Question Re: Icy Dock 2 bay RAID Enclosure

[cuzed2]

So I am in the process of ripping my BR movie collection to a pair of WD 8tb external drives (one is for manual backup). By the time this process is complete I have estimated I will eventually need to migrate to a 10Tb~12Tb solution for my entire collection. I am currently using PLEX on my WIN7 PC as my media server. Not yet sure if I will eventually go to a NAS solution.

However, My question is for this intermediate step (up to 8Tb): I am looking at putting a pair of 8tb Red drives into an ICY DOCK 2 bay solution (RAID1). And then using another 8TB external drive as a simple additional manual backup of the ICY DOCK

My question; if the ICY DOCK were to die, is it possible to pull either of my populated RAID 1 drives and play my collection thru the PC? In other words does the ICY DOCK use a proprietary form of RAID, or any encryption that would make it difficult to direct read one of the RAID 1 drives from a PC?

 

[RealBeast]

I would not expect to necessarily have an easy time of using one drive from a RAID 1 using an ICY DOCK, your luck may vary.

I would be more inclined to simply attach the additional drive and then either manually copy contents or use a backup program (Macrium Reflect is quite good).

Like you, for my home network, I stayed with Windows 7 because I did not want updates breaking everything without my control. Tried PLEX but it didn't do much for me as I don't stream to mobile devices, just to 5 attached PC/HTPC machines from a large home build NAS using a HW controller.

I am relatively comfortable with the capability of drives in RAID 1 using a high end hardware controller (LSI, Areca, Adaptec) but otherwise RAID1 often seems to disappoint, I use RAID 5 arrays on good controllers with good drives and have full cold backup to avoid hundreds of hours re-ripping.

However, I will ask which specific ICY DOCK model?

 

[cuzed2]

Thanks!
I'm looking at the Icy Dock MB662U3-2S R1

 

[RealBeast]

I would not waste $100 or so for that device, you are better off with the free version of Macrium Reflect IMO.

 

[cuzed2]

Thanks - Ill check out Macrium

 

[RealBeast]

Thanks - Ill check out Macrium

You can do the free version as a trial and only pay if you need the additional functions of the paid version.