DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Largest drive - I am using 2x1tb drives in a raid1, many people are using 1tb drives, look at the sticky post on drive compatability to see what people are using.  I did what you are suggesting 250gb -> 1tb by:
pulling drives (both) from the dns323, installing new ones (format & setup raid1)
installing ffp and running unfsd on new setup
installing and mounting one of the old drives on a linux machine
mounting the dns323 with new drives (in raid1 config) via nfs
cp'ing everything from old drive to dns over the network, performance was ok, and I only have a 100mb network.
lu

You can use Ext2 Installable File System For Windows

TexanAviator wrote:

Thanks for getting back to me with that information. I was afraid I might have to use another box to mount one of the drives to. I have a desktop but it is running winxp... Ill try and find if there is a way to mount it up to copy over.

You could burn an ubuntu live cd - (available from their website) which will let you boot ubuntu linux off the cd.  I couldn't get copying to work this way, maybe because /tmp was in ram - with the live cd the whole OS is loaded in ram - so it won't make any changes to your winxp system.  A much easier solution for copying your data has already been suggested - the installable fs driver for windows - I have used it - it works great.
lu

No, you will have to do it manually from the shell prompt.  The dns does not support USB drives without fun_plug.

To do it that method, you will take out you 2 old drives and put 1 in the usb case.  Safguard the other one for now.  Insert your 2 new drives and set them up.  This is the step that may cause you heartache.  The DNS is hit or miss on setting up raid1 using the web interface.  I usually do it manually.  Anyway, let's assume the web interface gets it all set-up no problem.  The first thing after that is to install ffp.  I use 0.5 (see the wiki).  You will also need to copy the attached usb-storage.ko module to the root of the drive (the same place as the fun_plug).  After reboot, you will have telnet access (putty is a good telnet client, google it).  Establish telnet access to the DNS and do the following:

/ # insmod /mnt/HD_a2/usb-storage.ko

This will allow the USB hard drive to work with the dns.  Now, plug in the USB enclosure with your old drive in it.  Wait about 15 seconds.  Now you will need to mount it so you can have access to it.  Do this:

/ # mkdir /mnt/USB
/ # mount /dev/sdc2 /mnt/USB

This should have just mounted your USB drive on /mnt/USB.  You can CD into it if you want and your data should all be there.  To copy your data, run:

 cp -dprf /mnt/USB/* /mnt/HD_a2

This can take several hours to copy.  Do not interupt the process or use the DNS during this time.  If you have a UPS, you may want to put the DNS on it before you start, just in case of the unforseen power outage.  On the other hand, you still have that second copy of your data on the other old drive.

Once the copying is done (you will get the prompt back), do the following to make sure all copy jobs are closed and unmount your USB:

/ # sync
/ # umount /mnt/USB

You can the use the exit command to exit the telnet session.

This may sound kind of complecated, but it is actually very easy and fast.  Here is the log of me doing it on my computer.  There is only feedback if there are errors.  If there are, stop where you are, copy them and post them here.  This is exactly what my telnet session looks like with everything going perfect:

/ # insmod /mnt/HD_a2/usb-storage.ko
/ # mkdir /mnt/USB
/ # mount /dev/sdc2 /mnt/USB
/ # cp -dprf /mnt/USB/* /mnt/HD_a2
/ # sync
/ # umount /mnt/USB
/ # exit

---

Attachments:
usb-storage.ko, Size: 44,215 bytes, Downloads: 256

The problem with copying from a windows machine is that windows will reset all of your file permissions when you copy.  By doing it natively, you can preserve these things.  It really becomes important if you ever decide to run extra software off the DNS.  It is your choice.  I have never gotten the software that mounts ext2 partitions in Windows to work, but I think it has to do with Vista.  There are a ton of people who have gotten it to work on XP here on the forum.  The other thing with doing it over the network is that it is slower and prone to more errors, as you have now introduced another machine, and all the network hardware in between the drives.  It is your choice, but I personally prefer to do things with as little in the middle. 

In my opinion, I do think copying it natively is the easiest, because it only involves copying 3 files, rebooting, and typing a few commands, where as using a desktop involves a little more work of installing and configuring.  I don't have a problem using a command prompt, though.  You could think of it as an opportunity to start learning how Linux works, and the DNS can become a very powerful little device, if you so choose.


The drive looks fine.  I like WD drives.  I am running 2 of the WD Green 1TB drives in mine.  I would recommend them for this device, as you will see no performance increase by using the higher end drives you listed.  The Green drives are usually less expensive.

If you have access to an imaging software such as symantec ghost...

Power down the unit and take out the drive.  Connect the old drive and the new drive to another computer you have that has the imaging software on it.  Do a local disk to disk image transfer from the old disk to the new disk.  With ghost, for example, I would use ghost32.exe run on my Vista machine with the drives hooked up via USB, but they can be connected via SATA, ESATA, USB, Firewire, etc.

Your imaging software should have instructions on how to use it.  Also, do not confuse norton ghost with symantec ghost.  Norton ghost is a consumer version of symantec ghost that does not contain all the features.

You may get an error saying that the new drive is a different size than the new one.  That is no problem, it will copy the partitions as is.  You may want to check with a partiton software to verify the sizes.  The other option is to create the new partition structure on your new disk and then do partition to partition image transfers which will keep the the same.

TexanAviator wrote:

I have two WD 2TB Green drives coming in. Has any easier way to transfer these drives developed  yet?
Texan

Care to share your experiences on whether the 2tb disks work okay, once they arrive?
I've yet to find any indications of how well the 2tb WDs work in a dns-323 anywhere.

To my experience. USB mount to DNS-323 is the best option.
1. I had bad experience with ghost to a different size partition. If you use same size, then you'll need to enlarge the partition use some other software.
2. Copy from windows was my worst experience. Ext2 file system driver from fs-driver.org won't support size 256 inode so it cannot mount my 200GB old drive. I used one from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/ and it worked. Then Windows XP copy failed with the infamous path file name too long error! Yes and I have tried TeraCopy, it hanged in the middle of the copy and it doesn't handle international characters in file name.

Enough said. The direct USB mount to DNS-323 sounds complicated. But it worked and it was not that difficult.

Enjoy you new 2TB drives!