Here's the situation, I already have 4 2TB drives being used in a Win 7 box running XBMC. They're just set as individual drives, c, d, e, & f. 3 are full, and 1 is about 1/4 full. I want to turn these drives into a FreeNAS RaidZ. But I want to keep the data.
I wouldn't mind if I had to purchase 2 more 2TB drives and try to free up the used 4th drive to make a 2+1. But could I then copy the data from 1 of the full drives over, then add that empty drive to the RaidZ to make a 3+1 while keeping the existing data? Then do the same to the remaining 2 full drives while making a 4+1 then a 5+1? I got a 3+1 1.5TB setup at work for dump storage and it works great.
I'd love to get these drives out of the Win 7 box and into a NAS in the office. I don't mind only having 1 parity drive, at least I'd be covered for 1 drive failure. I'm not sure on the inner workings of adding volumes and if you add a new volume to your RaidZ if it keeps your existing data. I know it'd be easier if I had all empty drives, I'd just create the raid and be done with it. But I got all this data in the way. Any ideas would be very helpful.
I wouldn't mind if I had to purchase 2 more 2TB drives and try to free up the used 4th drive to make a 2+1. But could I then copy the data from 1 of the full drives over, then add that empty drive to the RaidZ to make a 3+1 while keeping the existing data? Then do the same to the remaining 2 full drives while making a 4+1 then a 5+1? I got a 3+1 1.5TB setup at work for dump storage and it works great.
I'd love to get these drives out of the Win 7 box and into a NAS in the office. I don't mind only having 1 parity drive, at least I'd be covered for 1 drive failure. I'm not sure on the inner workings of adding volumes and if you add a new volume to your RaidZ if it keeps your existing data. I know it'd be easier if I had all empty drives, I'd just create the raid and be done with it. But I got all this data in the way. Any ideas would be very helpful.