Western Digital ShareSpace. Question before I buy!

[pleccy]

After reading the reviews, and weighing up the prices I've decided to go for a Four bay WD ShareSpace NAS which comes with 2TB drives (2xWD10EACS)

I understand that this unit only accepts WD branded drives, which is fine as I have two of my existing 1tb drives to install, and make it a 4TB RAID 5 box. However, while my existing drives are WD, they are not identical to the ones that ship with the unit. My drives are WD10EADS so technically not identical - will they work???

Thanks

 

[thiggins]

First, I would not recommend this NAS. You'll see complaints about it in this and other forums. It's also has low performance and is pretty much a dead-end product.

WD has a WD-only drive replacement policy for this product, but I don't know how specific it is. When I asked WD about this while writing the Sharespace review, they said:
"The system will detect and initialize WD storage. If another manufactures drive is used our system will recognize it as a foreign disk and not allow you to initialize it. If this is attempted it does not void the warranty - it simply does not work."

 

[pleccy]

Thanks Tim. I did read the SNB review and i was sitting on the fence. It's just soooo cheap to buy! £299 with 2TB already in there!!!!! (I live in New Zealand so have converted dollars to pounds).

However I was always doubting it's reliability, particularly in the event of a drive failure / rebuild. and you have just confirmed my thoughts.

So my next choice, i think, is the Thecus N4100 (Pro) Which I can get for £308 with no drives. But i suppose my original question remains... do all of the 1TB drives I put in it have to be identical? or can i mix WD10EACS with WD10EADS?

PS - What an AWESOME website.

Thank you.

 

[thiggins]

So my next choice, i think, is the Thecus N4100 (Pro) Which I can get for £308 with no drives. But i suppose my original question remains... do all of the 1TB drives I put in it have to be identical? or can i mix WD10EACS with WD10EADS?

The drives don't have to be identical. But you should choose from drives on the approved drive list.

PS - What an AWESOME website.

Thanks. Tell your friends and colleagues about it, please.