Network Hard drive?

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I could do with a new hard drive and thinking of setting up a Network one, but have never used one before. Am I right in thinking it will plug into my router so any computer in the house can access it via the wireless connection? just trying to think of the easiest way to keep backing up pictures.

and if thats the case is there any people already use and recommend?
 
Yup, your assuption is correct. I have a Synology NAS - 2 drives in a RAID-1 configration (the two drives each contain a copy of the data, if one fails you just remove it and plug in another).
 
Is it only going to be for archive storage and/or second copy? Personally I wouldn't work off of one unless it was on a gigabit cabled lan.

Remember not to treat raid1 as 2 copies of your data.
 
Thats correct, some also allow access from any internet connection so long as you set up the access details and know the login. Are normally straight forward to set up. Worth checking what Raid configuration you want.

Alternatively I use a My Passport Pro portable raid drive with thunderbolt connection to back up really easily to a mac- no network connection though.
 
I'd recommend a HP microserver. Fairly cheap and can fit in at least 4 hard drives. Makes it easy to expand as you go along.

Can also add synology software so effectively makes it a synology server which are excellent
 
1Tb Hard Drives can be £15-25 each, but if you can afford it and don't want:

- The noise
- The heat
- Higher failure risk
- Vibration

and if you can afford it id recommend getting ssd's. You can get 256Gb or even 512Gb for £120 or less.
 
Will mainly be as a back up, but I know I don't back up half as much as I should as it's just a faff getting it out, hooking up to the laptop and leaving it to transfer, the idea of just dragging and dropping it onto a remote hdd sounds very appealing!

The synology looks nice whilst not being too expensive. Will look into all options tomorrow whilst bored at work! Thanks guys.
 
all depends on budget you have to spend. Even cheapish DLink 320L will do nice with 2-bays (currently only £40 at dabs/amazon and everywhere else like ebuyer it's still £60 : http://www.dabs.com/products/d-link...ork-storage-enclosure-873L.html?q=320l&src=16). add 2 HDD's of your choice and you have nice simple setup :)

If busget allows woult look for something like QNAP (they are really good) and Synology like everyone suggested.

Don't forget to check if your router supports 1000mbps LAN (many models supports only 100mbps with trasnfer speeds of around 12MB/s only)
 
thik after looking I will be going for a
Synology DiskStation DS215j Desktop NAS-System 8TB (2-Bay, 2x 4TB WD Red)

look forward to getting it set up!
 
I just bought a ds215j from Amazon for the same reason. Worked out cheaper to buy the disks separately from Amazon instead of the bundle. Been up and running for a few days, I've copied images, movies etc overnight - not the fastest but good enough. I also installed plex so been watching some movies on the iPad with no issue ( MP4's so no transcoding - but that's not why I bought it )

HTH
 
yeh seemed to be about the best value, and surprising how quickly my 1tb is filling up on the pc
 
I've got a single bay Synology plugged into a Gigabit router with WD red HDD's. I mostly use it for media steaming/backup and in turn back it up to a USB drive. The homeplug network adapters are also worth a look for performance rather than using WIFI

Si
 
Another happy Synology user here. I got the DS713+ and a DX513 expansion unit with 6GB WD Red drives. With dual gigabit ports I get full transfer rates very impressed. I'm decommissioning my ZFS Based 1u pizza boxes as it is so much easier to manage.
 
dejongj said:
Another happy Synology user here. I got the DS713+ and a DX513 expansion unit with 6GB WD Red drives. With dual gigabit ports I get full transfer rates very impressed. I'm decommissioning my ZFS Based 1u pizza boxes as it is so much easier to manage.
Click to expand...

I'll bet it's impressive - that's a hell of a lot of kit for home use!
 
Simon Lund said:
I'll bet it's impressive - that's a hell of a lot of kit for home use!
Click to expand...
It serves three Apple TV with music and video :) and the cctv cameras, separated on another network for write access from the management side for read access. Also hosts my code version control system, normal network file share, intranet etc. it's superb.
 
mike_6480 said:
I'd recommend a HP microserver. Fairly cheap and can fit in at least 4 hard drives. Makes it easy to expand as you go along.

Can also add synology software so effectively makes it a synology server which are excellent
Click to expand...

Can I ask what HP microserver you recommend, please? I was after a Synology bt they seems to be quite expensive. As long as I can put their SW on the HP then sounds interesting. Cheers
 
Another vote for the Synology DS512J!

Bought empty from Amazon, along with 2 x 3TB WD Red drives, as that seemed the best value by far. A doddle to install and setup.

Mine is plugged into the router directly, but all access for the rest of the PCs in the house is via Wireless, and it is more than adequate as a backup / archive in speed terms, in fact it's great. While I probably wouldn't want to use it as my 'live' drive for everything, I have for example moved all my movies over to there and deleted the local copies.

For my photos, I've set it up so the Synology Cloudstation software syncs my pictures to the NAS in real time; that way I don't even have to worry about running a backup. Then, on the Synology itself, I've installed the Amazon Glacier backup sync engine, and once a day, that syncs the entire photo library and other critical files with Amazon Glacier Storage, which costs a staggering $2.40 a month for just over 200Gb; it's pay as you use, but ridiculously cheap and a very solid off-site backup.

I've been running with the Synology now for 6+months, and it has been rock solid - the software is excellent and very stable. Speed is great and the noise from the unit itself minimal.
 
I used to have a DS1010+ 5 bay and that was very good (albeit expensive). Support was extremely good too when I discovered bay 5 was dead (they can remote in and diagnose issues etc). I switched out to a Microserver however for cost saving and more flexibility.

kokolino23 said:
Can I ask what HP microserver you recommend, please? I was after a Synology bt they seems to be quite expensive. As long as I can put their SW on the HP then sounds interesting. Cheers
Click to expand...

The latest versions are supposed to be very good, and they'll be the ones with the cash back offers. However even a second hand N40L should be perfectly fine for file sharing. When I switched to the Microserver back in 2012 I did a thread about setting it up, albeit with Windows server rather than Synology software as it didn't exist then.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/hp-proliant-microserver-build.446804/
 
I use my micro server as a VMware esxi server. Those things are great value for money and very versatile.
 
I'm looking to upgrade from my nearly full WD. But a top requirement is a "sleep mode" like the fanless WD does well. As it will be mostly idle. No one has mentioned that here yet. Do the Synology devices shut down to silent, No fan, no sound, very low power consumption?
 
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ianp5a said:
I'm looking to upgrade from my nearly full WD. But a top requirement is a "sleep mode" like the fanless WD does well. As it will be mostly idle. No one has mentioned that here yet. Do the Synology devices shut down to silent, No fan, no sound, very low power consumption?
Click to expand...
I did a power consumption post for my 5 bay synology in the microserver thread above:

"the manufacturer quoted power for theSynology DS1010+:

Power Consumption: 68W(Access); 30W(HDD Hibernation)*
* Measured with 5 Seagate 750GB ST3750640NS hard drive. The figures could vary on different environments.

seems to be about the same as a sky HD+ box between standby and powered on (a lot of varying info on google but seems aboutright)."

There were plenty of power options, HD spin down times etc. Think you could put them into a full sleep?
 
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