For about a third the price of the cheapest NAS, I can throw a RAID card in an existing small machine I have (Win7 Pro) and run a RAID5 array. I actually can either buy a new case (like the Chenbro with the four 3.5" hotswaps) or an external case (eSATA), plus RAID card, plus two drives, before I even reach the price of the NAS devices I was looking at. So I'm on the fence, but the deciding factor will be...
Given a RAID controller that supports online dynamic array growth (Adaptec), will Windows 7 Pro allow me to safely grow the partition presented by the RAID controller? If I start with three 2TB drives today, can I add a fourth tomorrow, and then 3GB drives after that?
I don't need all the fancy functionality of the modern NAS's, and I've looked at and tested five different linux-based RAID solutions. At this point simply hanging an array off my existing system is going to be the easiest, the cheapest, the least complex, and the most painless. Assuming I can grow the array without losing data...
Advice welcome, and thanks.
Given a RAID controller that supports online dynamic array growth (Adaptec), will Windows 7 Pro allow me to safely grow the partition presented by the RAID controller? If I start with three 2TB drives today, can I add a fourth tomorrow, and then 3GB drives after that?
I don't need all the fancy functionality of the modern NAS's, and I've looked at and tested five different linux-based RAID solutions. At this point simply hanging an array off my existing system is going to be the easiest, the cheapest, the least complex, and the most painless. Assuming I can grow the array without losing data...
Advice welcome, and thanks.
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