apogee

Thank you for your reply. Given the lack of eSATA port multiplier feature with most laptops, it seems that a desktop would be more appropriate to run xpeonology. I'm not familiar with virtual box and Exsi, but from other threads, it seems that xpeonology can be installed on either. Does that mean both Windows 8 and xpeonology can be on the same hardware simultaneously, with an eSATA external box?

Thank you for clarifying that USB connected drives cannot be part of a Synology RAID volume. Some external multi-bay enclosures also have an eSATA connection (RAID or JBOD). Through eSATA, can Synology RAID be enabled? I presume an eSATA enclosure would not be different from Synology's own expansion units, like the DX513?

I got XPE running on a Dell Inspiron 15 i7/8GB laptop and excited about at long last being able to get a Plex setup which transcodes without issues, better than many commercial NAS with underpowered CPU's. I've seen XPE running on laptop with an external USB HD. Will it also work with an external USB multibay enclosure like: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai ... &cPath=177 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai ... &cPath=177 The Orico enclosures come in both USB 3.0 only as well as USB 3.0 with hardware RAID 0/1/5/10 set via DIP switches at the back. The RAID version is only slightly more expensive, but I don't know if it'll confuse XPE's software RAID.