Transferring Drives from WD My Cloud Mirror to Asustor AS6104T

[Pix]

Hello everyone,

My first time posting here so please go easy on me

To clarify, I've seen similar questions to the one I'd like to pose, the difference being I'd like to ask the same type of question but with my specific hardware in mind. Thus giving me a bit more peace of mind.

I am currently running a WD My Cloud Mirror with 2 x 3TB WD Red Drives. I've been using it for the better part of six months and it's terrible to say the least. Therefore I have started to look at other options, let's say, more NAS knowledgable companies than WD. After looking at QNAP, Synology and Asustor in some detail I've decided on a Asustor AS6104T. Before I go and by I'd like to clarify some, maybe obvious, questions.

1. Can I run a AS6104T with only two drives? (at least at the start, I'd add another 2 later)

2. Could I run it with 3?

3. I'd like to use my current WD Red Drives in the AS6104T, I'm pretty sure I couldn't just insert them and all would be good. Is there a good way to 'transfer' files to the new NAS. What comes to mind would be:

i. Use one drive from the WD to setup the AS3204T (Thus formatting it I'm guessing?) (Can I setup the AS6104T using only one drive? How would this affect the RAID Configuration?)
ii. adding the 2nd drive, which has data on it
iii. transferring said data
iv. reformatting second drive
v. The NAS then •should• clone the first drives data to the second to create the RAID 1.

Another option would be:

i. Buy a 3rd drive (With this option, would it have to be the same drive make/model/size? Or would say a WD Red 2TB do the trick?)
ii. Setup AS6104T using new drive
iii. Connect WD to AS6104T via Ethernet
iv. Transfer Data
v. Remove Both drives from WD and insert into AS6104T
vi. Reformat drives
vii. Re-create RAID

4. If the above options would work, how does adding drives affect the RAID configuration? If I'm using two drives in RAID 1 and I add a 3rd, does the NAS automatically 'add' the 3rd?

- As I'm doing all of this in my head, and not with hardware yet, the logistics get quite confusing I'd be grateful if any more experienced minds could inform me of any tips, tricks, pitfalls that I might not have thought of !

Thanks very much for all and any replies.

P.

[orion]

I believe the answer of all your questions is: https://www.asustor.com/en/online/Colle ... ?topic=352 That should be one of the most popular questions in this forum. (RAID migration and capacity expansion)

1. Can I run a AS6104T with only two drives? (at least at the start, I'd add another 2 later)

Yes. See details above.

2. Could I run it with 3?

Yes.

3. I'd like to use my current WD Red Drives in the AS6104T, I'm pretty sure I couldn't just insert them and all would be good. Is there a good way to 'transfer' files to the new NAS. What comes to mind would be:

i. Use one drive from the WD to setup the AS3204T (Thus formatting it I'm guessing?) (Can I setup the AS6104T using only one drive? How would this affect the RAID Configuration?)
ii. adding the 2nd drive, which has data on it
iii. transferring said data
iv. reformatting second drive
v. The NAS then •should• clone the first drives data to the second to create the RAID 1.

Yes. Start from a single disk volume, then migrate to RAID-1 configuration. The step "iii. transferring said data" should means copy from network, right? Before you are going to start, you'd better to make sure both of your disks are in good state (no bad blocks, ...etc.).

Another option would be:

i. Buy a 3rd drive (With this option, would it have to be the same drive make/model/size? Or would say a WD Red 2TB do the trick?)
ii. Setup AS6104T using new drive
iii. Connect WD to AS6104T via Ethernet
iv. Transfer Data
v. Remove Both drives from WD and insert into AS6104T
vi. Reformat drives
vii. Re-create RAID

Yes, you can do this way. The benefits is that you don't need to worry about something bad in the original 2 disks during the procedure.

4. If the above options would work, how does adding drives affect the RAID configuration? If I'm using two drives in RAID 1 and I add a 3rd, does the NAS automatically 'add' the 3rd?

Not automatically, you should change configuration manually. See above anchor for details. If I were you, I'll do disk check first, then apply method-3. It takes time. After done, you should get RAID-1 volume ready. After you run out of volume space, you can add one more disk to migrate to RAID-5 to expand volume size.

[Pix]

Hi Orion,

Thanks very much for the reply. The article you linked is indeed very helpful, I think the best solution is the one were I'd buy a new drive and use it to setup, then migrate the existing two.

Thanks again, I'm sure I'll have a few more questions when I start the migration, but more on that later