potew wrote:

So, if I get an empty drive and insert it in slot 1, the NAS will sync it automatically with the second?

Yes.

potew wrote:

the first drive is the originally shipped Seagate Barracuda. Is the Ironwolf more suitable for NASes?

Yes (as is the WDC Red). Many people continue to use desktop drives in NAS, but NAS-purposed drives are similar in price, and are better options. BTW, the HCL for old NAS like the duo is not up to date, and shouldn't be used anymore.

potew wrote:

I feel bad replacing working equipment for the sake of pure obsolescence!

My own Duo is still in service as a secondary backup, so I get what you are saying. At the moment I plan to use it until it fails. However I won't invest a lot of time or money to keep it running. Netgear stopped shipping this NAS in 2011, so it's at least 7 years old.

Some issues that you should keep in mind:

There are security issues in it's software that won't be addressed (since Netgear stopped the firmware updates in 2017).
Accessing the NAS from Windows PCs will become increasingly difficult as Microsoft removes the SMB 1.0 file sharing protocol from Windows.
A new entry-level NAS is about 5x faster than the Duo. File transfer speeds around 100 Mbytes/second instead of less than 20.

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