WARNING: This is risky. Just assume that you would only try this if you were ok losing your data.
When I got my first QNAP almost two years ago it didn’t support storage pools (or if it did I was oblivious). One of the advantage of storage pools is that they enable QNAPs snapshot replica feature. The trick is that you cannot migrate static volumes to storage pools, or so so says QNAP.
But it turns out there is a way to do this. Say you have a RAIDed static volume. There are at least two disks in such a volume, and you can withstand the loss of a single drive. You can “migrate” your data as follows:
- Shutdown NAS
- Remove all but one drive
- Power on NAS and wait for it to boot up. If you go to it (using QFinder for example) it will indicate that there are no disks.
- Insert a single drive (henceforth dubbed the “pool drive”)
- Choose “Restore to factory”
- Once it boots, delete the volume
- Use the deleted volume to create a storage pool and a new volume (I chose thin, because “why not”)
- Once the snapshot pool and vols are created, shutdown the NAS
- Remove the pool drive and insert the other drives
- Once the nas starts up restore to factory settings again.
- Once the factory reset is complete insert the pool drive again.
- You can now create shared folders on the storage pool, then rsync from the old static vol to the new storage pool.
The final step, once this is done (assuming you didnt lose any disks along the way!) you can expand the storage pool using the static vols, and viola, you’re back in action!
Thanks for the guide. I am interested to apply the above process to my QNAP. I just want to clarify a few things and I would greatly appreciate your feedback:
1) At step (4) is it possible to insert a fresh new HDD and format it or it is necessary to insert one of the old HDDs? Also is it necessary to insert it at the first bay or the bay is not important?
2) At step (5) when you are saying “Restore to factory” you mean “Reset settings to default without erasing data”. Its the software option which I guess it is equivalent to pressing and holding for 3 seconds the hardware reset button.
3) At step (9) I have to insert all the remaining drives of the same raid or all the drives of the NAS?
4) Do I have to recreate users, shared folders and other system configuration from scratch with this process?
Just to tell you that I currently have two volumes in my NAS. One RAID1 static system Volume and another single HDD thick volume which serves as a backup volume for the moment. I would like to delete the single HDD volume and create a single RAID5 thick volume under a storage pool .
Sorry for the delay in answering (almost 2 years – im sure you’ve solved it on your own by now!)
1) Yes, you can put a fresh hd in. That step is assuming you want to reuse drives, and not buy new ones.
2) Yes
3) All the drives of the same raid
4) I don’t believe you have to recreate users as those are stored outside the data volumes.
Thanks for the guide. I tried it but I have to say that in my case failed.
I followed the steps but the one mistake I believe I did is to shutdown NAS in step 11, after factory reset.
When NAS started up it deleted the DATA disc static volume to align it to the new storage pool, hence destroiying the static partition.
I don’t suggest people to execute this procedure unless PROPER and VERIFIED backup of EVERYTHING is available outside of NAS.
Also probably because changes of NAS software in these years.
Personally I had to recover from backups everything.