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Recommendations for inexpensive NAS RAID enclosure

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Let's just say I have come into ownership of 4 x 500GB laptop discs. And these are really inexpensive :D
Anyway I thought of putting them to some use as a storage array, 2TB is a fair chunk of space. So I'm looking for a fairly cheap enclosure which can handle the 2.5" laptop disk form factor. Any recommendations?
 
What are you looking for? RAID 5? RAID 10? Hot swappable drives?

I have an old RAID 1 Iomega 2 fixed disk enclosure with a really clunky interface, but it works and it gives me 1TB of fault tolerant backup.

Personally I'd recommend two 500 GB RAID arrays, if you want cheap. RAID 10 is only supported on the more expensive units.

If you want to go full bore, then this looks pretty sweet. :)
 
Thanks Luna. That looks like a nice enclosure. They do specify a list of supported drives. Are they normally quite picky about this, or do they work with anything?
 
Just reading through the user guide for that device. Really impressive array of software tools for it.
 
I guess it depends what drives you have there. I usually go with WD reds or blacks for RAID. These are SATA and not SAS, correct?
 
Never had a problem with those. I have a pair of WD black 2.5 drives in my home server RAID1.

Where the heck did you see a list of compatible drives? I checked out the Amazon listing and the Synology website and don't see it.
 
Well it's a bit confusing on their website. The product description page has a "Compatible drive type" item, with a link

https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/DS416slim#specs

which takes you through to here

https://www.synology.com/en-uk/compatibility?search_by=products&model=DS416slim&category=hdds&p=1

and plugging in the hardware search criteria it comes back with a list of HDDs. And mine's not listed.
It could be that they're just listing only the ones they've tested with, and I'll be ok. Still, it would be nice to know for sure.
 
Ahh, I see.

Yes, there disclaimer does state that listed compatible drives were tested and that it's not a comprehensive list. They've got other WB Black drives, so assuming yours are in good shape and not some proprietary nonsense from HP or Dell, then I see no reason why they wouldn't work. You could always shoot off an email to their tech support with a model number on the drives and see if they say yea/nay.
 
Here's the level 1 support droid's response :)

Thank you for your email and interest in Synology.

I can confirm you are correct and the drive is not listed as compatible, however it is not listed as incompatible either so it may just mean we have not tested this drive.

We would still always recommend using a drive that has been tested as compatible as if you was to encounter any issues with the drives it may be because they are not compatible after all.

Please see a list here of the compatible WD drives for the DS416slim https://www.synology.com/en-uk/comp...ategory=hdds&filter_brand=Western Digital&p=1

Apologies I could not be of much help but please let me know if you require any further information.

Best Regards
Click to expand...

Yes, the further information I require, is some information. Thanks :)
 
Honestly, I would just go for it. They will work or they won't and Amazon will pay return shipping right?

I've got a couple of WD 2 TB reds in a Dell server at work (It's a RAID1 array strictly for backups) and Dell OpenManage barks at me all the time that they aren't "Dell Approved" drives, but the iDRAC interface has no problem with them. More to the point, they work just fine.

If you ask me it's just the lawyers telling them to cover their backsides. ;) Lawyers take the adventure out of everything. :D
 
Reds and Blacks are different animals. The former are designed for NAS, the latter are performance/enthusiast segment desktop drives. What are the age of these drives? Failure rate of HDDs is 100%, given enough time.

Sometimes a "good deal" (or being too hasty and/or cheap) ends up costing us more time, money, and or aggravation in the end.

If this is just media storage or something non-critical, maybe that's fine. But where you should begin is by defining what you want to do with these, not "hey I got these cheap drives!" lol (JMHO)

Also, your 500 MB x 4 = 2 TB calculation does not allow for any redundancy whatsoever. Again, what is the application? What do you plan to store on there?
 
TRS-80 said:
Failure rate of HDDs is 100%, given enough time.
Click to expand...

Humans, too. ;)

I once needed a drive ASAP for a RAID1 array in a Dell PowerEdge 1950 (yes, that's an oldie) and bought a WDD blue from Best Buy, just as a stop-gap. Then I kinda forgot about it and it ran for 5 years before we retired the server. Of course it wasn't a top performer and I would never recommend doing that, but we all take a risk now and again. That's the fun of it. :)
 
TRS-80 said:
Reds and Blacks are different animals. The former are designed for NAS, the latter are performance/enthusiast segment desktop drives. What are the age of these drives? Failure rate of HDDs is 100%, given enough time.

Sometimes a "good deal" (or being too hasty and/or cheap) ends up costing us more time, money, and or aggravation in the end.

If this is just media storage or something non-critical, maybe that's fine. But where you should begin is by defining what you want to do with these, not "hey I got these cheap drives!" lol (JMHO)

Also, your 500 MB x 4 = 2 TB calculation does not allow for any redundancy whatsoever. Again, what is the application? What do you plan to store on there?
Click to expand...

Don't make assumptions. By "cheap" I mean they were former laptop HDDs, replaced with SSDs, and they happened to come into my possession, so they cost me nothing. They are good drives, as I said above, WD Blacks.

They will be used to store family photos and videos, so yes redundancy/backup is vital. Of course I wouldn't want to put this data at risk of being obliterated.
 
LV426 said:
They will be used to store family photos and videos, so yes redundancy/backup is vital. Of course I wouldn't want to put this data at risk of being obliterated.
Click to expand...

If that is the case, then I would be thinking about some form of software RAID/ZFS instead of hardware. Some great info to consider, if you are willing:

http://open-zfs.org/wiki/Hardware

https://www.storagecraft.com/blog/the-jurassic-park-effect-part-1/
https://www.storagecraft.com/blog/the-jurassic-park-effect-part-2/
 
Just wondering because I'm in the market. I had a disk fail in an old Iomega NAS that's no longer supported (Iomega bought by Lenovo) and replacement disks are becoming scarce and expensive. I don't feel like dumping any more cash into this dinosaur.
 
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