Adding a drive to a NAS326

mihai

Hello all,

owner of a NAS326 here, have been using it for 2 years with a WD NASdrive. no problems so far.
i just got a new 6tb drive, that i want to set up on the second slot of my NAS326.

I remember when i first inserted the old drive it asked to format it. not a problem at that point since it was blank.

My question now:
if i add my new drive to the NAS, will it want to format the old drive and the new one??
the problem is the old drive is 3tb in size and it is almost full ! i have no place to backup the information. and it would be quite bad if the NAS decides to wipe both drives when it starts up.

what i want to know is:
1. power down NAS
2. add new drive (so configuration is 1 3tb drive in slot 1 and 1 6tb drive in slot 2)
3. power on NAS
what will it do when it starts? will it just ask me to format the new drive and keep my existing folders and settings? or will it want to wipe both??

i do not want to use RAID, i want maximum storage space, no redundancy.

thank you!

#NAS_Nov_2018

Mijzelf

It is supposed to offer you the option to create a new volume on the new disk. Depending on the type of the current volume, it might also offer you to expand the current volume.

It is not supposed to wipe the current volume without order.

Mijzelf

is there any way to move all the folders from the old volume to the new one??

Yes, several. You can use the filebrowser in the webinterface, or enable the ssh server to get command line access, and do it using (linux) shell commands.

Mijzelf

It is supposed to offer you the option to create a new volume on the new disk. Depending on the type of the current volume, it might also offer you to expand the current volume.

It is not supposed to wipe the current volume without order.

mihai

thank you for the feedback, i was afraid the NAS might make the choice for me

one more thing, if i add a new drive, and make a new basic partition, is there any way to move all the folders from the old volume to the new one??

i could just create new folders and use my PC do to the copy process, but i am wondering if there is a way to have the NAS do this internally.

Mijzelf

is there any way to move all the folders from the old volume to the new one??

Yes, several. You can use the filebrowser in the webinterface, or enable the ssh server to get command line access, and do it using (linux) shell commands.

mihai

i used the web interface only once when i set the nas up 2 years ago... did not remember it had a file browser. i mainly use the nas in my network at home so i access the folders in windows, as well as on my phone where i set up a webdav.

now, there are these "default share folders" like pictures, videos, there's also an admin.
can i move them to a new volume in the file browser?
only asking becuase the folder ADMIN at least seems to be quite important, something i would consider forever there on the volume that the NAS created.

like i said i got a new HDD, and i would like to move EVERYTHING on the old one to the new one, and just use the old HDD to set the NAS to do regular scheduled backups of the picture folder.

this should be doable with the file browser then?

thank you !

mihai

well it might be just me, but the file browser on my nas326 does not have a copy operation.
i connected an external drive, and wanted to copy my photo folder onto it.
all i have in the vicinity of copy is upload which starts a download operation in my browser with a ZIP that has my photo folder in it... useless.

anything i am missing?

Mijzelf

If I open the filebrowser on my 520, I get a tree of all shares and its subdirectories on the left, and the content of one of the shares/subdirectories on the right. And I can simply drag&drop the files from the right to the left.

If you can't, try another browser. I'm using Firefox.

mihai

this is an image from the manual, my menu looks just like this. 
there is no button for copy, i tried drag and drop on chrome, but i think never from left to right, or right to left.

mihai

will give it a try when i get home today, thanks !

mihai

so yeah, the drag and drop operation seems to be the key, the copy process starts, aaand finishes instantly. which was odd since i tried to copy 50gb.
so i start browsing on the internet and guess what there's a thread that says under the last update copy/move does not work. known issue. for QUITE some time.
so kudos to the zyxel guys for making a file browser that CAN NOT DO A COPY OPERATION.
this is basic stuff IMO...

anyhow i ended up using total commander and a SSH plugin, and i'm using the SSH option to manage the files. doing the copy operation via share on my windows PC.

but still... basic stuff, and nobody cares.

one more thing i can no seem to be able to move (or delete) the system shares... so that's nice.
anybody know if that can be done?
i would like to move the system folder "video" from volume 1 to volume 2. contents and everything.