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Storage Pool Expansion by Adding Disks - PC

Users are allowed to add new drives for capacity expansion in both JBOD and RAID 5 modes. If there are sufficient drive bays on the NAS device, RAID 10 is also supported in principle.

**Important Note: **Before proceeding with storage pool expansion, it is recommended to back up all critical data and consult professionals for detailed guidance. During the entire expansion process, ensure the device is continuously powered to avoid data loss and system crash caused by unexpected power outage. For data backup, refer to How to Implement Drive Replacement for Expansion

Steps to change the RAID type

Preparations before starting:

  • Verify that the storage pool is in a normal state.

  • Prepare the new hard drive: its capacity must be greater than or equal to the capacity of the smallest hard drive in this storage pool, and it is recommended that all hard drives be of the same type and model.

  • Capacity expansion is an irreversible operation. Please proceed with caution.

To change the RAID type of a storage pool:

Take RAID 5 as an example, the operation of JBOD is similar

  1. Prepare hard disks: Ensure that a sufficient number of available hard disks are installed on the device (the capacity of a new hard disk shall not be less than that of the existing hard disk).

  2. Navigate to the "Storage Management" page: click **[System Settings -> Storage Management]**, and locate the storage pool that requires disk addition for capacity expansion.

  3. To expand a storage pool: click the**.. . **icon on the right side of the target storage pool, then select Expand Storage Pool. If this option is not available, it means the current RAID mode does not support this operation.

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  1. In the pop-up options, select the type of operation you want to perform as adding a disk, and click " **Expand Now **".

  2. Select the available hard drives to add to the storage pool. Note: All data on the newly added hard drives will be erased, so please be sure to back up your data in advance. Refer to the How to back up hard drive data? for more information.

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  1. After confirming that the settings are correct, click " **Confirm **", enter the password of the administrator account, then click " **Confirm Deletion **", and the system will start capacity expansion. During the conversion process, the status of the storage pool will be changed to **Synchronizing **status. After the synchronization is completed, the storage pool will automatically return to the normal state.

⚠️ Important Notice

  • Capacity delay display: If the new capacity after RAID expansion will not be displayed normally until the data synchronization is completed, please wait patiently.

  • Single-disk expansion: Currently, only adding one hard drive at a time for expansion is supported, and adding multiple hard drives simultaneously is not supported. If you need to expand with multiple hard drives, please add them one by one in batches and complete the conversion for each.

  • Storage pool RAID5 disk expansion synchronization takes a long time and occupies system resources, which may cause device performance degradation. See " Why RAID synchronization is so slow " for details. It is recommended to operate during device idle time. During the repair process, please ensure that your Iron Bull NAS device is continuously powered and avoid restarting to avoid abnormal operation and data loss.