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Best Practice: Replace Healthy Drive w/ Larger Drive


tabdelgawad

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Hi - sorry if this has been asked/answered.  A quick search through the Manual/FAQ/Forum didn't turn up anything.

 

I'm running DrivePool on a Windows 7 machine.  The pool drives are in an 8-bay USB external enclosure and I have duplication turned on for the entire pool.  I have a healthy drive in the pool that I'd like to replace with a bigger drive.  I'd like to do this with a minimum of 're-balancing', so here are my questions:

 

1) Should I just add the new larger drive to the pool, then immediately (software) 'remove' the older drive?  Will this minimize 're-balancing'?

 

2) In general, is it better to let the pool re-balance with the 'removed' drive still physically connected? or is it better to let the pool regenerate the files on the removed drive from the duplicates?

 

I know any of these options will work fine - just wondering what the quickest and most robust approach is.

 

Thanks!

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Honestly, it depends on how you want to do it.

 

If you have the space available, you can remove the drive you want to replace first. 

 

But you could absolutely add the new drive, and then remove the smaller drive from the pool afterwards.

 

 

 

However, what I recommend here:

Remove the drive from the pool. Use the "Duplicate files later" option. This will remove the drive quickly, as it's leaving the duplicates on the drive. After the disk is removed, it will recheck the duplication status of the pool, and reduplicate files as needed.

Before it starts doing that, physically remove the "old" drive, and connect the larger drive.

This way, when it starts duplicating the data, it will use the new drive most likely. This will minimize the reshuffling of the files on the pool.

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So in my case, I have a DP 2.x Pool of 2 x 2TB HDDs with x2 duplication, of which I want to replace one. Can I:

1. In DP, choose "Remove"? It should be fast as all files are duplicated so it need not actuallty check anything. On the other hand, it can no longer achieve x2, wonder if that will give an issue?

2. Shut down machine, replace HDDs, boot, format new HDD, assign drive letter that I want, add to Pool?

 

I am hoping it is this easy and that DP will then reduplicate from the HDD that remained in the Pool?

 

Edit: Or do I:

1. Shut down machine, replace HDDs, boot. DP will be whining about a missing HDD

2. Choose "Remove" for the old HDD, wiat for it to finish

3. Format new HDD and assign drive letter that I want

4. Add new HDD to Pool?

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Either should work either way.  

 

Though, if you only have the two disks, it should allow you to quickly remove the second disk from the pool (at least that's what I've seen in testing). Once done, be able to add the second disk, and it will recheck the duplication status and start duplicating the data right away.

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