Upgrade NAS...How to migrate data?

[DSA]

My older Dlink DNS-323 in Raid 1 (2 WD 1.5tb drives) just seems slow these days, and it has always had pretty poor transfer speeds. So time to think about upgrade, perhaps to Synology DS220.
I am pretty sure I cannot just pop the drive out of Dlink into the new NAS and be able to read the data and recreate the raid 1.
Do I need to get another hdd, copy all data to it, create new Raid 1 on the new device, and copy back all the data?? With the slow speed of the Dlink, I would think it would take a looooong time.
Just want to make sure I do it right....
Thx

 

[L&LD]

I suggest you get two new HDD's or SSD's of 4GB or larger and create a new RAID1 on them on the new NAS.

Copy the data from the DNS-323 to the new NAS after it is fully set up and you have tested its options to ensure it is stable and works as it should. Make sure to keep the old DNS-323 with the original HDD's around as long as possible to ensure that the new NAS and data drives are as reliable as they should be (at least a couple of months, IMO).

Whatever you do, don't 'break' the RAID1 you have now. You may be risking losing all your data.

Btw, the DNS-323 was just about the slowest external storage solution I have ever used. You'll be wishing you upgraded much sooner to a real NAS.

 

[DSA]

Yes the Dlink is a pig! Have been wanting to do for some time (years!) but life gets in the way. Good idea to go with new hdds....more expense, but probably a lot less headache.
Maybe the Synology paired with the Seagate Constellation or Barracuda Compute drives...vs Ironwolf..?
Thx for your reply.

 

[L&LD]

I prefer the WD RED NAS drives myself, but the Ironwolf series should be comparable.

The 'NAS' drives are preferable.

Just make sure the WD RED drives are not using SMR technology inside (they're much slower).

https://www.techspot.com/news/84973-wd-publishes-complete-list-smr-drives-following-user.html

 

[dosborne]

Agree that you should use either WD RED or Seagate Ironwolf. Running both in various NAS drives.

As for the DNS-323, I still have 3 of them running along just fine. I went the FFP route and removing anything that isn't critical still makes these great boxes, albeit a bit slow. I wouldn't want them "exposed" to the internet, but for file backups they work great.

I also like the suggestion to simply populate the new NAS with new drives and copy stuff over. This allows you to keep the old unit for backup. You may want to look into FFP to help customize the box too (http://dns323.kood.org/howto:ffp)

 

[DSA]

Ok so the Synology ds220j and 2 4tb ironwolfs are on the way. What is exact best method to copy over 1.4 TB of data from the old DNS-323 to the new Synology? If I just have them both on the same network and do a windows file (drag and drop) copy of the volume, I would think it would take daaaaayyyyyssss, given how slow the Dlink is.
Could I pop a drive out of the Dlink into the Synology and migrate data that way, then replace with the other 4tb drive so it can be mirrored? Prob not me thinks. Thx for advice.

 

[Mark070]

Over the years, I moved from Synology DS212J -> DS412+ -> DS1515+. Each time, I have done exactly what @L&LD mentioned, bought new drives keeping the old in place. They told me, "as long as you move drive bay 1 to drive bay 1 in the new set up , for each drive, it would work seamless". No, not for me. That's why I bought new and just did boring old drag-n-drop data copy from old to new.

I then manually reinstalled and configured packages I needed. I am not saying this is the only way .. This allowed me to keep my old running while working on the new, until everything worked. Give the old one to your buddy

 

[dosborne]

Going between vendors DO NOT just insert the old drives into the new unit unless you want to format the drives and erase all the data.

Just take the advice already posted multiple times by multiple people. Setup up the new one and copy the data. Verify it has copied and is usable before doing anything with the old unit. Yes, it will take time.

 

[L&LD]

@DSA, the answers above are what I would have said too. But, depending on how important the data is, you can take a chance to save a few minutes of your time 'dragging' files between the old/new units. After all, we don't need to be there while it is actually copying.

Not only is the manual copying steps not time-intensive for us personally, but it is also a good way to test the new unit with actual usage.