Old Mediasonic Enclosure Died. Questions about Upgrading With QNAP

[chuquy]

Caveat: I'm not tech savvy and have no plans or time to be. Please go easy on me.

After eight years, the 4-bay Mediasonic eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800 - HFR2-S3B enclosure I used for my multimedia server appears to have died. It seems to be an electric/power problem. All of the 3TB HDDs were fine. One day, the fan wouldn't work and then it wouldn't power on. I took out the HDDs and it still wouldn't power on.

This was my setup:
4-bay enclosure (Mediasonic) with 3TB WD HDDs in each bay, in a RAID 5 Array. I also have a separate HDD Dock with another 3TB HDD (it still works fine). I attached both via USB to an iMac, which runs Plex server. I access my media using the Plex app on an Apple TV over wifi. My Apple TV is connected to an old Sony HDTV.

My first priority is to save the data on the HDDs. My second priority is to upgrade my setup. I have questions about achieving both priorities.

Priority 1 Questions:
1. What is the best way to save, restore and protect my HDDs? Do I need to buy the same Mediasonic enclosure I had before, set it to RAID5, and then plug them in? Or can I buy a new enclosure from QNAP, set it to RAID5, and then plug them in? Or, when I plugin my HDDs, do I run the risk of them being reformatted? That'd be a disaster. Is there another safer or better way to save and then transfer all my media on my 4 HDDs?

Goal 2 Questions:
1. If I can simply buy a new enclosure from QNAP and plug in my old HDDs, what model do you recommend I buy? This is for personal use. Is the TS-451-2G overkill? I don't want to rely on streaming if possible. Even when I had my old set up while living in the U.S., I experienced buffer delays. In Cambodia where I'm stationed it's worse. I would prefer my media physically attached to my TV. I also want to be able to write from my iMac to my disks faster. My old system took too long. I'd also like to improve my AV quality.
2. If I can't simply plugin my old HDDs into a new QNAP enclosure because it reformats the disk, what route to do you recommend so that my end state is an upgraded system? Should I buy the old Mediasonic enclosure, and then new HDDs, plug into a new QNAP enclosure, and transfer? That would get pricey.
3. Is it possible to change from RAID5 to RAID1? I've had an HDD fail in RAID5 and it was frightening. If I go with RAID1, how many bays would I need? What QNAP system do you recommend? How would I switch from RAID5 to RAID1? Since my HDDs are currently formatted and partitioned for RAID5, switching automatically to RAID1 would destroy all my data, right?

VERY much appreciated.

Eric

[dolbyman]

1. Best to ask in a mediasonic forum or their customer service .. no idea how those devices run (hardware raid?)
If you plug them in a QNAP NAS, they will be deleted. Not sure what would happen in a QNAP DAS, probably also nothing to preserve your data.
2. If you can manage to somehow transfer the data, have backups in the future, to prevent this kind of situation
3. No. also unsure how a degraded RAID1 would be less "frightening" in RAID1 the mirror partner needs to work 100%, to ease any tension .. have backups!