QNAP has introduced 2 new JBOD Storage Enclosures with USB 3.0 /Type C connections.
- Both the Enclosures TL-R1200C-RP and TL-D800C are USB USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C connectivity supporting up to 10 Gb/s data transfer speeds
- TL-D800C is Desktop 8 Bay Model with Single power supply, TL-R-1200C-RP is rack mount 12 bay model with Dupal power supply
- Both the models can be used to expand NAS capacity as expected but also can be used with Windows , Mac and Linux PCS
Now this is a real unique feature. it can be used as a USB connected JBOD even for PCs, lets look at the 2 modes in which you can use these enclosures.
Use it as a soft RAID using OS
You can connect these enclosures to the USB 3.0 port of your Windows, Mac or Linux PC. On Windows and Mac you can download the desktop utility called QNAP JBOD manager to monitor, and view information about the JBOD status, health, fan rotation speed, and check for firmware version updates. All device events are recorded, and QNAP JBOD Manager will automatically send system alert notifications to your desktop.
Then you can create a new Soft RAID using Windows Storage space/Server manager. On Mac too you can use RAID assistant. On Linux you can use mdadm.
Off course your Soft RAID will only be accessible on the OS you created it on . For Example a soft RAID created with Windows won't work on Ubuntu straight away. There are ways to make it work but you would have to manually mount and won't be plug and play
Use it as a JBOD, accessing each Disk individually
After connecting the enclosure to USB 3.0, you can use it as a JBOD by setting up single disk mode. In this mode, each disk inside the enclosure can be accessed individually , and used as a removable drive. Again, the OS you use to write on the disk will use a file system that may not work on the other operating system. Windows NTFS won't straight away work on Ubuntu for example but can be mounted manually. An Easier way for 100% cross compatibility between Windows, Mac and Linux would be to use exFAT.
