1. will it work with Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 all 64 bit versions
2. do you have a list of approved hardware (Thunderbolt cards and hard drives) somewhere?
If not
3. do you know if it works with Lenovo's Thunderbolt 2 card (pn 4xh0h00340)
4. do you know if it works with any or all of Segate's 6TB, 5TB or 4TB drives?
5. do you know if it works with HGST's 4TB NAS drive, pn HGST Deskstar NAS H3IKNAS40003272SN
6. Does support hot spare in RAID 5 or RAID 6 where if it detects a drive failing it switches the drive off line and switch the spare into the array automatically?
7. Does it flush the write cache so if you power down or there is a power outage it either prevents shutdown or it flushes the cache fast enough or saves the cache until power is restored so that no data is lost?

Thank you. SFOAlan

Question

1. will it work with Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 all 64 bit versions
2. do you have a list of approved hardware (Thunderbolt cards and hard drives) somewhere?
If not
3. do you know if it works with Lenovo's Thunderbolt 2 card (pn 4xh0h00340)
4. do you know if it works with any or all of Segate's 6TB, 5TB or 4TB  drives? 
5. do you know if it works with HGST's 4TB NAS drive, pn HGST Deskstar NAS H3IKNAS40003272SN 
6. Does support hot spare in RAID 5 or RAID 6 where if it detects a drive failing it switches the drive off line and switch the spare into the array automatically?
7. Does it flush the write cache so if you power down or there is a power outage it either prevents shutdown or it flushes the cache fast enough or saves the cache until power is restored so that no data is lost?

Thank you. SFOAlan

Accepted Answer

1. For sure, Windows 7 & 8 supported according to Areca website.
2. Majority HDDs are compatible, although it is impossible for Areca to test every model and makes out there in the market.  You can download this for reference.
http://www.areca.us/support/download/RaidCards/Documents/Hardware/HDDCompatibilityList.zip
3. Not familiar with Lenovo's TB2 card.
4. & 5.  Should work, however, it is recommended to use minimum NAS level drives, preferrably to be Datacenter/ Enterprise drives, such as WD Gold drives.  HGST Deskstar is still desktop drive, not recommended.
6. Yes it support hot spare in RAID 5 or RAID 6.
7. You can use BBU (Backup Battery Unit) such as ARECA ARC-6120-T021.

Brand	areca
Model	ARC-8050T2

Drive	SAS & SATA
External I/O	2 x Thunderbolt 2
RAID Levels	RAID level 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD

Temperature	0 ~ 40 degree C
Humidity	5% ~ 95 %, Non-condensing

Dimensions	11.8" x 11.4" x 5.7" (H x D x W)
Weight	14.9lbs

areca ARC-8050T2 RAID level 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD 8 3.5" Drive Bays 2 x Thunderbolt 2 Thunderbolt 2 to 6Gb/s SAS RAID Storage

Eight-Bay Thunderbolt 2 - 6Gbps SAS RAID Storage

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Learn more about the Areca ARC-8050T2

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Item#: N82E16816151148