I currently have a 4-bay RAID 5 enclosure that has stopped working (no power). If I purchased this enclosure, would my 4 disks continue to work without losing the files? Do I simply place the disks in the same order that they are now found in the old...
1419019
Its not that easy, If you had this enclosure already, yes, just drop in your disks and as long as you have not made any changes to the software it will be just like before. But based on what you are saying, you had a 4 Disk array, and not a 5 disk array as shown here. There is a way to salvage your files, you can create or set this device to raid 5 mode if that is what you had, and then put your disks in and let it rebuild the array, but only if the technology behind what you had is exactly the same as what this enclosure supports. With raid 5 you have to deal with parity bits, and not all raid 5 parities are created equal. But if you did not have a raid array configured on your old enclosure and each disks was treated as a single disk, then yes, you can make this work with no loss of files. If you could give a few more details, I may be able to tell you how to salvage your files. I had this enclosure, and my power went out, it was as simple as plugging in my disks and plugging it into my server. But I don't think you have the same situation. There are third party utilities that may help you to salvage your files either way. But I have had three of these units ever since the day they were first released, and that has been a few years. They even work great with Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. Very fast, says it only supports up to 2 GB Drives, but I'm running 3GB, 6GBs, 7200 RPM drives with no problem. But I don't use the built in raid, I use windows Storage Spaces found in Server 2012 R2, Windows 8 and above. I have this unit distributed across 2 Servers with 8 Hyper V machines on each one. One on eSata and one on USB 3.0. Can't tell the difference, just make sure you have a solid eSATA card or equivalent if you decide to purchase this, if not you will need to run USB 3.0 for the performance.
1684879
I'd STRONGLY recommend against using an old drive in the device. By using one not from Synology's list, you risk poor performance. It would be a drag to set it up and then have slow performance. Don't use an old drive -- they all have a maximum life, and yours could be close to the end and you would never know. Since you're putting it in a 1-bay enclosure with no redundancy, you want to install the most reliable disk you can.
1476795
Not really. You would have to format the existing drives when you added the new ones. What you're describing *might* be possible if you used the JBOD (just a bunch of disks) configuration, but not for any RAID. For all their RAID configs, you have to choose the number and size of disks at creation, and you can't change it without reformatting.
733723
We have over 15 of these and they are very dependable. Use RAID 5 to keep your data if a drive fails. Tech support is excellent in responding and getting a replacement drive out to you.
1982101
Inside the enclosure there are two (2) independent hardisks. RAID 1 redundancy works just as expected, with one drive mirroring the other. It hasn't happened to me yet, but the literature says that in case of a crash. you simply replace the bad drive with a new one and the device will sync itself up, automatically. If the drive is under warranty, you call WD and they'll ship you a replacement drive. The case is designed so that the user can replace the drive easily. So, it's not marketing BS. It works as expected.
554337
For others seeking an answer to this question, the answers aren't entirely correct. Plug it in stock and the answers are correct, you will see 4 drives. But this is meant to be used for a disk array. Google "RAID Types" and you'll get explanations. You can most definitely set it up as a RAID 0 and all your drives will be shown as 1 drive but it "stripes" all your data across all the drives in the RAID with no redundancy and is not recommended due to easy data loss. But you also can most definitely use this as a JBOD and 4 drives show up. On a side note, do not waste money on DrivePool. There are RAID and Partition managers out there that do a way better job for free. For others seeking an answer to this question, the answers aren't entirely correct. Plug it in stock and the answers are correct, you will see 4 drives. But this is meant to be used for a disk array. Google "RAID Types" and you'll get explanations. You can most definitely set it up as a RAID 0 and all your drives will be shown as 1 drive but it "stripes" all your data across all the drives in the RAID with no redundancy and is not recommended due to easy data loss. But you also can most definitely use this as a JBOD and 4 drives show up. On a side note, do not waste... » Read More For others seeking an answer to this question, the answers aren't entirely correct. Plug it in stock and the answers are correct, you will see 4 drives. But this is meant to be used for a disk array. Google "RAID Types" and you'll get explanations. You can most definitely set it up as a RAID 0 and all your drives will be shown as 1 drive but it "stripes" all your data across all the drives in the RAID with no redundancy and is not recommended due to easy data loss. But you also can most definitely use this as a JBOD and 4 drives show up. On a side note, do not waste money on DrivePool. There are RAID and Partition managers out there that do a way better job for free. « Show Less
2098066
Only if you fully backup the drive as it will have to be reformatted for RAID. You should backup anyway as you have only one drive and stand to lose all of your data.
