Buffalo Terastation TS-5600D Max HDD Sizes & Recommendations

[TheBaron]

Hi, I have over 10+ Terastations, mainly Terastation-II's and III's that I have owned since new. I recognise these are fairly old tech these days, but all my machines are MINT and I've successfully upgraded the machines with the max HDD Sizes I've found possible and left notes on the forum for other users to follow if they also wish to upgrade. All my machines are now running very stable and reliably. TS-II's upgraded with 4x 2TB drives and TS-III's upgraded with 4x 6TB drives.

I have now inherited a few Terastation TS-5600D units whereby this model is completely new to me.

1. Does anyone know what the max HDD size you can install in these 6 bay NAS's?

2. Does anyone have any HDD make/model recommendations for these machines??

3. Has anyone got any recommendations to follow when updating these machines???

Any assistance/advice is gratefully received.

[1000001101000]

Unlike the the Terastation II/III with 32-bit ARM processors, the TS5600 has a 64-bit Intel processor. This means the 32-bit 16TB limit doesn't apply.

The largest drives I've used were 8tb (also the largest I've owned so far). I haven't run into any drives that didn't work in these devices, though I also don't think I've tried any models newer than about 2015 or so. I've got an 18tb RAID5 array in mine and haven't had any issues.

I've only used Debian on the Intel-based Terastations. As far as I know that shouldn't make any difference but it's worth mentioning since I've only used newer kernel/software versions which could handle things differently.

Speaking of Terastation II.....
If you decide to run Debian on these devices, there is a method for using larger drives:
https://github.com/1000001101000/Debian_on_Buffalo/wiki/Alternate-install-method-via-debootstrap-script#convert-to-gpt

[TheBaron]

Hi, thanks so much for the info. After moving and consolidating current stored data, I'll have a 'matched' set of 6x Seagate 8TB drives that are spare and I can deploy in the first of my two TS-5600D Terastations. If I can get that NAS working properly, I may try the second TS-5600D machine with 6x 12TB drives. I have a lot of data that I don't just want daily access to the files in RAID5 or RAID50, but i also need to perform weekly backups on a separate NAS.

Thanks also for the info on the TS-II's and using Debian. I like to maximise my use of these older machines and may look into getting my 4x TS-II's NAS's. I've just got all four on my TS-II's running well with 4x 2TB drives that were originally in my Terastation III units.

[TheBaron]

Has anybody repopulated the TS-5600D with large HDD's (ie. 6x 18TB drives) and got it functioning properly with a RAID5 or RAID50 Array? Please forgive my naivety and ignorance, I'm trying to learn and catch-up  with other users as fast as I can and share my experience with others on the forum to help others like me. Many thanks for your help.

[JoeAsheville]

I haven't yet, although that's the plan. Subbing to your thread for future updates.

What I'll be working with are 2 TS5800Ds and 14TB drives (or greater, depending on what's available at the time). 1000001101000's wisdom does hold here, these Terastation 64-bit models should accept and run these much larger drives without issue - it's just nobody has had occasion to do this yet and report back. The larger cap drives are still relatively expensive, especially now that we're officially in a recession and money is tight.