Questions

[DaveH]

Hi I have some questions.
1 I have just bought 2 x 2TB drives and I would like to set them up as separate drives which setting do I select ?
2 Once I have formatted the drives I am unable to change that format without losing my data is that right ?
3 If was to fill one of the drives, and needed to replace that drive. When I put the new drive in the nas will it format both drives therefore losing the data on the drive still in the nas?
4 If I wanted to put that filled drive back in the nas because I needed to access the data on it will format the drive therefore losing the data?
I know these may seem basic questions to you guys but I am new to all this and have lot to learn.
Many thanks

[mike42dk]

Hi I have some questions.
1 I have just bought 2 x 2TB drives and I would like to set them up as separate drives which setting do I select ?

Non-RAID setting

2 Once I have formatted the drives I am unable to change that format without losing my data is that right ?

If you by format means RAID(SHR), non-RAID then yes, you have to rebuild the volume.

3 If was to fill one of the drives, and needed to replace that drive. When I put the new drive in the nas will it format both drives therefore losing the data on the drive still in the nas?

If the 2 disks are set up as 2 non-RAID volumes, then no, data will be kept on the volume still in the DS.

4 If I wanted to put that filled drive back in the nas because I needed to access the data on it will format the drive therefore losing the data?
I know these may seem basic questions to you guys but I am new to all this and have lot to learn.
Many thanks

Properly not, but it's not a recommended way to do that.

[DaveH]

Thanks for your reply
Non RAID setting is that RAID 0 or what is the best setting to give 2 separate volumes.

I don't understand your last answer. If I set up 2 non RAID volumes and when 1 of those volumes is full am I able to replace that volume with another disk set that one up as non RAID without losing data on the other volume still in the disk station and when required put back that filled disk in the disk station without losing data stored on that disk or the disk in the disk station.
Thanks

[maxxfi]

Non-RAID disk is often called as 'basic' disk in Synology terminology.
RAID 0 is something else: please read about basic RAID types: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

If you have two basic disks, one gets filled and you remove it, you won't lose data on the other volume (why should it? it's a *different* data volume), but the DSM will alert that system partition is degraded, because it misses the copy of system partition that is present on the disk you removed.

This idea of happily swapping disks in and out as they were USB disks doesn't work well with any NAS box.