Quick question regarding new ReadyNAS disk installation

[zBernie]

I made the jump and just ordered a ReadyNAS RN314, and two Western Digital 3GB red drives. I am psyched!

I just read the setup manual, and have a couple of questions. The manual says that previously used drives need to be formatted, but I did not see any mention of formatting new drives. So my questions are:

1. Do I just insert the two WD red drives, and they will format automatically?

2. After the drives are formatted, will the system be configured in X-RAID automatically, with data protection?

I'm guessing I'll have about 2.8TB of usable space with the two 3TB drives.

-Thanks

[vandermerwe]

I would put 1 drive in, boot up, access the admin pages and update the firmware to 6.1.9 first.
Then power down, add the second drive and factory default the nas using the boot menu - this is described in the hardware manual on pages 39 and 40.
http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/ ... ct2013.pdf

You could just put the 2 drives in and boot up, but it's probably better to make sure the latest firmware is on the unit first before letting it set up the volume.
The nas will format the drives and yes, the default is Xraid which with 2 disks the same size will create a raid 1 ( mirrored ) volume.

[zBernie]

Thank you, that sounds like good advice.

Can't wait to get my new toy!

[vandermerwe]

The red drives have good reviews here. You should make yourself aware of the load cycle count issue and keep an eye on the load cycle count in the drive smart information which you can see from within the admin pages.

If rapidly rising LCC is an issue then WD provide a utility for adjusting the time before the drive parks the heads.

I think the newer batches of drives are less likely to need adjusting.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download ... 01&lang=en

[zBernie]

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it!