STARTING WITH 1 HDD

[HHUBS]

Hello, this is my first time posting on this forum and I'm new to the world of NAS. After some research, I want to try unraid OS for 30 days. Base on the docs, it is recommended to start with 1 parity drive and 1 data drive. But in my case, I don't have the budget to do this upfront. Now the question, can I start with only 1 HDD as data drive with no parity or use that 1 HDD as parity with no data drive? Sorry I'm new to this.

 

If I start with 1 data drive with no parity drive, then my data/files are not protected. If I buy larger hdd for parity, say 5 months from now, can I just install this and protect my data without losing data on my data drive?

 

Because I heard that if I change the array, my data will be lost but I think it's referring to the other NAS OS.

 

 

Thank you.

 

[trurl]

20 minutes ago, HHUBS said:

can I start with only 1 HDD as data drive with no parity

Yes 

21 minutes ago, HHUBS said:

buy larger hdd for parity, say 5 months from now, can I just install this and protect my data without losing data on my data drive?

Yes.

 

Parity doesn't have to be any larger than the largest data drive. 

[HHUBS]

5 minutes ago, trurl said:

Parity doesn't have to be any larger than the largest data drive. 

 

Thank you for your answer but wait.. what? I thought parity should be the largest of all the drive? I'm confuse now.

 

 

[itimpi]

24 minutes ago, HHUBS said:

Thank you for your answer but wait.. what? I thought parity should be the largest of all the drive? I'm confuse now.

It must be at least equal to the largest data drive - just cannot be smaller.  Many people install a larger parity drive as part of future planning so at a later date they can install larger data drives.