Quick Raid 5 question

[Ravendarat]

Ok so since Im not gonna stop being a Data Hoarder I decided to build a NAS as I have a reasonable amount of spare parts laying around besides buying new drives. What I want to know though is I currently have an 8tb drive in my desktop. If I buy 3 duplicate drives can I set up my RAID 5 in my NAS, move all the data off my desktop drive into the RAID, then take the single 8tb drive and reformat it and add it to the NAS? Or can I just add it to NAS without wiping the data and moving it or do I HAVE to back up the data to an external and then build the RAID from the start with all the drives I want to use?

[Electronics Wizardy]

This really depends on the nas model your using. Some can expand raid 5, some can't. Is this a diy or premade nas?

[Ravendarat]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

This really depends on the nas model your using. Some can expand raid 5, some can't. Is this a diy or premade nas?

DIY, I was planning on just using UNRAID. Unless of course you have a better idea, this is something I just started planning so I am flexible on solutions

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Ravendarat said:

DIY, I was planning on just using UNRAID. Unless of course you have a better idea, this is something I just started planning so I am flexible on solutions

Then you can easily add drives later on.

 

But unraid doesn't raelly use raid 5, it has its own parity system, so you can do things like mix drive sizes as needed.

[Ravendarat]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Then you can easily add drives later on.

 

But unraid doesn't raelly use raid 5, it has its own parity system, so you can do things like mix drive sizes as needed.

Thats great to know, thank you for the info