Hello, my EX4100 unit broke but the drives were still operating. WD sent me a new unit but my drives are not being recognized and the system wants me to delete them. I have 4 blank 8TB drives and I have my original 4 8TB drives. How can I get the data from my old drives transferred to my new drives without losing data? I’ve seen I can buy an adaptor and plug it into my computer to copy the data but the system is asking if I want to run first aid on it. I had it set up to have a redundant backup of all files so I only have about 12TB of data to transfer. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Hi @ehanch
Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting:
The “old” drives have to be inserted in the new unit in the exact order they were installed in the old unit.
You should then get an option somewhere about “raid roaming”. This is what you want to do: You have a raid array that is roaming loose in the landscape, which you have installed into a new NAS box.
Under no circumstances should you do anything that sounds like “format” or “repair” or “First aid.”
If importing a roaming array works. . . there are no further steps. The old disks and all their data will be LIVE on your new system. Total time for the process is about 10 minutes, including installing the drives. (of course, its never that simple).
Plugging an adapter into a computer. . . . .presumably, this is a 4 disk caddy that attaches all four disks to you computer at once? Then you will need Linux software that can read the raid array. (There is software for Windows that will read a Linux Raid Array directly – - → I have never looked for it, but I know it is out there).
If you want to copy your data from the old drives to the new drives, I can think of three ways.
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Official way (I do not recommend): Once the old disks are up an running in the new box; remove 1 disk and replace it with a fresh disk. The unit will note the “change” and should prompt you to “rebuild the raid array”. Lots of copying will happen. Time will pass. When finished. . . .repeat three more times with other disks. I don’t recommend this because. . . so much can go wrong.
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Buy a 4 disk caddy, and “read the array” on the PC using Linux raid software. (like I suggested above). Once you can read the array. . . . get the new NAS unit up and running and start copying files. Word of advice: Have PC on a wired, not wireless network connection.
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Once the old disks are up an running in the new EX4100 box; Install new drives in one of these. The new toy has file management that will allow background copying NAS to NAS without involving your PC. There is also backup programs that can get the job done better than the stock WD OS/5 software.
Connect your old drives to your computer with an adapter. Run First Aid if asked, then copy all data to a safe place. Do this for each drive. Once everything’s backed up, set up the new EX4100 with blank drives. Transfer your data back and set up RAID like before. If you can’t access data from single drives that were in RAID, you might need special software or expert help. Don’t delete anything from the old drives until you’re sure you’ve got all your data back and working on the new setup.
