Problem mirroring boot volume

[nirfish9]

Hello ,
I have a freenas system (recently upgraded to 9.3) the OS is installed and booted from
a 16GB usb flash drive
I have bought a new 16GB usb flash drive to mirror the boot volume for redundancy.
I followed the instructions but for some reason I get an error message telling me the disk is too small.

mind you that both flash drives are 16GB
I have attached some screenshots from my system

any help would be much appreciated

thanks

 

[cyberjock]

Are they the same brand and model? I'm betting the new one is slightly smaller than the old one, and therefore not going to fit.

 

[DrKK]

Yes, this is very important. 16GB from brand X may have 1kB less than 16GB from brand Y. If the second device IS EVEN ONE BYTE smaller in available capacity, it will not mirror.

 

[nirfish9]

they are the same brand but not the same model (sandisk)
I guess there could be a slight difference in the size

lets say I buy another usb flash , exactly the same one I just bought , how can I "get rid" of the first one ? this is the one currently installed and running my freenas OS.

I am looking for a way that doesnt involve backing up my settings , re-installing and importing back my volumes if possible

thanks

 

[JohnKnee]

Before you run out and buy another 16GB usb drive, I would suggest that you re-install freenas onto the "smaller usb" drive first. Then mirror it to the "larger usb" drive. It should work and save you some money. But it means you have to backup your current config settings, do a fresh install and then reupload your old config settings.

 

[nirfish9]

I just thought of something , maybe my new USB flash drive is not formatted correctly , the current usb drive was formatted in the first install .
should I format my new USB drive to a certain file system before trying to mirror it ?

thanks

 

[danb35]

There's no need to format the USB to any particular filesystem. @JohnKnee's suggestion is a good one--back up your config db, do a clean install of 9.3 to the new drive, upload the config, then add the old drive as a mirror. Or, if you're going to be reinstalling anyway, backup the config, do a clean install to both drives, then upload the config.