Moving to an unRAID solution...
#1
I have a NAS with a 250gig C drive running XP and other supporting apps (torrent client, SAB, teamviewer, etc.) and 4 2TB WD green drives that are filling up fast. Each has about 200GB left. I'm getting to the point that I need to buy another drive or two and was considering making the move to an unRAID solution. I know it is pretty bad timing considering that drives are nearly twice what they used to cost.

I believe an unRAID has to begin with empty disks, so I am trying to figure out how I would be able to use my current disks If I were to go with Eskro's 12HDDs solution? I am not interested in going all the way to 12 yet, I just want room to grow in the future. What would be the minimum amount of disks I would have to buy top move to the unRAID solution, and what would be the data transfer process?
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#2
FlexRAID will use existing full drives. If it matters. It a viable alternative to unRAID, scales very similar to unRAID as well, even accepts multiple parity drives if you wanted to. Heck, it can even use your existing NAS as sources if you wanted to.

Sticking with unRAID however, I'm not a good source of info. I think you would want a couple drives at least, one for data, one for parity, then you copy files, then expand the array with the one you copied (now empty), rinse and repeat...
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#3
You could do it with only buying two 2TB drives.
One as parity and the other for content. When that fills up you will have emptied one previously used drive that can be added to the array, fill that and repeat the process.
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#4
(2012-04-11, 16:52)Kirky99 Wrote: FlexRAID will use existing full drives. If it matters. It a viable alternative to unRAID, scales very similar to unRAID as well, even accepts multiple parity drives if you wanted to. Heck, it can even use your existing NAS as sources if you wanted to.

Sticking with unRAID however, I'm not a good source of info. I think you would want a couple drives at least, one for data, one for parity, then you copy files, then expand the array with the one you copied (now empty), rinse and repeat[b][u]...

Thats the way to do it (minus the parity drive).
Build your server, add a couple of blank drives, set up shares on the Unraid ('Movies', 'TVShows', etc.) then start moving[/i] your data to the unraid drives.
As you empty each drive, add it to the Unraid box.

AFTER all your data is moved over, THEN add a parity drive.
Moving all your data to the unraid is MUCH faster without a parity drive installed.
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#5
(2012-04-11, 17:02)dtviewer Wrote: Thats the way to do it (minus the parity drive).
Build your server, add a couple of blank drives, set up shares on the Unraid ('Movies', 'TVShows', etc.) then start moving[/i] your data to the unraid drives.
As you empty each drive, add it to the Unraid box.

AFTER all your data is moved over, THEN add a parity drive.
Moving all your data to the unraid is MUCH faster without a parity drive installed.

That's simliar to what I did when I set up my unRAID server.

But just adding to what you said--the data isn't protected until the parity drive is set. So, keep that in mind if you plan to go this method.
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Moving to an unRAID solution...1