How to "retire" a Synology volume for future use

[bphoffman]

Hi All,

I didn't see this covered in the forum and was getting a lot of different info from Google so I figured I'd reach out here. 

Background: I've got a Synology 1621+ that I use to manage media for a small production company. I have media synced to Backblaze for offsite storage and the 6 drives are in a raid 10 config for additional protection. 

The plan: I intend to get 6 completely new drives (larger capacity than the current drives) and make a new volume to start from scratch. I would take the current volume made up of the 6 drives, remove them entirely, and store them safely somehow. This way, if I needed something from that original volume, I could just plug in all the drives and I'd have the original media. That means I don't need to pay to restore anything from Backblaze.  I've read up on backing up and restoring the Synology configuration and intend to do that so I'm not starting from scratch with the Synology unit

The question/s:

• Is there a proper way to "retire" a volume before removing them?
  
• If I did need to restore something from the original volume, popping them all back in would allow instant access as if I never replaced them correct? No restore/repair process?
  
• Should I restore the configuration settings or am I better off starting from scratch?
  
• Is there a better option I'm not thinking of that doesn't involve an expansion unit?
  

I know this is a bad idea for the original drives just sitting around but this is a stopgap for the next year of production since we will inevitably move everything to a cloud service next winter anyway. I'm just trying to avoid an expansion bay.

Thanks all,
-Bob-

[ed]

If you're looking to "retire" a volume and replace all the drives while maintaining the ability to access the original media instantly if needed, there are a few options to consider. Firstly, you could opt for a 5-bay expansion unit and transfer 5 out of the 6 drives into it, allowing Synology to recognize the storage even with one disk missing. This would provide you with a seamless transition and quick access to your original media.

Alternatively, you can connect all the drives to a Linux machine and use it as a NAS or even as a dock. This way, you can access your data without the need for a full NAS setup. You can find a detailed guide on how to recover RAID or move data from a broken NAS to a new one in this link.

Regarding whether to restore configuration settings or start from scratch, it largely depends on your preference and the complexity of your existing configuration. https://nascompares.com/recover-raid-or-...p-asustor/