993928
Update-I did have to put in 5 old, dummy drives to setup the Raid 5 on the new box & then put in my 5 drives, in order of course, & the Raid came right back up. I just happened to have 5 old drives to use. Otherwise, I don't think you can do it any other way.
606995
It depends on the type of raid setup you use. There is a hybrid setup that makes use of all the drives and maximizes the space available. This way you can have different size drives. I accepted this as the default. I can't verify how it works though as all my drives are the same size. It's a bit slower than I would have liked also, but hey, it does the job.
1678777
if you mean that you are working with less than 8 drives, yes, you can add other drives, one at a time (the system will do a rebuild of the array when you effectively add the new drive). Beyond 8 drives, you can only add other drives with the expansion unit. That means the USB and esata interfaces cannot be used for drives that are meant to be part of a RAID array. External drives (through usb and esata) can only be shared on their own, as individual volumes. And yes, all raid options are supposed to work with any number of drives. I started my array with 6 and soon went to add a 7th drive.
984389
That really is about all there is to it. Of course, during the process your new drive will be appropriately partitioned, formatted, etc...but it is all handled by your RAID software. Just be aware that when you buy a replacement drive, if you buy one that is larger or has a faster rotational speed than your remaining drive, the performance of the replacement drive will be limited to matching the size and speed specifications of the remaining drive. (Don't buy a 4 TB drive if the remaining drive is 1 TB...it will work, but you will lose 3 TB of usable space.)
1126407
WD says that greens will work and nothing else. I have a feeling that has to do with the lower power consumption. I have heard horror stories about green drives and WD software has said my drives have gone bad, but the drives read and write just fine. I love the raid setup and dont know why anyone else hasn't continued this setup at this price point ( I bought mine used for a little less than $100)
1235419
The drives must be the same size and yes you can put only 4 drives in the NAS. In order to configure as a RAID 5 though you will need at least three drives. I used 5 drives and configured 4 of them as RAID5 leaving the 5th drive as a "hot spare".
2093493
Although I haven't done it with this particular array (I'm using it in RAID5), by the regular principals, it doesn't look good. If they were individual drives, absolutely not. If they are removed from another JBOD, they would have to be in the same order, and would depend on having the same firmware. Basically... I wouldn't try it with any array. What you're looking for is probably something with a port multiplier in it so that each drive is handled individually by your OS. Then you'd need a port-multiplier compatible eSATA card (or usb if you like slow drives).
1895543
It's either/or. When you set the drive up you have the choice of using the RAID 1 or 0 configuration. If you decide to change your mind later, you'll end up losing everything you've stored on the drive. I stuck with the RAID 1 config to provide redundancy, even though it cut the capacity by half.
1233654
All of the disk drives are combined into one logical drive. This means that you would loose the data on your existing drives.As a side note, this unit is very fast. I have had mine about a year with no problems (Windows 7 x64).
1803109
We have the seller here indicating that this enclosure will work with a 6Tb drive, whereas there is another question raising an inability to run a 4Tb drive - which is answered by a comment that a 2Tb drive was successfully housed. We need to have the seller or manufacturer settle these questions. IS THERE an upper limit to drive capacity; or are there any limits to drive type or SATA permutations?