Frequently Asked Question

Introduction

This guide outlines the steps and considerations for swapping hard drive bays in a QNAP NAS system. The QNAP operating system supports Disk Roaming, allowing users to rearrange hard drives in different bays under specific RAID configurations.

Supported RAID Configurations

• Disk Roaming can be performed with the following RAID types:
  • RAID 1, 5, 6, 10

Procedure for Swapping Hard Drive Bays

1. Shutdown NAS
   • Before swapping the hard drive bays, it's essential to shut down the NAS completely. This step is vital to prevent data loss or system errors.
2. Swapping Hard Drives
   • Example Scenario: If you have 4 HDDs in an 8-bay NAS (from 1st to 4th bay), you can swap them to bays 5th to 8th.
   • The QNAP QTS is capable of recognizing and adjusting if the drives are scrambled (e.g., 1st HDD moved to the 4th bay, 4th HDD to the 6th bay, etc.)
3. Restart NAS and OS Repair
   • After repositioning the hard drives, power on the NAS.
   • The QNAP QTS will automatically detect the new arrangement.
   • Once the system has repaired the placement, it will indicate the drive location changes in the 'Storage & Snapshot' menu.

Important Considerations

• Avoid Hot-Swapping: Performing this operation while the NAS is powered on can cause the system to enter a degraded mode. It's crucial to ensure that the NAS is powered down before rearranging the drives.
• Data Backup: As a precaution, back up important data before making hardware changes, despite the redundancy provided by RAID configurations.
• Post-Swap Checks: After swapping and restarting the NAS, verify the drive status and health in the 'Storage & Snapshot' menu to ensure everything is functioning correctly.

Conclusion

Swapping hard drive bays in QNAP NAS systems can be done safely and effectively, provided the NAS is shut down during the process and the RAID configuration is supported. This flexibility allows for efficient management and maintenance of the NAS storage system.