I have a fairly extensive Plex system which I have been running just piggy backed to a Desktop. I am looking at UnRaid as a way of protecting that data. I have a Desktop that I will dedicate to be my UnRaid Server. This box has a new 850 watt Power Supply, plenty of Sata 3 plugs, and a Intel Quad Core processor with 4GB ram. I have purchased 6TB drive for my Parity drive and three 4TB drives for data storage. My desktop currently is running Windows 10 Pro on a 250GB SSD. I have several questions about UnRaid. Will UnRaid work as a stand alone OS or do I have to have Windows running also. I’d like to use the 250GB SSD as the cache drive but Windows eats up a lot of the available space. I have one 4TB drive now already with data on it from Plex, do I have to remove all that data, build the array, then copy it back, or can I just plug the drive in with the data intact? I assume the Parity drive needs to be empty? Just to clarify my understanding, I can add more 4TB drives as needed without adding another Parity drive?
Thank you for the assistance.