Understanding Storage pools and allocation

[orangebloss]

I've had my f2-221 a few years and have installed 2x 4tb HDD., running TOS 5.1.67-00214

I'm getting close to capacity but only have 4tb capacity so have a few questions....

1. Is it possible to use all 8tb?
2. Is it wise to use all of it?
3. Currently set up as TRAID so assume this is why only one is available for storage? Is it acting as a back up and if so how would I see that data? I currently also back up to an external SSD regularly.
4. What are my options for increasing storage?

All assistance welcome!

[Gremlin]

Traid on a 2 drive machine is equivalent to Raid1 (Mirror) but with certain (?limited?) advantages when it comes to increasing capacity.
Raid is never a "backup" (so continue with your backups, regardless). It provides redundancy, so the machine can continue to operate should one drive fail.
You are, in effect, using 'all of it' but not in the way you probably mean. You could re-configure to run as 2 single drives, or combine the 2 drives in a raid0 configuration but that does have disadvantages in terms of the effort to do it (cleaning and rebuilding your drives/data) and lack of redundancy (single drive failure in raid0 is total failure).
Your options?
Best (IMO) is 2 larger drives. Follow the procedures and replace one drive with larger (you will not see any capacity increase at this point). When completed traid rebuild, replace the second drive, etc. You will then see the new capacity as the capacity of 1 larger drive (with the second as the new mirror).
You could purchase a multi-drive usb model to act as an expansion unit - (See TM product pages to start.)

You should look to manually update your nas to (at least) Tos5.1.145 PROVIDED you have already taken steps to increase your system partition to 8GB

[orangebloss]

Thanks! That makes sense!