Splitting a volume so I can remove a disk

[ovalcoconut]

I have one volume I've named 'D'
I have two disks in this volume, one 1TB HDD, and one 2TB HDD.

My data takes up 1.6TB. I started with the 1TB HDD as that was what I had at the time, then I bought the 2TB HDD, and added to the system a month later for more storage. Now I'm realizing the error in my ways, and I'd like to move all of my data onto the 2TB HDD, and then make the 1TB HDD a separate Volume, so I can add/replace either disk at will. my data only takes up 1.6TB so I'm assuming it should be perfectly fine.

My end goal is to get my 1.6TB onto my 2TB HDD, in a volume named 'D'. Along with my 1TB HDD empty, and in a separate volume named 'E'

I have serveral pluggins with linked storage and users configured, I'd hate to have to redo all of that. I also want my data to be safe if one of my drives fail.

I have a few questions related to the matter:
In my current setup, it seems like the two disks are being treated as one. Are they? and if I remove one will I be able to access part of my data? or will is the data spread across the disks like a raid?
Will I need additional storage to do what I want?
What is the best practice for using multiple disks? Is there a 'correct' way?
How do you organize terabytes of media?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Stux]

Pretty much, you need to backup your files somewhere else, and then recreate the pool and restore.

A decent solution would be to use a 2nd 2TB disk, transfer the pool to that disk, then destroy the first pool.

You could then just add the other 2TB disk as a mirror to the new pool.

Alternatively, you could add a 1TB disk as a mirror of the 1TB disk and a 2TB disk as a mirror of the other 2TB disk.

 

[Chris Moore]

Your description of this makes it sound like you didn't do any research on how to configure the system before you setup the storage. This configuration gives you no protection at all; not from drive failure or even from bit rot. If either of these drives failed, you will lose all the data.
You need a complete redesign.
What is the purpose of this storage?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[gpsguy]

@Stux gave you a good recommendation at the bottom of his reply.

Depending on how you calculated the "1.6TB of data", I wouldn't recommend moving it to a 2TB drive. 2TB is a marketing number - in FreeNAS (and Windows) you only have ~1.8TiB of raw storage. If your 1.6TB is really 1.6TiB, then 1.6/1.8 would be 89%. Compression is enabled by default so you might save some space, but you're close to the point where performance may start to suffer.

I would buy a pair of 3,4,6 TB drives - depending on your budget. Put them in a new mirror and transfer your "1.6TB" of data to it. If you need more space, buy another pair of disks and extend your pool. There's a big overhead for mirrors, but given that the sweet spot for RAIDz2 is a minimum of 6 disks, going with mirrors is an affordable way of growing your pool slowly over time.

 

[ovalcoconut]

Yea, I jumped headfirst into FreeNAS without reading a bunch, so most of my experience with it has been fixing problems due to my rushing straight into things. However, I'm learning a lot while putting out the fires, which is the only good thing I guess. The main thing my server is doing is my own personal netflix server with the bonus of network storage.

I hadn't planned ahead with this build at all. I built a new desktop and salvaged the GPU. My old desktop was still pretty much a complete computer, so I decided to turn it into a server. It went up quickly, but now I have to deal with upgrading it while keeping the recommended practices.

I'll look into getting a couple of 4TB drives, then migrating over to that.