Answer to 1st question is: "probably not". I'm guessing you'll be prompted to initialize the hard drives when you insert them since whatever OS (or flavor of Linux) running on the box could be using a different file system.

BTW: That particular item just now went out of stock. I was browsing the page and refreshed it and a big red "SOLD OUT" popped in there. Buy one after the holidays.

Amazon has it for the same price & free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002XQ3C0E/...N=B002X Q3C0E