NAS drives?

Nod

Nod

Tootles
Suspended / Banned
Messages
49,339
Name
Nod (UK)
Edit My Images
Yes
Since I use several devices around the house, I keep finding myself on a different device to the one holding the file(s) I want. I understand that an NAS could be the answer to my problem, allowing me to get at its contents from any machine, possibly even when I'm away from home.

My needs are dead simple :- plug and play (although I can follow GOOD instructions, I get very frustrated when things don't work when they should!), 2+ TB, ideally upgradable with USB3 EHDDs as necessary, reliable and secure. Any suggestions?
 
Probably of little help to you as I got a QNAP (with two hard disks mirrored) but it is far too clever for me. As I was just looking at it, and how I can configure it to serve me with some test images (but in my way not the way it wants) ... here is some marketing bumph just for photos: https://www.qnap.com/solution/photo-storage/
It did not have any of this functionality when I bought it as my purpose was purely to save data on it and use it from various computers (easy enough to do that).
 
Before you go too much further what is your backup process at the moment?
 
2 external HDDs and optical discs off site for all important (to me!) things. Prints (up to A3+) for the best shots.

The NAS is pretty much purely for convenience - I could drag an external HDD round to all the machines I use but CBA!
 
There are only three brands worth considering: Asustor, QNAP & Synology. Which you choose is one of those religious questions like Canon vs Nikon. The overwhelming opinion here will be for Synology but I'm a heretic and like Asustor. Whatever you go for, buy a dual-disk model so you can use RAID 1 to give your data some protection against disk failure and come up a couple of steps from the bottom of the range as the cheapies tend to be slow. Buy drives intended for NAS use such as WD Reds and buy more capacity than you think you need now.
 
2TB should be more than ample for my wants and is probably well in excess of my needs!

What's a reasonable ballpark cost likely to be for a 2TB model?

BTW, I use Fuji, Nikon and Canon equipment (and have some Sony Hi-Fi!)
 
Between £200 and £300 for the bare NAS and £160-ish for two 2TB WD Reds.
 
Nod said:
2TB should be more than ample for my wants and is probably well in excess of my needs!

What's a reasonable ballpark cost likely to be for a 2TB model?

BTW, I use Fuji, Nikon and Canon equipment (and have some Sony Hi-Fi!)
Click to expand...



Western Digital My Cloud will suit your needs

You can even access your files when away from home, from another computer or mobile phone

Re-certified currently £65 for a 2TB model

Click HERE
 
Synology > qnap in my honest opinion having used qnap in enterprise conditions

Also never placed too much stock in nas specific drives. They may have better warranty granted but spinning drives can and do fail from day 1. Even the £££ enterprise grade. That's why you have backups.

I've got 7+ year old desktop drives doing nas duties. Read into that what you will.
 
I've used a Synology DS215j since early 2015 and I've found it very straightforward. One thing I liked about it is that I can set it to do further backups into the cloud 24/7 without the need for my main PC to be switched on, as there are quite a few apps it can run.

I'm going to have to get a second HD for it soon, but that's entirely my own doing :-). I use WD Red as the world generally seems to think well of them, and they're not all that expensive.
 
Keith W said:
Western Digital My Cloud will suit your needs

You can even access your files when away from home, from another computer or mobile phone
Click to expand...

I'm using the 3TB version. Has worked well so far.
 
Synology DS214 and DS414+ owner here, fantastic bit of kit, just waiting for the update to the DS1517 to be available and then I'll be upgrading.

Rule No. 1: Don't base the NAS storage size on your current requirements, I've had to migrate my data twice due to underestimating my data growth and using additional facilities on the NAS which chew through the space, such as CCTV.
 
Current requirements are closer to 500GB than the 2TB I'll probably buy. I'll only be sticking sorted/weeded/PPed files on there, keeping all the originals elsewhere. The NAS will be purely for convenience as it will (hopefully!) be accessible from any machine here in the house and (possibly, if easy to set up!) via the internet (again an if - if it can be made properly secure).
 
Nod said:
The NAS will be purely for convenience as it will (hopefully!) be accessible from any machine here in the house and (possibly, if easy to set up!) via the internet (again an if - if it can be made properly secure).
Click to expand...

It's very easy to accomplish both internal and external access, secure options areeither HTTPS, Secure WebDAV with optional MFA (Multi Factor Authentication).
 
I'll almost certainly need to get someone in to set it up for me!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top