# Mixing HDD

**URL:** <https://forums.sandisk.com/t/mixing-hdd/299493>\
**Category:** G-SPEED & G-SAFE SSD\
**Created:** [July 19, 2016, 6:17am UTC](https://forums.sandisk.com/t/mixing-hdd/299493 "2016-07-19T06:17:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TeeSee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TeeSee](https://forums.sandisk.com/u/TeeSee)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 6:17am UTC](https://forums.sandisk.com/t/mixing-hdd/299493/1 "2016-07-19T06:17:21Z")

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Hi. I had 4 x 3TB Toshiba MG03ACA300 Enterprise Hard Drives and one died/failed. Finding it hard to get a replacement at a good price. Can I use other HDD, enterprise or close to such grade with the existing ones?

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**Author:** ![Rydia](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sandisk/user_avatar/forums.sandisk.com/rydia/32/15083_2.png) [@Rydia](https://forums.sandisk.com/u/Rydia)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://forums.sandisk.com/t/mixing-hdd/299493/2 "2016-07-19T14:48:38Z")

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Technically, yes you can mix drives, although it is not recommended. You can run into different drive timings and sector issues so the RAID won’t align properly. If the 3 drives currently work in a RAID5, we would suggest transferring the data to another location then starting over with 4 new drives that are all the same drives with a new RAID5.

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**Author:** ![TeeSee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TeeSee](https://forums.sandisk.com/u/TeeSee)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 5:22am UTC](https://forums.sandisk.com/t/mixing-hdd/299493/3 "2016-07-22T05:22:57Z")

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Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the replacement options of the working 3 drives is an expensive option. I guess then the next best option is to match drive speeds and cache etc as close as possible to the existing ones? I’m running it in RAID 10 configuration.

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**Author:** ![Rydia](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sandisk/user_avatar/forums.sandisk.com/rydia/32/15083_2.png) [@Rydia](https://forums.sandisk.com/u/Rydia)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://forums.sandisk.com/t/mixing-hdd/299493/4 "2016-07-22T14:21:26Z")

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There is definitely no support in trying that solution. We don’t recommend it because you’re supposed to use all the same drives in a hardware RAID.