Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

I procured an old Snap 4400 from a company that was going out of business. It had 4 120GB HDDs in it. I purchased 4 500GB HDDs to replace the 120s. How would I go about doing this? I hooked up the NAS to my laptop via a null modem cable, and it just keeps rebooting. I saw one post about syncing the GOS with the old drives, but will that work when I'm going from 120GB to 500GB?

Also, I have a couple sticks of 1GB pc133 memory sitting here (from an old Dell workstation). Can I put those into the machine, or does it have to be "special"?

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

i would also be very interested in knowing if this is possible.

judging from the other threads; doesn't look like it, but maybe someone out there can share a method.

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

The GOS supports the larger HD with out any problem. Provided the 4400 booted with the old HD's, meaning the OS is still good, you can upgrade. I have posted the procedure many time. You just need the 4400 to boot with just drive 1. if it can it's just a matter of cold booting with a new HD installed in drive 2 position. The powering down, remove the original, swap drive2 to drive 1. Boot then hot swap the remaining HD.. The key is that it must beable to boot cleanly with drive 1. This means no raid Array's AV, BU or process that knows the current HD ID's

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

Thanks.. that worked great. Now I just need to figure out how to reset the IP address. ;)

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

Great.. reset the IP, deleted the old raid set from config and created a new one with the 4 500GB drives.. workin like a champ.

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

Hi all, just registered here today after having issues with a 4400 I've just brought on line. I can only get to the recovery console and no further. I have a second 4400 which boots and runs fine (both are 480GB). I want to use the procedure in this thread to use the good 4400 to resurrect the 'dead' 4400 but want to get it straight in my head before I potentially wreck the good one. The good one has a lot of data I need to keep!

Please would you confirm if this is correct

1. With both units powered down, take the left most disk (as you face the front) out of the good 4400 unit and insert it as the only disk in the bad 4400.
2. Take any of the bad 4400 disks and insert to the right of the 1st disk in position 2.
3. Switch on and log into the web portal (10.10.10.10)
4. Then what??? Power down again?
5. Remove both disks, put disk 1 back into good 4400 (original position) and put disk 2 into disk 1 position in the bad 4400.
6. Boot? or place remaining 3 disks into bad 4400 and boot?
7. If boot (with one disk) can I insert the other 3 disks when the unit is powered up? and do I insert them one at a time and wait for the unit to synchronise before inserting the next?

As you can see, I've so many questions but have already read a lot of the posts on here.

As far as I can tell, the OS of both is/was 2.6.050 - can I upgrade to any other OS outside of a software contract?

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

Just thinking about it further - I have access to a SNAP Server 410 so could I use the disk 1 from here which has a more up to date OS instead of the 4400 which has an old OS?

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

If your getting into the recovery console just do a clean install with the GSU.

It's best not to have a RAID when doing this, with AV and BU not installed other wise it will report a broken raid.

In step 4, the HD (2) needs to be clean, so do a quick format. During a cold boot process the OS will see the blank HD and installs the OS. If you watch the HD LED on drive 2 you will see activity some where past the 5 min mark. It only take about 15 sec on a 4500 to setup the new HD. You can also login and check the drive status too.

Then remove the original and rotate drive 2 to 1 position. boot, the hot swap the remaining HD's.

In most cases you will be required a service contract to get the OS. You can get the OS only if you know a rep that will sell it to you. >$600USD.

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

Thanks for the info - but as I'm new to playing with Snap Servers I'm going to have to clarify a few things.

My working 4400 is set to RAID 5 so will this cause me issues if I take disk 1? I have a 410 (no data) so can set this to no RAID configuration and use that if it is better - I'll clarify the OS when I get back to work on Tuesday (as that's where they are)
What's a clean install with the GSU? Guardian S... U...?
I don't have AV (Antivirus?) installed or BU (Backup?).
The disks are all ATA (I think) so I can format in a USB caddy I have or can I do it through the recovery console?
Mine's a 4400 not 4500 so is there any difference to setting up the new HD?

I also have an old PCI Video card (S3 Trio - I did say it was old!) So I might throw that in and see what I get on screen as well.

Re: Upgrading hard drives in a Snap 4400
 

The GSU is the Guardian OS as it is distributed. It normally comes on a CD, or can be downloaded if you have a service contract.

There has been Mixed reports on the 410, as to where they can be upgraded. The GOS should be good to go. The GOS units have an ID chip that the OS looks for before it will run.