My idea is to buy this Terra with a single 18 TB disk and in the future expand with more 18 TB disks as I need them. Would there be a problem inserting the new disk together with the old one? I have heard that other DAS you have to format everything and start from scratch when you perform that action.
With this enclosure it works as a JBOD so each drive is independent. Now if you want to add disks to the same drive array so you build redundancy like RAID 5 it depends what OS you’re using. If you use windows storage spaces then yes, you’ll have to reformat and lose everything. Most of the time it’s better in that scenario to buy 3 drives and buy a 4th later when needed. When you buy the 4th the array can add the new drive automatically and split the data. I have three in it now and run it as a backup for my new server. If I add a third disk it will automatically increase the size of the array in storage spaces when I click the add to array button.
First, I just want to say thank you for this video. It helped convince me to buy the terramaster for the exact reason of consolidating my external hard drives into one spot. It's actually on the way now, and I wanted to ask you when you moved the external hard drives into the terramaster, did you end up blocking the third pin on the SATA Power with electrical tape? I know that sounds weird, but I looked up videos about converting external hard drives into internal ones, and they keep mentioning using tape to.block the third pin on the sata power for the external hard drive. I was wondering if you did that at all before putting it into the terramaster? Thank you!
Thanks for asking! No the drives I have don’t have the requirement for pin modification. I’ve heard of the pin needing to be covered in some model drives but mine do no require it. At least not in this enclosure.
I can understand your confusion. The Terramaster site is referring to two items regarding “RAID”. First it does NOT have a RAID card so it will not do hardware RAID. Second software RAID may not work if you don’t have a system capable of doing so. Currently I have 3 4TB drives in parity raid using storage spaces in windows 10. This is only an option if you change your USB options to turn off the ability to just pull the usb device out without first safely removing. Google it, it will explain how to do that. So basically it will only do software RAID and may be slower than hardware RAID but it works. I’ve been using it for a long time now and have had minimal issues.
@@reviewguy5366 Thank you! It does sound like a bit of a hassle, though. Furthermore, the idea that one cannot access the disks unless through the same DAS (or equivalent) renders this RAID security option a rather flimsy one, so far as security and peace of mind are concerned. I wonder if the best option is not to simply use some application (e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone disk 1 to disk 2, and disk 3 to disk 4 if that is possible. I would rely on remembering to do the periodical cloning I guess. Thanks, again.
@mpimpao, actually if you use this DAS with windows 10 or higher you can always remove the drives and move them into a pc case or to another DAS. All the RAID data is stored on the disks and readable in any windows pc. That’s a big win over hardware RAID. Hardware RAID requires the same hardware to decrypt the RAID data so if the RAID card goes bad or the device dies you have to buy the same device and hope it will be able to access the RAID data. Windows software RAID should work on any windows pc as long as it’s the same version or newer. My unit moved from one pc in the DAS to a new pc I recently built and went directly into the case. It’s a nice alternative when upgrading as you can start with a box like this and then move up to a full case if desired or stay in a small form factor. Another positive is just reusing old drives from old pc builds or consolidating external drives into one case to reduce how many power adapters you need. Personally I had 3 external drives hooked up at once. They were all consolidated into the case for a while. Then I moved to a full RAID setup in the das with NAS drives built to run 24/7
My idea is to buy this Terra with a single 18 TB disk and in the future expand with more 18 TB disks as I need them. Would there be a problem inserting the new disk together with the old one? I have heard that other DAS you have to format everything and start from scratch when you perform that action.
With this enclosure it works as a JBOD so each drive is independent. Now if you want to add disks to the same drive array so you build redundancy like RAID 5 it depends what OS you’re using. If you use windows storage spaces then yes, you’ll have to reformat and lose everything. Most of the time it’s better in that scenario to buy 3 drives and buy a 4th later when needed. When you buy the 4th the array can add the new drive automatically and split the data.
I have three in it now and run it as a backup for my new server. If I add a third disk it will automatically increase the size of the array in storage spaces when I click the add to array button.
First, I just want to say thank you for this video. It helped convince me to buy the terramaster for the exact reason of consolidating my external hard drives into one spot.
It's actually on the way now, and I wanted to ask you when you moved the external hard drives into the terramaster, did you end up blocking the third pin on the SATA Power with electrical tape? I know that sounds weird, but I looked up videos about converting external hard drives into internal ones, and they keep mentioning using tape to.block the third pin on the sata power for the external hard drive.
I was wondering if you did that at all before putting it into the terramaster?
Thank you!
Thanks for asking! No the drives I have don’t have the requirement for pin modification. I’ve heard of the pin needing to be covered in some model drives but mine do no require it. At least not in this enclosure.
@@reviewguy5366 thank you again!
Hi! You got me kind of confused: does this unit support RAID or not? In their site Terramaster say it does not. Thank you.
I can understand your confusion. The Terramaster site is referring to two items regarding “RAID”. First it does NOT have a RAID card so it will not do hardware RAID. Second software RAID may not work if you don’t have a system capable of doing so.
Currently I have 3 4TB drives in parity raid using storage spaces in windows 10. This is only an option if you change your USB options to turn off the ability to just pull the usb device out without first safely removing. Google it, it will explain how to do that.
So basically it will only do software RAID and may be slower than hardware RAID but it works. I’ve been using it for a long time now and have had minimal issues.
@@reviewguy5366 Thank you! It does sound like a bit of a hassle, though. Furthermore, the idea that one cannot access the disks unless through the same DAS (or equivalent) renders this RAID security option a rather flimsy one, so far as security and peace of mind are concerned. I wonder if the best option is not to simply use some application (e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone disk 1 to disk 2, and disk 3 to disk 4 if that is possible. I would rely on remembering to do the periodical cloning I guess. Thanks, again.
@@reviewguy5366 Thank you!
@mpimpao, actually if you use this DAS with windows 10 or higher you can always remove the drives and move them into a pc case or to another DAS. All the RAID data is stored on the disks and readable in any windows pc. That’s a big win over hardware RAID. Hardware RAID requires the same hardware to decrypt the RAID data so if the RAID card goes bad or the device dies you have to buy the same device and hope it will be able to access the RAID data. Windows software RAID should work on any windows pc as long as it’s the same version or newer. My unit moved from one pc in the DAS to a new pc I recently built and went directly into the case. It’s a nice alternative when upgrading as you can start with a box like this and then move up to a full case if desired or stay in a small form factor.
Another positive is just reusing old drives from old pc builds or consolidating external drives into one case to reduce how many power adapters you need. Personally I had 3 external drives hooked up at once. They were all consolidated into the case for a while. Then I moved to a full RAID setup in the das with NAS drives built to run 24/7
@@reviewguy5366 Thank you! I believe that will be my plan, although using MacOS.