Proper raid migration path without losing data?

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX4
1

i’m planning to buy a my cloud ex4… i have a few questions and clarifications…

  1. website says it’s compatible with WD60EFRX… does this mean it can support up to 24tb if i install 4 x 6tb hdd? will it be able to support a single volume raid 0?

  2. the 6tb are pretty expensive so i cannot purchase all 4 of them right away… would it be possible to purchase 1, then expand them to 2, then 3, and finally 4 without losing data?

  3. if question no. 2 is possible without losing data, can i follow this migration path?
    3.1. 1 hdd = jbod
    3.2. 2 hdd = raid 0
    3.3. 3 hdd = raid 0
    3.4. 4 hdd = raid 0

  4. same as question no. 3, but this time 3rd and 4th hdd will be raid 5 instead of raid 0…

  5. if i configure using raid 5, if one of the hdd fails and i replace it with a new one (same model WD60EFRX), will it rebuild the data on the new hdd?

thank you!

2
  1. Yes. These are the hard drives provided with the 24TB edition of the WD My Cloud EX4 (WDBWWD0240KBK). And yes, a 24TB RAID 0 volume is possible.

2 & 3) RAID 0 migrations/expansions are not possible. Data will be lost on each rebuild.

  1. RAID 5 requires a minimum of 3 hard drives and uses a different storage structure. As such it is not possible to migrate from RAID 0 to RAID 5.

  2. Yes. RAID 5 is designed to allow a certain level of fault-tolerance in case of an individual hard drive failure.

For additional information please refer to the RAID Migrations section of the User’s manual: