[Help] Need help removing a "RAIDed" Drive from TNAS Server

[anncarson]

I'm hoping this is an easy question. I have Terramaster Server F2-221 running TOS 4.20.40-. I have a single 12TB drive that is hosting my media files in Bay 1. I bought another 12TB drive that I want to "add" to the server for a total of 24TB of storage. I do not want to set it up as a RAID pair. Previously, I bought two 8TB drives that I mistakenly tried to set up as a RAID. I'm not the most saavy so when that didn't work, I just took out the 8TB drives and popped my original 12TB drive back in. I'm starting to starting to run out of storage on the original 12TB and need to figure out a solution. I have removed the "RAIDed" drive as a volume, but I cannot remove it from the storage pool. I click delete and it pops back up. Can anyone give me some advice on how to "remove" the RAIDed drive from the server and how to add the a 2nd 12TB drive to the server so that there is 24TB of storage?

[EriChan]

In response to your expansion request for the F2-221:

1. Regarding the deletion operation:

Please confirm if only one 12TB hard drive is currently in use on the F2-221. Given that you mentioned the deletion operation, if there is no backup of the data on the hard drive, deleting the storage pool and volume will result in data loss.

2. Regarding storage expansion

Steps:

• Insert the new 12TB hard drive into Bay 2.

• Go to Storage Management > Storage Pool > Create.

• Select the newly inserted hard drive and choose Single Disk mode.

• After creating the storage pool, switch to the Volume tab and click Create.

• Assign the new volume to the storage pool you just created.

Final result: You will see two volumes (e.g., Volume 1 and Volume 2) in the system, each with 12TB. Although this does not provide a continuous 24TB space, it is the safest method and does not require modifying the data on the first drive.

3. Why JBOD or RAID0 is not recommended?

While JBOD and RAID0 can combine the two drives into a single 24TB partition, they have two major drawbacks:

• Formatting required: To set up JBOD or RAID0, both hard drives need to be formatted, including the first drive with existing data.

• Risk of data loss: In JBOD or RAID0 mode, if either drive fails, all data on both drives is typically lost.

[Lavenir]

Is that 8TB drive in your RAID still in use? If not, I think you can just plug in the new drive, create a new volume on its own, and then create a shared folder on it. That'll give you the full 24TB of space, though it won't all be contained within one shared folder.

[EriChan]

Thanks for your enthusiastic sharing! We are honored to see you actively providing advice to other users in the community.