This is a very basic 'newbie' question - but when it says 'diskless' - does that mean that you need to buy two hard drives to put into this machine?
1676489
Yes. You are buying the "box" that controls the disks. You purchase the hard drive separately. Check the Synology website before purchasing to make sure the disks you purchase are compatible. There is a very long list of ones that are, so lots to choose from.
1676490
Janice, yes you would need to get a hard drive, but you don't need to get 2, the system will work with one!
1676491
I'm afraid so. One drive will work; I'm using two. Even for a "newbie" it's pretty easy to set up, and they're very good about answering questions.
2248244
The unit comes without any harddrives. It can use (4) 4 tb drives. See the Qnap website and consult their recommended list of harddrives.
34965
Yes it is diskless. You can chose what size disks you want for the total size
581385
There are 4 drive bays. I haven't done so, but I understand you can rig the DVD slot for an additional drive. I have already added USB external without a problem. As far as the larger that 2TB drives - sorry, I haven't tried that. I'm running two small drives to handle the OS in a RAID configuration and 2-2TB drives in a RAID for everything else. Just haven't had a reason to upgrade beyond 2TB yet.
228614
The diskless NAS does not have any drives installed in it. I bought the diskless thinking I would use the four matched drives I had in an existing server. That would have been perfect, but the drives were not supported by the EX4. If you have existing drives, and they are on the WD EX4 supported list, this would be a great way to make use of them. Otherwise, you might as well purchase with disks and have a single warranty covering the entire NAS and drives.
2147309
When I first got it (about 9 months ago), I started with 1 hard drive and it worked fine. I added another drive in single disk mode and it's also working fine. Although I didn't set it up as RAID, I remember I had a choice to turn it into RAID. However, I don't remember if formatting both drives is required for RAID; it's not required for two drives in single disk mode. This was a few updates ago, so it might have changed, but I think you can still start off with one drive, add another drive in the future, and set them up as RAID.
2248242
The unit ships without hard drives. Yes, 4TB drives will work fine. The compatibility list is very extensive and includes 2.5", 3.5" and SSD drives. NAS and Enterprise level drives are generally preferred, but are not required.
228617
Diskless just means that the disks don't come packaged with the MyCloud EX4. You would have to buy the disks separately because they are still needed. Be sure to compare the prices closely. When I bought mine, there was absolutely no advantage to buying the disks with the base unit. I saved about $100 buying everything separately.
1611103
No disks are included. I used NAS - specific drives in mine which perform well but you can use standard SATA drives too.
578240
I am also unsure about the bay for a second hard drive, but mine came with 1Tb, which to me is plenty. You will be able to install windows 7 or any OS for that matter. Worst case would be that you may have to download a driver or two, but I highly doubt that.
1263238
Confusing right? They sell just the hardware and shell. You have to buy the drives. I went with WD Red series. I would recommend you buy two drives ; one to make a mirror backup of the main drive. If yuh have a lot of home videos, buy two 3 TB drives or higher. My analysis suggests that this is the best price point. It is, overall, a $500 investment. But, it's worth it for pictures, phones and computer backup.
1459205
It comes with the brackets to install all 4 drives, as to any hard drive I am not sure. They have a list of tested and recommended hard drives, there are a lot of mfgs and models. You also want to install in matching pairs at least and possibly all4 the same if you want to use certain RAID structures.
761862
I would buy it diskless. You are assured of getting the drives you want. Some commented that they got WD Green drives with a filled unit. I disagree with John Russo here, I have never seen a NAS that was a better deal when bought as a filled unit.
566308
If it specifies the capacity (eg, 2TB, 4TB) then yes. It can definitely handle up to two 2TB drives, unsure about the newer larger drives. Otherwise is should say "diskless".
1554223
It shows up as two physical drives 0 and 1 at 1 TB ea, further partitioned into 500 GB ea C-D-E-F. Haven't pulled it apart to see if in fact they are separate drives. 100% screaming machine but the drives are probably 75% screaming.
1233654
All of the disk drives are combined into one logical drive. This means that you would loose the data on your existing drives.As a side note, this unit is very fast. I have had mine about a year with no problems (Windows 7 x64).
1996152
Hello Dany, I know you can make the same configuration that the MD389LL/A has with one hard drive and an internal SSD. I believe you can go with two hard disk, too. Your systen will perform best with an internal SSD and hard disk. You are welcome.