Looking for an External RAID1 Solution that is very minimal to work with

[apim]

For 10+ years now, I've had my mom on a 3ware 8006-2LP raid controller that RAID1's her data. She's got an HDD failure and it looks like all of my HDD replacement options aren't compatible with that controller (controller has a maximum of 1TB drives and all hdds smaller than 1TB are old, used, refurbished, etc..). I was wondering if there's a technology that exists with the below features that I should look into instead.

1. External Enclosure that houses at least 2 HDD's and performs RAID1
2. Has some sort of indicator light on the exterior that lets the user know which HDD is bad or good, so you know which needs replacing whenever there is an HDD failure.
3. When the user swaps out the bad hdd and inserts a new one, the enclosure automatically rebuilds the array without any user input
4. RAID1 config is stored on the HDDs so if the enclosure fails, you can bring the HDDs to a new enclosure and pickup where you left off

Sorry if I'm going about this all wrong. I haven't kept up with new technology at all. I feel like a dinosaur. If there are better solutions and I'm over-complicating things, please let me know. I'd like to keep it local though, nothing cloud-based. Thanks in advance for any ideas, suggestions, help, etc...

 

[Spartacus09]

Any of the big names have units that do that synology, qnap, to name a couple.

Or do you need/want the OS to be running on the external unit?

 

[westrock2000]

2.5” 1TB are still normal production drives. If you want to consider sticking with that setup.

You might also consider Windows Storage Spaces if you have Windows 10. It is transportable across hardware.

 

[apim]

Any of the big names have units that do that synology, qnap, to name a couple.

Or do you need/want the OS to be running on the external unit?

What are the devices made by synology & qnap called? I'd prefer the hardware run the external unit.

2.5” 1TB are still normal production drives. If you want to consider sticking with that setup.

You might also consider Windows Storage Spaces if you have Windows 10. It is transportable across hardware.

I never thought about 2.5". That sounds promising. Thank you for that tip. She's still on Windows 7.

 

[Spartacus09]

What are the devices made by synology & qnap called? I'd prefer the hardware run the external unit.

Meaning you want the external drives/unit to be stand alone and just provide a data disk while the os runs on something internally?

 

[apim]

Meaning you want the external drives/unit to be stand alone and just provide a data disk while the os runs on something internally?

That sounds ideal to me.

 

[Spartacus09]

Top: $150 ~ QNAP TR-002 - https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/tr-002
Mid: $115 ~ Sandisk MR2UT6G - http://www.sansdigital.com/mr2ut6g.html
Low: $75$ ~ Mediasonic ProRaid USB-C HUR5-SU31C
Low Prev Gen $65: ~ Mediasonic ProRaid USB3.0 - HUR3-SU3S3

There are many other offbrands that are cheaper but I can't attest to their quality or reliability.
Mediasonic are decent, but pretty cheaply made, I had a 4-bay unit that lasted me several years

The QNAP is nice due to the monitoring/control software it has that comes with it. So you would get an angry red light and a popup notification if a drive went bad.

 

[apim]

Top: $150 ~ QNAP TR-002 - https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/tr-002
Mid: $115 ~ Sandisk MR2UT6G - http://www.sansdigital.com/mr2ut6g.html
Low: $75$ ~ Mediasonic ProRaid USB-C HUR5-SU31C
Low Prev Gen $65: ~ Mediasonic ProRaid USB3.0 - HUR3-SU3S3

There are many other offbrands that are cheaper but I can't attest to their quality or reliability.
Mediasonic are decent, but pretty cheaply made, I had a 4-bay unit that lasted me several years

The QNAP is nice due to the monitoring/control software it has that comes with it. So you would get an angry red light and a popup notification if a drive went bad.

Awesome. Thank you. I'll go with the QNAP as you suggested. Appreciate the help on this one.

 

[rive22]

For the price when you factor in the qnap, you could also consider SSDs and put them internal. You can use windows raid 1, or even the mobo if it has it. It would ditch the heat, noise, and the reliability concerns of mechanical drives in an enclosure that might be moved around while operating. Example, my mom knocked her computer over and the HDD broke. She had SSD for the OS, so that was fine. But I put SSD in for the data too, and she's good to go. Luckily it was all backed up. For the lower sized drives prices are almost comparable.

Just to note also, the last released WD Blue and Black 1TB drives are decently quick for small drives. 180-200MB/s. They must be single platter so the tech isn't that old on those drives.