WD Compatibility

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StephenB wrote:

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LDG wrote:

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Xraid sounds much better...pretty much what I do anyway, actually.  The downside is finding a way to keep the the first disks connected.  I simply like having constant access to everything.  Xraid allows for expansion the way I would like it to, but then I still have two disks that I'd like to continue to be accessible.

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There might be still be some confusion here on what RAID actually does.  XRAID creates a single volume (think of it as a "virtual disk") from the physical disks you have installed.  By default the NAS calls this volume "data".  

 

All your data is on this virtual disk, and you expand it by replacing the physical disks with larger sizes.  All the data remains accessible when you expand - nothing is destroyed (unless something goes wrong). 

 

Also, if a single disk in the volume fails, the volume is "degraded".  But you still have all your data available.    You pop in a new disk (either the same size, or matching the size of the largest disk in the array), and the redundancy is restored.

 

This doesn't keep your data completely safe (so you still need a backup).  But it does keep everything available through routine disk replacements.

 

So with XRAID it actually doesn't make sense to say "I still have two disks that I'd like to continue to be accessible.", since the disks are all combined into the virtual disk.

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So if Drive A and B are in there and full, I can take them out and put same size or larger C and D drives in.  Does the data from A and B stay on the virtual disk while I can add to C and D?  Or do C and D need to be larger to accomodate the virtual data?  Would the physical drives then act as back up? 

I feel like I've drawn a false conclusion that a NAS can support virtual data itself, but that would mean they have their own internal storage and I didn't think diskless ones did.

You're right!  I am confused! (maybe)