I’m trying to move all my data off my old DJ212J to my new Synology DS1821+. It’s 2.3TB of data. Since the DS212J can only run DSM6 and the 1821+ is on DSM7 I couldn’t use some of the easier data transfer options, so I looked into other solutions online. Initially it appeared the best solution was using rsync in the Hyper Backup application to transfer the data. The data transfer was painfully slow.
After 8 days I was around 70% complete. A storm rolled through my neighborhood resulting in a power loss for several hours. When the power came back I tried to restore the backup task…but nothing worked.
Am I stuck restarting the rsync process and waiting another two weeks for it to complete, or is there a better, faster solution to transfer the data safely to the new NAS?
Since the DJ212J only supports RAID0 or RAID1, you probably set it up with a RAID1. If so, I think you could try the following: Remove one of the hard drives and install it in an external case (USB3) or a SATA to USB kit (USB3). Then connect this hard drive over USB3 to your DS1821+ and copy the data to it. RAID1 is only a mirror of the data on both hard drives, so it doesn’t matter which hard drive you use.
I did use RAID1 on the 212J. I was a little hesitant to pull a drive out due to the HDD Migration warning on the Synology website here.
Since the DS212J’s package architecture is 88f628x it was called out as having some compatibility issues. I’m not worried about the 212J’s packages and system settings being lost, but the data on the drive has a lot of old photos and videos that haven’t been backed up anywhere else.
Warning: My advice wasn’t about migrating from the old Synology to the new one. This isn’t possible due to the different CPU architecture.
Migration means, that you can migrate your old Synology to the new one, to keep all data, apps and the configuration. And as you already found out, this isn’t possible with your two Synology’s.
If you remove one drive from your old Synology and connect it to a existing Synology, as I described in my previous post, the hard drive (from the old Synology) is recognized as a normal external drive (USB drive) from the new Synology. So you can copy the data from the “external” drive to the Synology.
Don’t insert the old drive to your new Synology before you copied the data and verified, that the data is on your new NAS. When all data is copied, you can use your old drives in the new Synology to extend your storage pool or use your old NAS as a backup server to backup your new NAS.
Understood, thanks for clarifying the terminology for me. So since I’m only concerned about moving the data from one to the other I’m NOT performing a migration just a data transfer. So it should be safe to take one of the drives out of the 212J, put it in a USB3 enclousure, and connect it via USB to the DS1821+ and moving it onto the DS1821+ via USS?
I don’t know, what you mean with USS.
(Is it a typo?)
But yes, this is exactly what I mean. Your old drive (in an USB enclosure) should appear in File Station as a usbshare followed by a number (e.g. usbshare1).
From here, you can copy all your files to the internal volume. As USB3 is a lot faster than a normal ethernet connection (1 GB), theoretically up to 5 times faster, the process should be noticeable faster and only limited to the speed of the external hard drive.
@OliOS2 correct, USB typing faster than I think lol.
@Will tried migration assistant. Unfortunately after going though most of the wizard to set up the migration I got a warning it wasn’t possible to migrate between the DS212J and the DS1821+.
I’m still a little worried about removing a drive from the 212J since I don’t have the data backed up (yes, I was foolish to think raid 1 counted as a back up). So I plugged in a UPS and got my inverter generator tuned up and ready to run if there’s another power outage.
A ton of hassle to move 2.3TB, but once it’s done it’ll be worth it. Thanks for all the help!
Is it necessary for you, that the DS212J is running, while you transfer the data with USB?
If not, I don’t think you need to be worried. You have to shut down the DS212J either way to remove the hard drive. Just keep it off while the data is transferred and all should be fine.
In the worst case, if the hard drive, that you took out of the DS212J, dies while transferring the data to the new Synology, all data is still available on the other hard drive (RAID1).
But yes, the most safest way is to transfer the data over ethernet, even if the transfer took days.
Indeed there is a third way, to transfer the data: Buy an external hard drive, connect it to the DS212J, copy the data to it, eject the drive, connect it to the DS1821+ and copy the data to it.
But I wouldn’t recommend this way, because the DS212J only has an USB2 Port, which is more than half slower than a 1 GB ethernet.
@OliOS2 I gave your idea a shot, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to work. I pulled one of the drives out of the DS212J and placed it in a USB3 external HD dock. The DS1821+ recognized there was an external hard-drive and even listed the individual partitions of the drive, but the file format was marked “Not Compatible”, and I couldn’t read any information off the drive.
To make sure it wasn’t the enclosure I took another old 3.5" SATA drive out of storage and plugged it into the dock. The DS1821+ recognized the drive and was able to read and write to the drive.
I guess the DS212J uses a file format that’s not compatible with the DS1821+? I do have the 1821+ disks formatted in btrfs if that makes a difference.
That’s strange. The filesystem of the target system (in this case your DS1821+) doesn’t matter. The filesystem of your DS212J is most likely EXT4. So your DS1821+ should be able to read this disk. @Will Do you have an idea? @Raleighite Sorry, that my idea didn’t work and sorry for your wasted time.
I must admit that I haven’t tried this for myself, but theoretically it should be possible.
I’m in the same boat. I’m copying media files (2Tb) from my old DS213 to my new DS923+. Migration Manager is useless.
Connect a Windows computer to your LAN using ethernet, not WiFi (way too slow).
Open WINDOWS FILE MANAGER.
COPY and PASTE files.
Yes, very slow but very safe and easy to restart.
Thinking on it I just did something extra that you can do too while using file manager or MAC equivalent.
The DS212j also has 2 USB ports. Get a 1-2Tb external drive and plug it in. Using File Manager COPY any media not already copied to the drive. Eject the drive and plug it into your DS1821+ and then MOVE the files off the external hard drive and then eject it. Repeat. Your DS212j should be able to copy to the local usbshare drive and transfer files using Windows Explorer or a MAC equivalent. It ain’t a sexy way to do it but it will go faster than rsync.
Hi Raleighite, my files transfer using a 1TB external drive plugged into the old NAS USB port was very fast. I transferred ~960GB of movies yesterday from my old to my new NAS in less than a day. I think this option is the best in lieu of Migration Manager availability. You’re not doing anything unorthodox and it is completely safe to copy files to the external drive (usbshare folder), eject the drive when copy is complete, move drive to new NAS and copy files to the directories you setup fin the new NAS. Caution, make sure the external drive is big enough!! The NAS will continue to copy files to the drive and you will get a “drive almost full” danger warning. I stopped the transfer to the drive with only 23GB of unused space left on the external drive. Ejecting the drive from the old NAS may be very slow so be patient not to yank the external drive from the NAS before it has been properly ejected.
