External 4 Bay JBOD with Windows Storage Spaces vs External RAID / NAS enclosure.

Digital Viper-X-

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I am looking at retiring my server and moving my storage to a more portable option. Right now I'm running 4x4TB in RAID 5 (Intel RAID) with a spare drive in case of failure. I'd like to keep a Raid 5 or Raid 5 like setup(Windows storage spaces) and have it become portable from machine to machine. Mostly I'm hosting family photos/videos and other not as important stuff as well as plex to serve it up.

I was reading on Windows Raid setups, and Windows 10 offers a Raid 5 equivalent setup (Storage spaces with Parity).

Questions on this: Is it portable from machine to machine if I'm using an external JBOD enclosure or is it tied to a single install?

External Raid enclosure or a NAS seems to be another option, but more expensive. For the NAS option, can you run plex on Nas boxes? Also if it dies (The actual box, not the disks) will newer models be able to reuse the array? Also, any suggestions onto not too pricey options :)?

Thanks!
 
Software Raid is compatible between same or later software environment, hardwareraid between same line of controllers or later controllers from same vendor.
 
I'm running a JBOD Storage Space with and IcyDock ICYcube 4 drive enclosure in the mirrored configuration. I can move the enclosure to a different computer and my Storage Space is available as long as it's running an equal or newer version of Windows. If I plug it into a PC running an older version it won't recognize the Storage Space.
 
While I wouldn’t directly say you can easily switch between computers, one of the main reason I have been using Windows Storage Spaces for several years now is because in the event of a computer upgrade, the pool works with zero issues. Make new computer, install windows, pool is available. I love it. The other reason I use it is because of how easily you can upgrade drives to bigger ones and just add new drives in general.
 
While I wouldn’t directly say you can easily switch between computers, one of the main reason I have been using Windows Storage Spaces for several years now is because in the event of a computer upgrade, the pool works with zero issues. Make new computer, install windows, pool is available. I love it. The other reason I use it is because of how easily you can upgrade drives to bigger ones and just add new drives in general.

This sounds similar to the SHR (Synology hybrid raid). Been reading about that a fair bit. Darn. Handy indeed.
 
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