If a hard drive in a protected volume fails and you do not have a replacement disk, you can reset the RAID using the New storage volume wizard. Before you reset the RAID, LaCie recommends that you back up your files since all data will be deleted. See Backup Jobs for instructions on backing up your NAS.
To reset the RAID:
- Go to Dashboard > Storage.
- Select the volume and choose Delete.
- Confirm in the pop-up window.
- Go to New Storage Volume Wizard for instructions on how to create a new RAID volume.
© LaCie 2024
Last modified : Mar 14, 2014