I recently upgraded mycloud ultra2 with a 6 TB drive; however, the previous drive was 4 TB. The drive is not recognizing the extra storage. I am mirroring the drives for extra back-up protection. Any ideas on what i can do to get the system to recognize both 6 TB drives?
Just to be clear, you were previously using one 6TB and one 4TB drive in a mirrored config, is that correct? This means you would only be having a 4TB mirrored volume. Was the extra space on the older 6TB drive configured as a spanned volume, or did you leave it empty? AFAIK, by inserting a new bigger drive this way, the NAS is only going to autorebuild to match the existing 4TB volume.
I might be mistaken, but there is an option to “expand” a RAID volume somewhere. Look in the Storage/RAID section, then click Change Raid Mode, select RAID 1, and the option should be there. If the extra space is not already in use as a spanned volume, you should be able to expand your mirrored volume to full capacity.
Reminder, before doing something drastic like changing modes, make sure you have backups before doing so.
Thank you, your assumptions are all correct, will try what you recommend.
I performed a RAID 1 expansion and that did not work. I originally had a 4tb drive in one side mirrored and then I put in 6tb, however, it only seems to read 4 tb, any other suggestions except wiping the drives and starting over?
The last time I messed with RAID was several years ago, so I am not too sure about the current rebuild process WD uses. I looked up some threads on this topic, and it seems the process is somewhat complicated. An expansion needs to be done drive by drive; we cannot simply remove a drive, slot in a new one, and have the unit do the rebuild.
I’ll be concerned if you have already used up the excess space as a spanned volume, in which case, it will need to be deleted, so the likelihood of starting over is high. If you go to Shares and try to create a new folder, do you have the option to choose between Volume_1 and Volume_2? If so, Volume 1 is your 4TB RAID volume, and Volume 2 is the span volume (the leftover space).
If that’s not the case, then I believe the process goes like this: you have to have both original drives (the 6 and 4) in the unit, then go to Change RAID mode, select RAID 1, choose Expand, then it’ll ask you to remove one of the drives before continuing. It’s complicated when done using the WD process. Some users report it works, others say it doesn’t. Have a look at some of the comments and advice here, and maybe get in touch with those who have successfully done this:
If it was me, I’d save myself the trouble and keep aside the 4TB drive (assuming it’s not already wiped, it’s a mirror of your previous RAID volume, so the data should be safe and complete). Start over with the 2x 6TB drives, hook up the 4TB to a PC, and copy over the data manually. But this is not for everyone, and if you have critical data without any other backups, it’s best to look into those threads or ask around in case someone else has a better suggestion.
I did a “spanning’ on volume 2 and now I show more tb available; however, volume one shows s raid1 and volume 2 shows spanning. Now I am not sure what I have done. Do you know if I have raid1 coverage on both drives? I might have to start all over and erase the drives. Any help here is appreciated as I am an admitted novice.
Also, when I perform a scan disk it shows that volume 1 fails.