TerraMaster Forum

Hi,

I recently upgraded the drives in my F2-221. Previously I was running a single 4TB drive in raid 0 on TOS 4.X. I then changed it to two 8TB drive in raid 1 on TOS 5. I now have the old 4TB drive with all of the data that I want to put into the upgraded F2-221. My thought was that I could use a sata docking station plugged into my pc to transfer all the data to the F2-221. I see now that I can't. I also thought that I could plug the sata docking station to the F2-221, but I don't think I can do that either. And I'm very afraid to connect this old drive back into the F2-221 to tranfer the data because I afraid that if reformats it and erases the data or something. This data is very sentimental to me so I can't lose it. How can I transfer the data from this 4TB drive to the raid 1 setup on my F2-221?

If you used Windows to mount it, it likely didn't recognize the either BTRFS or EXT4 file systems TOS uses.

If you don't have WSL2 installed, then you could use a live session of most current flavors of Linux (via USB) to boot into and access your old drive's contents & could even start the copy process within that session.

engineg wrote: ↑18 Sep 2023, 00:49 Hi,

I recently upgraded the drives in my F2-221. Previously I was running a single 4TB drive in raid 0 on TOS 4.X. I then changed it to two 8TB drive in raid 1 on TOS 5. I now have the old 4TB drive with all of the data that I want to put into the upgraded F2-221. My thought was that I could use a sata docking station plugged into my pc to transfer all the data to the F2-221. I see now that I can't. I also thought that I could plug the sata docking station to the F2-221, but I don't think I can do that either. And I'm very afraid to connect this old drive back into the F2-221 to tranfer the data because I afraid that if reformats it and erases the data or something. This data is very sentimental to me so I can't lose it. How can I transfer the data from this 4TB drive to the raid 1 setup on my F2-221?

Here's what I would do. Power down and remove both of your 8tb drives. Put your old 4tb drive back in assuming it had a working copy of TOS before you removed it. Boot up on the 4tb drive and install USB copy if you don't already have it installed. Get a disk drive big enough for your data, it can be a USB drive or a drive in a SATA docking station. Copy your data onto the USB attached drive. When you have all your data copied power down and remove the old 4tb drive and put you new 8tb drives back in. Boot up and copy your data back.

Worst case, once you have your data on an exfat drive, you can use a PC to copy across the network onto the TOS box.

I wouldn't bother trying to get a PC to read your 4tb drive. I have a PC that can dual boot Ubuntu or run the WSL and I can read Ext4 drives from other Linux machines but not from TOS drives. Not sure why but it's been a dead end for me.

titanrx8 wrote: ↑18 Sep 2023, 02:43
I wouldn't bother trying to get a PC to read your 4tb drive. I have a PC that can dual boot Ubuntu or run the WSL and I can read Ext4 drives from other Linux machines but not from TOS drives. Not sure why but it's been a dead end for me.

Probably because the TOS drives have raid partitions on them. Plus the OP said his 4TB drive was set up as Raid 0, so (if that was correct) it would also make it difficult to read elsewhere. I agree with your solution but would add to keep the "intermediate" stage drive as a permanent backup if the data is so intrinsically valuable.

Gremlin wrote: ↑18 Sep 2023, 04:35

titanrx8 wrote: ↑18 Sep 2023, 02:43
I wouldn't bother trying to get a PC to read your 4tb drive. I have a PC that can dual boot Ubuntu or run the WSL and I can read Ext4 drives from other Linux machines but not from TOS drives. Not sure why but it's been a dead end for me.

Probably because the TOS drives have raid partitions on them. Plus the OP said his 4TB drive was set up as Raid 0, so (if that was correct) it would also make it difficult to read elsewhere. I agree with your solution but would add to keep the "intermediate" stage drive as a permanent backup if the data is so intrinsically valuable.

Actually tos won't read any Ext4 drives that is USB attached. I've tried it with non-raid Ext4 drives USB attached and also USB SSD drives. Have never gotten anything to read in TOS USB unless it's exfat or NTFS.

titanrx8 wrote: ↑18 Sep 2023, 02:43 Here's what I would do. Power down and remove both of your 8tb drives. Put your old 4tb drive back in assuming it had a working copy of TOS before you removed it. Boot up on the 4tb drive and install USB copy if you don't already have it installed. Get a disk drive big enough for your data, it can be a USB drive or a drive in a SATA docking station. Copy your data onto the USB attached drive. When you have all your data copied power down and remove the old 4tb drive and put you new 8tb drives back in. Boot up and copy your data back.

The 4TB drive should have a copy of TOS4 because it was running fine before I pulled it out for the two 8TB drives. Just to clarify, because the 4TB drive was running TOS4, then plugging it back in wouldn't cause any problems with the TOS update because that drive still contains TOS4. Is that correct? Meaning that it wouldn't try to reformat the drive to prepare it to run with TOS5?

I have a 3TB NAS drive on a SATA docking station that is connected to the USB port in the F2-221. I can see it on the Hard Drive section in the Settings menu. But I can access it to put any files into it. I planned on using that for the data transfer to the new 8TB drives. Is there a way to connect it for use?

engineg wrote: ↑19 Sep 2023, 03:42

titanrx8 wrote: ↑18 Sep 2023, 02:43 Here's what I would do. Power down and remove both of your 8tb drives. Put your old 4tb drive back in assuming it had a working copy of TOS before you removed it. Boot up on the 4tb drive and install USB copy if you don't already have it installed. Get a disk drive big enough for your data, it can be a USB drive or a drive in a SATA docking station. Copy your data onto the USB attached drive. When you have all your data copied power down and remove the old 4tb drive and put you new 8tb drives back in. Boot up and copy your data back.

The 4TB drive should have a copy of TOS4 because it was running fine before I pulled it out for the two 8TB drives. Just to clarify, because the 4TB drive was running TOS4, then plugging it back in wouldn't cause any problems with the TOS update because that drive still contains TOS4. Is that correct? Meaning that it wouldn't try to reformat the drive to prepare it to run with TOS5?

I have a 3TB NAS drive on a SATA docking station that is connected to the USB port in the F2-221. I can see it on the Hard Drive section in the Settings menu. But I can access it to put any files into it. I planned on using that for the data transfer to the new 8TB drives. Is there a way to connect it for use?

If you remove the 8tb drives before putting in the old 4tb drive you'll be fine. Just don't update TOS from TOS 4 because your root partition is too small.

As far as your 3tb drive connect it to a PC and make sure that it's formatted for exfat or NTFS. Wait until the TOS 4 is fully booted before connecting the docking station. Use USB copy to copy your files or file manager on a PC on your network for the copy. Don't try to drag and drop using the TOS file manager. It won't copy full directories.

I removed the two 8TB drives (TOS5) and put the old 4TB drive (TOS4) back in. I booted up the F2-221 and when I opened the TNAS PC app it finds the drive, but I am unable to log into it (with the intention of mapping the drive so that I can temporarily transfer the files to my external HHD). I don't know if it makes a difference or not but I'm trying to open it with the latest TNAS PC app (V5.0.35). When I click "Login", the app tries to open explorer to the device's IP address but it never loads. Did I miss some step?

Don't use tnas PC. Map the drive using file explorer.

You cannot have TOS4 and TOS5 on the same device.