12-24-2024, 10:25 AM
A NAS could certainly be a good solution for utilizing your hard drives, even if RAID isn’t an option. While RAID is often used for redundancy and performance improvements, there are alternative ways to organize and access your drives. You could set up your NAS in a way that each drive operates independently, which is known as JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks). This setup doesn’t provide redundancy like RAID, but it allows you to use your drives as individual storage volumes.
Another option is to use a software RAID or storage pooling solution, such as ZFS or Btrfs, which can provide data protection without requiring hardware RAID. These file systems can combine your drives into a single storage pool while offering features like snapshots, data integrity checks, and sometimes even deduplication, depending on your needs.
Given that you have different-sized drives, these options will allow you to maximize the use of each one. Keep in mind that a NAS offers much more than just storage—it also gives you centralized access to your files, better security, and the possibility to stream media or back up data.
Another option is to use a software RAID or storage pooling solution, such as ZFS or Btrfs, which can provide data protection without requiring hardware RAID. These file systems can combine your drives into a single storage pool while offering features like snapshots, data integrity checks, and sometimes even deduplication, depending on your needs.
Given that you have different-sized drives, these options will allow you to maximize the use of each one. Keep in mind that a NAS offers much more than just storage—it also gives you centralized access to your files, better security, and the possibility to stream media or back up data.