RAID with 8M and 16M drives possible?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sean
  • Start date Start date
S

Sean

Hi,

I currently have two 400GB SATA Seagate drives with 8M cache on them.

I wish to purchase three more of these drives but am having problems finding
the older 8M drives in Australia. Can the 16M cache drives run in a RAID-5
array with the 8MB drives as well?

Regards,

Sean
 
Previously Sean said:
Hi,
Click to expand...
I currently have two 400GB SATA Seagate drives with 8M cache on them.
Click to expand...
I wish to purchase three more of these drives but am having problems finding
the older 8M drives in Australia. Can the 16M cache drives run in a RAID-5
array with the 8MB drives as well?
Click to expand...

Not a problem. If it is software RAID, you can mix any drives that
are the same size. Some hardware controllers may be a bit more
picky, but not much. And the buffer/cache on the disks is disabled
by any decent hardware controller anyways...

Arno
 
Thanks for the input Arno,

I plan on chucking them into one of those Thecus NAS devices... Guess I'll
find out one way or another :)

Sean
 
Previously Sean said:
Thanks for the input Arno,
Click to expand...
I plan on chucking them into one of those Thecus NAS devices... Guess I'll
find out one way or another :)
Click to expand...

Unless tha manual says otherwise, should not be a problem.
After all, how would you replace a failed disk, if you had to get the
same model, possibly years later....

Arno
 
Arno Wagner said:
Unless tha manual says otherwise, should not be a problem.
After all, how would you replace a failed disk, if you had to get the
same model, possibly years later....
Click to expand...

You could get an extra one as part of the original set.
More $$, I know.
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You could get an extra one as part of the original set.
More $$, I know.
Click to expand...

Well, I believe that you should operate a RAID with a cold spare handy,
but how many people are going to do that?

No, same size (or larger) and interface should be enough. Of course
that has to be same or larger number of sectors/bytes, since
different brands can have sizes that are different by some MBs.
Replacing a, say, 300GB drive with one from an other manufacturer
can lead to unpleasant surprises. But you could very likely
use any other 320GB/400GB drive with the same interface.

Arno
 
Well of course if I was running a mirror set on some sort of disk shelf with
plenty of room I'd have a spare handy. RAID-5 will allow me to operate in
the case of a failure for a while, as I would then seek out a replacement or
new solution depending on the time we're talking about it failing on me in
the future.
 
Arno Wagner said:
Well, I believe that you should operate a RAID with a cold spare handy,
but how many people are going to do that?

No, same size (or larger) and interface should be enough.
Click to expand...
Of course that has to be same or larger number of sectors/bytes,
Preferably

since different brands can have sizes that are different by some MBs.
Click to expand...

So what, you shortstroke the rest of 'm to the size of the smaller one.
Replacing a, say, 300GB drive with one from an other manufacturer
can lead to unpleasant surprises.
Click to expand...

Only if you don't know your way around it.
 
Sean said:
Well of course if I was running a mirror set on some sort of disk shelf with
plenty of room I'd have a spare handy.
Click to expand...
RAID-5 will allow me to operate in the case of a failure for a while,
Click to expand...

Sure, IF you notice it.
Else you notice it when it doesn't work anymore and it's too late.
 
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