Best way to expand and factory default Ultra 4 Plus

[sveinemonster]

I have a ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus. Right now I have installed two 2 tb seagate disk, I want to install to additional 2 tb seagate disks and factory default the ReadyNAS. What is the best and/or fastest way to do this?

[gibxxi]

Factory defaulting the NAS will wipe all existing data off the disks. So if you intend to factory default anyway, just add the two remaining disks and then factory default the unit.

You can add the two disks (one at a time) and allow it to re-sync the existing RAID array without having to factory default. But you will have to wait until the first sync completes until you can add the last disk AFAIK.

[TeknoJnky]

What is the best and/or fastest way to do this?

- power off device
- insert additional disks
- use boot menu to factory default (this of course erases EVERYTHING)
- use RAIDAR to choose x-raid/flex-raid
- wait about 10-20 minutes for raid to initalize
- wait 4-8 hours for raid to resync and become redundant

[readysecure1985]

TeknoJnky is right here, as is gibxxi,

Usually factory defaulting is not necessary unless you are reaching the lifetime expansion maximum. In which case you will need to default for the expansion to work correctly. I would suggest trying to expand without defaulting, as it will not disable the use of it for the 20 minutes, however, it will require a reboot to complete in most cases.

[sveinemonster]

I booted down the system, added the extra disks and did a factory default. The reason why I did this is because I have been experiencing some problems that I don't know how to fix. Thanks!