Question Noob NAS question regarding RAID and HDDs

[Doggiedog]

I'm looking into setting up a 4 bay NAS and have a basic question. I'd like to set up a RAID using 2 identical 12TB drives I have but I would like to also add an 8TB drive I have lying around. Would it be possible to setup a RAID and also have other non-RAID drives in the NAS?

 

[mv2devnull]

Most likely: yes.

 

[iamgenius]

What do you want to do with the 8TB? You can't use its capacity toward the RAID volume, so it will be a waste. Unless maybe if you use it as a spare drive (in case one drive fails) but it is a different capacity so maybe you can't rebuild the volume with it. If you use a lower capacity drive with other ones in a RAID setup, it will be the limiting factor. For example, if you raid 0 two drives (one is 4TB and the other is 3T), the total volume will be 6TB (3+3).

I don't see why you should put it in the NAS? Just install it directly to your PC and use its capacity.

Any specific reason why you want 12TB drives?

You can also buy 3 other 8TB drives since you already have one and do a 4-drive NAS setup. The capacity will be 24TB if you use RAID 5 if capacity is what you are looking for.