Noob would like to expand. But not sure of the best way

[Shankap0tamous]

Currently I have:
An old POS PC. 2x3TB drives in a stripped array, no redundancy, non-ECC

What I Want:
A fancy new desktop NAS with more storage, redundancy, and ECC RAM
RAIDZ seems pretty neat, and is what I have chosen for now
I have a build made up but I'll bother another board with that

Ways I have thought of doing this:
1. Build the new server to have enough storage to just copy over all my data through my network. Costing the most $$ What could I do with the old drives?
2. Somehow incorporate my old drives into the new build, is this possible with RAIDZ? Will I need to hold my data somewhere temporarily?

 

[Chris Moore]

Build the new server to have enough storage to just copy over all my data through my network. Costing the most $$ What could I do with the old drives?

You are going to need to build the new server with new drives if you want to copy your data over, unless you have a temporary location to put the data so the 'old' drives can be repurposed. There is not a conversion between a stripe and RAIDz that allows the data to remain in the pool.
Additionally, how old is old? At some point, you will need new drives for reliability reasons.

 

[Shankap0tamous]

You are going to need to build the new server with new drives if you want to copy your data over, unless you have a temporary location to put the data so the 'old' drives can be repurposed. There is not a conversion between a stripe and RAIDz that allows the data to remain in the pool.
Additionally, how old is old? At some point, you will need new drives for reliability reasons.

Thanks! You got right to my point! I'll look into building a new system large enough to hold my existing data. My old drives are 4ish years old. Also 4TB drives seem to be in a more competitive price point now.

 

[danb35]

4TB drives seem to be in a more competitive price point now.

The most competitive price point is WD 8TB external USB drives, either the Easystore models from Best Buy (when on sale for ~$130) or the "Elements" model from Amazon (for about $150). Some of the Easystore units will give you a WD Red disk; others a white label that's still the same thing. Very easy to shuck.