I've got a NATS box with a single HDD in which is running fine. I'm looking to get a second HDD for it, does it matter is the two HDD's don't have the same spec, spin speed or size, or do they need to be identical? I want to set them up mirrored, which is RAID I think?

As you can tell, a bit of knowledge lacking here?

I'm putting a new SSD drive in my media PC so want all media files stored on the network.

they really should be identical,
you may find it easier to get 2 new drives (and take the opportunity to get larger ones too)

Yeah, that's what I thought Just ordered a SSD for the HTPC and 2 x Seagate 2TB's for the NAS.

Cheers

[Edited on 12/7/12 by Jasper]

There are other things to check as well.

Whichever drive you buy should be on the supplier's HCL (Hardware compatibiltiy list). There are subtle differences in firmware between similar labelled drives from smilar manufacturers, and some won't be compatible. THey'll *work*, but in my experience, they start to develop errors. I found this happened to me on my readyNAS (very good gear) and it was mullering 500G disks. I put 1T disks in on the HCL, and not a peep out of it since.

You can add a second, larger drive but the spare space will be wasted.

Yeah - they are approved by the NATS maker - D-Link, so should be fine. And they will hold all the family pictures and videos along with loads of HD movies and music, hence I wanted them mirrored

Two nice new shiny 2TB Seagate drives just arrived, along with my first 120Gb SSD drive for the media PC

Cheers chaps

Meh - I have the extended warranty on my macbook pro, so i have to wait before i rip the hdd out for ssd.

I did have an ssd, but it wasn't compatible when moving over to intel

slightly jealous ...