One of the recommendations is to buy your hard drives at different times and even different brands to reduce the risk of closely timed failures.

 

My question is whether unRAID works with one or two hard drives. (One drive would function like an external drive. Two drives would function like a RAID1.)

 

Obviously, you wouldn't get the advantages of unRAID but while I stagger my HD purchases, will the unRAID still function in the meanwhile or does it require 3 drives?

 

Thanks!

Yes. It still works.

 

You could start with just one drive and have no parity.  You assign the drives as you go and absolutely you can start out with only 2.  Assign one the first data drive and the second (and larger drive) as the parity and you're up and running!  

You can run with one data drive and no parity, you can run with one data and parity, and you can run with 2 data and parity with the free version.

 

If you have 1 data and parity you will essentially have a mirror.  I did this on a test server for a while and when i moved the parity drive to my production server it was recognized fine, added to the array, and DID NOT ask to be formatted (since it was a perfect copy of the 1 data drive in the system).

 

I don't quite understand what you mean by:

My question is whether unRAID works with one or two hard drives. (One drive would function like an external drive. Two drives would function like a RAID1.)

If you could better explain it I could probably answer your question.

I think this whole don't buy multiple drives at the same time is overstated.

I don't quite understand what you mean by:

My question is whether unRAID works with one or two hard drives. (One drive would function like an external drive. Two drives would function like a RAID1.)

If you could better explain it I could probably answer your question.

 

He is judt saying that with 1 drive unraid functions as an external hard drive and with 1parity+1data it works as a RAID1 machince since there is complete mirroring...

I think this whole don't buy multiple drives at the same time is overstated.

True... Even if there was a manufacturing issue, the odds of two drives failing in the same week are pretty slim.    unlike traditional RAID systems the disks in our servers do not get equal time spinning...

I haven't had my hdds running for years, probably a few months but I have bought a few hdds at the same time. I know that it is a slightly higher risk but it isn't easy for me to buy hdds where I am without paying a lot for shipping.

 

Haven't had too much problems.

 

I think if you go for 2 that should be fine and also as Joe said, some spin a lot more than others.

 

Josh

I have to agree with this even though I have recommended doing so on a few occasions.  The odds are slim that you would have multiple disk failures in a short time frame, especially with the varying disk utilization in an unRAID setup.  I take the approach that if you need drives now and there's only one vendor or one vendor with an outstanding price, get them now.  If you have the luxury of time or multiple vendors simultaneously selling the drive at comparable prices, spread your purchases around for a bit of extra luck.  Is it overkill?  Probably.  Does it hurt?  Not really.

I think this whole don't buy multiple drives at the same time is overstated.

True... Even if there was a manufacturing issue, the odds of two drives failing in the same week are pretty slim.    unlike traditional RAID systems the disks in our servers do not get equal time spinning...

If you buy multiple drives at the same time, at very least be sure they pass preclear.  I've run into one defective 2 TB WD EARS thus far (out of about 10 that have passed through my hands).

 

Generally speaking, buying drives from multiple vendors will only cost you at most $5-$10 more in shipping costs.  It is worth that extra bit of money to me, but maybe not for everyone.

Thanks for all the replies! It's good to know that I can really start out small and build up the NAS.