Advice for NAS Drive set up

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Sorry for another NAS drive thread!

I have two Buffalo NAS drives currently: -

One is a 500GB which was used mainly to store my music on for playing through my Sonos system with a few documents backed up there too.
I then have a Buffalo Linkstation with 2 x 1TB drives in RAID1/mirrored format
I then back these up onto two separate WD Passport drives - one is kept in the house but disconnected and in a different location and the other lives at work except for the monthly back up.


Anyways, the 500GB drive has come up with a disk error tonight (it just won't spin up) and a quick search on the internet shows that a replacement drive will be around £80 (SATA 3GB/s 7200rpm)


So, I was wondering whether I should bite the bullet and replace all of the above with a new back up solution that would be more future proof i.e. greaer capacity/newer technology.

Am I better consolidating onto one NAS or replacing the 500GB failed NAS with a similar 1TB offering which will be around £80 i.e. the same as the drive unit

My needs are: -

Able to play Lossless and MP3 files from my Sonos system
Access files from our Windows laptop for archived files/documents
Access files from our MacBook laptop for the same
Use as a Time Machine for my MAC

Any thoughts or advise on where to start? I was looking at the Synology range as I'd heard good things about their support and the GUI.

At the moment if I were to change I'd say I don't have a budget in mind but I probably won't get much change from £500 with the NAS plus new drives but might be able to offset if i can move the 2 x 1TB on as it is a sold and excellent bit of kit IMO.
 
well it looks like time machine, sonos and synology play well together from a quick google.. plus you have SMB and AFP file sharing so can handle OSX and Win.

i cant say anything bad about synology personally. ive got one of their mid/high end SOHO boxes (albeit now superseded).

depends on your budget really. if you increase the storage amount remember youll potentially need to get larger passport drive(s) for backing up too.
 
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Thanks Neil

Newbie question

Would I be better getting a NAS that is say 4 x 1TB drives as oppossed to 2 x 2TB drives? Or is this only relevant if I chose to have a different RAID set up?
 
better in what way?

personally i would get a device with more slots than you need but not necessarily use them so that you can expand into them.

for example if you got a 4/5 bay device: 2 or 3 drives (biggest you can afford) in raid1 or 5 depending on what your size requirements are.

if you went straight for 4/5 small drives you'd end up having to replace all of the disks when you run out of space (if you put a larger disk into an existing raid it will only use the amount of the smallest present disk).
 
Plus more drives = more likelihood of failure....
 
Thanks Neil/Andy

As its that long since I looked at NAS I wasn't sure if backing up across more disks was going to be "more secure" in terms of preventing data loss. (with my current set up I have only 'lost' two CDs worth of MP3/Lossless from this week so can easily sort that.)

My current 2 x 1TB NAS drive will do me in the short term but as it is around 70% full now, I'm going to look at a 2 x 2TB as the minimum, perhaps 3TB drives?

If I can get a 4 bay device so I have some future capacity then brilliant. I like the look of the Synology so will start there.

thanks again - need to do some research this weekend :thumbs:
 
neil_g said:
well kinda.. the odds on a single drive failure wont increase, but the odds of A drive failure at some point will.
Click to expand...
Gotta love statistics :D
 
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