3TB Known To Be ReadyNAS Compatible
I have stated before that I like Enterprise class drives for my ReadyNAS servers since they not only have higher expected reliability but also come with a longer, 5 year warranty in case that expected reliability does not materialize.
My ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Plus (full review here) was purchased diskless. I had two 1TB Seagate enterprise class drives on the shelf that I wanted to use before 1TB sized drives sunk out of the realm of significance.
These drives were bought, apparently, online from a vendor who “had them in stock”; something that can be a challenge, unfortunately, with regard to enterprise drives – and at a good price.
Turns out, they were OEM drives stripped out of a system or whatever, and devoid of the typical 5 year warranty. Good thing they were reasonably priced.
Well, in under 6 months of service, one of the drives died.
To make matters worse, after having moved to another location and ISP, the email alerts off the internal server did not work – apparently blocked by the ISP. (This was fixed by configuring to use GMail servers.)
Now, to make things EVEN WORSE, the Smart monitoring on the Ultra 2 Plus shows the other remaining drive in the RAID 1 mirror is generating TONS of ERRORS!
Picking A New 3TB Hard Drive for The ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Plus
I highly recommend not straying from the ReadyNAS hardware compatibility list when choosing hard drives for a ReadyNAS server.
Unfortunately, the list of qualifying drives – that can be found in stock – is typically a short one.
This post on 3TB hard drives for ReadyNAS Ultra is still current even though some of the hard drives listed aren’t.
The best choice for me is the Seagate Constellation ES.2 ST33000650NS 3 TB Internal Hard Drive It’s currently in stock, and at around $310 (July 2012) it’s about as reasonable as you will find.
Upgrading to the larger disk will be a piece of cake in an X-RAID configured ReadyNAS (X-RAID2 in this case).
- Install the first new 3TB disk in the slot where the defective one had been; wait for syncing to complete (several hours)
- Remove 1TB disk
- Replace 1TB disk with 3TB disk in disk caddy
- Slide 2nd 3TB disk in place, wait for synchronization to occur (several hours)
- Reboot ReadyNAS
At that point I should have a RAID 1 mirror (via X-RAID) of 2 x 3TB hard disks, fresh from Seagate (pretty much) and with a full 5 year warranty.
Learn more about the Seagate Constellation 3 TB Hard Drive at Amazon