Hi folks,
I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed - but it's a serene life in its own way - and it seems all the guides and Synology disk calculators in the seven corners of the net can't help me. AIs even less since they appear as ignorant as me but with more conviction.
So it's with much reluctance I bother you with my peasant's setup. Who knows, maybe it'll bring fond memories of your entry into datahoarding. That or PTSD.
I'm after recommendations to maximise space on my mixed drive Synology 5 bay NAS.
I'm prepared to:
Consider all the data on my nas (which may over the long term consume all my potential available space) as expendable, and back up small amounts of config docker data and valuable errata to cloud and local / offline. I'm prepared to wipe the drives now and have backed up everything I need.
But I'd much prefer:
To sacrifice a small portion for SHR redundancy (unless this is stupid {it's stupid, isn't it?}) and maximise usable space.
Because research is for other people:
I recently bought a 16tb drive rather than 2x 8tb and now can't shell out for a new drive, at least anything more than about AUD$100ish/$US70ish which at current market prices means I'm stuck with what I have for a while. A long forever while.
What I have is:
A 5 bay Synology 1019+ NAS running largely as a media server, but will house Home Assistant. All apps run in docker via docker compose and configs, with it all backed up.
HDDs in SHR btrfs:
16tb refurb'd WD Ultrastar (2021)
2x 3tb WD red (2015 but active in the Nas with low use for say 2 years tops)
2 X 1tb WD green (2015, same usage as the red) (I tried to WDIDLE3 it years back but couldn't).
500gb Dell enterprise from 2011 I probably found in a bin.
For a few years I ran the setup minus the 16tb without issue. I've not run the kind of disk checks you'd all recommend to ascertain health, and can only say here and now that Synology's storage manager GUI gives me an over confident 'healthy' signal.
I've in many years past had to rescue data (a freezer was involved if memory serves) I'd brazenly shoved into new disks before I learnt about failure rates, so I take Synology's 'healthy' with a grain of salt.
But let's for arguments sake pretend they are all ok, great, in fact, or at least ok enough for a peasant like myself.
This week in a bid to avoid asking you folks I listened to all the AIs tell me to replace a 1tb with the 16tb which would maximise space. They said choose repair, not replace, after swapping.
So right now I have (in disk order):
500gb
3tb
1tb
3tb
16tb
Still in SHR.
My total capacity according to Synology is 6.8tb.
I'm doing great, aren't I. Between following the advice of hallucinating Markov chains to inserting mismatched eco, red, and rubbish bin drives in random order, I think I've made my case to be a mod here rather confidently.
I kinda feel like I'd wear JBOD like an expensive tailored suit at this point with SHR not wanting to go anywhere near me and my dusty (did I mention the dust?) disks.
But hey, Gemini says I did a good job and all I need to do is wipe the drives and I'll get almost all the available space. What could possibly go wrong?
Yours in perplexed serenity,
Darren
