NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
shift8
Aug 27, 2019Aspirant
RN314 Mixing Seagate Drives
Hi,
My RN314 is populated with 4 x 4Tb Seagate ST4000VN000 drives. These drives were purchased and installed in 2014 and the system has worked very well over that time. Considering the age of the drives, what replacement 4Tb NAS drive could I buy if I were to experience a single drive failure? I ask because I notice that Seagate ST4000VN000 drives are no longer readily available.
Advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers, Kym.
3 Replies
- SandsharkSensei
The ST4000VN008 is the current model, but may not be when you need a new one. Just look for the current drive(s) in the series. Or, of course, you could replace with a larger drive so you'll get more space once you have (or just decide) to replace another (assuming RAID5).
- shift8Aspirant
OK. So there should be no problem mixing the ST4000VN000 and ST4000VN008 drives in the RN314 (RAID5) if I had to replace one of the existing drives in the near future. Is this correct?
- SandsharkSensei
Correct. But actually, you can mix drives of different brands as well. The OS will complain if the drives are in different rotational speed classes, but that's all it will do -- complain. And, of course, you'll get the overall performance of the slower one(s). The NAS does not typically use the entire drive when partitioning, and I'm fairly sure that's to insure there is no issue with another brand being just a bit too small when added to an existing array. Note that some "white lable" drives are an odd size, apparently having some sections "roped off" because of sector problems, so those could be hit-or-miss.
I have a set of WD Enterprise-level drives (5 year warranty) where two have failed just past the warranty period (one 2 months after, the other 6), and I'm replacing them with HGST's. No problems at all. Well, none due to the replacement -- I am unhappy with what seems an early loss of two highly rated (and expensive) drives.
Related Content
NETGEAR Academy

Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!