replace/upgrade path

[lenGoodwin]

I have a 1004T that has been running practically 24/7 for several years. It has survived several drive replacements and the ransomware attack and seems to be functioning OK. I have it populated with four 4Tb drives in a Raid 1 configuration. I am concerned, however, that it might be approaching end of life and contemplating replacing it with either an 1104 or a 3304 or 5304. I run a small consulting service advising on web site design and maintenance and desk top publishing and design. I do not use my machine for any gaming. I have two questions:

1. Is there a reason to pick one or the other of the three models given my usage and
2. will iI be able to simply populate the new NAS with the existing drives without any risk of loss of data?

Thanks for any help or advice.

[Nazar78]

1. Frankly 1004T would be good for few more years albeit it's already end-of-life meaning you'll not get any new updates. Unless you have compelling reasons to upgrade, like you need more processing power/ram and/or 2.5G ethernet to drive the NAS e.g. streaming and running demanding apps, you should be good. A better approach for you case IMHO is to expand the space capability with an external caddy. That said, it's really up to you.

2. AS1004T is an ARM 32-bit, AS1104T and AS3304T is ARM 64-bit and AS5304T x86_64 64-bit. While you can easily transfer disks from an old NAS to a newer ones of the same model (usually warranty replacement), this part is abit unclear which I don't think it will work due to the architecture differences. You should ask Asustor directly, https://www.asustor.com/en/about/contact_us.

[lenGoodwin]

Still waiting for a response from Asustor.

[lenGoodwin]

Looks like migration is possible. See the email from Jeffrey Wong of Asustor below:
Hi Len,

Yes, with our feature System Migration all you need to do is power off the old NAS safely, then remove the drives and insert them in the exact sam order into the new NAS, You power it on and let it boot, once it boots you should be able to log in like normal with everything intact.
Here's an article about System Migration
https://www.asustor.com/online/College_ ... 343&lan=en

Thank you
Best regards
Jeffrey Wong

Now the questions is how long to expect the 1004T to last, since it has been discontinued and support is limited. My box was purchased in 2017. Ma6ybe I wilkl post a question about others experiences with average life.