Setting up a RAID1 on my NAS device

I’ve got that NAS device mentioned above running on just a single 1TB Western Digital drive right now. My plan is to pick up another identical one and set up a RAID1 array—just to give myself a little peace of mind... 🙂
Now, I keep hearing about how if a Western Digital drive fails in a RAID1 setup, you just swap it out and keep everything running without losing a thing.
But I can't seem to find an answer to this: what happens if the actual NAS device dies? Can I just pull those Western Digital drives out, toss them into a different NAS, and get my files back? Or could I just plug a single Western Digital drive straight into my PC to access the data?
Or am I basically locked into this specific hardware—stuck needing the exact same model just to reach my own stuff...

I’m assuming that if your NAS device were to kick the bucket, you could potentially plug those drives directly into a PC—provided, of course, that your motherboard actually supports RAID and you manually configure both drives as a single array in the BIOS, otherwise, the system won't even realize they belong together. As for plugging them straight into another NAS? I wouldn't count on it; from what I understand about my own setup, the moment a NAS thinks a drive is empty, it immediately tries to format it to make itself useful. 😁

Basically, you can just pop those drives into another PC and read them since it's RAID1—never run into an issue where they wouldn't work. But if we're talking about a NAS, it might be a different story, just like Ashley Jackson4 mentioned.

I'm guessing your current drive is running in some standalone mode or a weird JBOD setup, so watch your step when setting up the RAID1 array so you don't accidentally wipe both disks. Some controllers let you skip that part, others won't, so stay sharp. And look, having redundant drives doesn't make you bulletproof; it won't save you from accidental deletions (unless this NAS has a recycle bin feature) or ransomware. A real backup is still mandatory.😉