Converting back to RAID1 from RAID5

WD Legacy Products Sentinel Products
1

Hi, we are having some troubles with our Sentinel,

We stupidly added a 3rd hard drive with the view to having this one removable so we can keep safe copy offsite in case of fire/theft.  we didn’t read the instructions close enough to see that you cannot simply revert from RAID5 to RAID1.

So we did a full system restore with format with the 3rd drive removed (2x2TB drives took (exactly to the minute) 72 hours to format).  Well, as you can guess, going back into the dashboard still reports RAID5 but and the system reports that there is no drive D now!

Is the system now locked to RAID5 permanently?  Am I to assume that in order to try my above preference I would need to get a brand new DX4000?

Very frustrated and WD help desk isn’t too speedy.

Thanks in advance…

2

Did you do that middle step, Recreate my storage first, then the 3rd step retore.  Step one being unlock my drives not needed.

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I did yes (used a 512Mb memory stick) But since you’ve mentioned it, I shall try it again. 

I’ve since tried the restore without format and now everytime I’ve tried to type in my password it says it’s wrong even though I know it’s right (even copy and paste in setup then paste in login!!) This is getting tedious…

Thanks for your help I await further suggestions whilst I try the recreate my storage. 

4

each time you recreate storage you have to remake the usb stick, not so for the other one

try Admin   Big A as the password

administrator is user

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5

Thank you so much for your help, we now have a working system exactly how we want it (looks like it anyway!)

I removed all Hard drives,  plugged them into an XP machine, used the ‘diskpart’ utility to clear them off, reinitilise them with XP admin tool ‘computer managemant’

created a new 512MB memory stick used my 16GB stick previously created and within 2-3 hours I’m back in and working!

Thank you so much for your help!

6

Yea for you :)  I have been trying for 2 months :(  2 to 3 hours ???

That was my next step to put the drives in another box and play with them.  It is on day 2 again.  I also am trying to go from raid 5 to raid 1

7

The DX uses the drives in a GWP (I think) format.  but with diskpart reconfigures it back to a MBR. Then Computer Disk Management (part of the administrator tools) initialised it ready for use.

I’m happy that 72 hours of formatting is now a totally redundant task.  And our DX is now a useful piece of kit.

All WD had to do was include (or unblock) some tools that would help us to do the above without the headache!  with your help and my ‘don’t give a stuff’ attitude to looking after our HDs, it became a simple and painless task.

All I can see happens when you restore without format is it partitions the 2 disks C: @ 60GB and D: 1.8TB then copies the content of the memory stick and uncompresses to the C: drive.  The only head scratch I found was the DX decided to change  the IP addy  from .66 to .82 half way through user setup which made my internet window hang.

I hope this thread helps others in similar predicaments.