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For my usual backups I use a USB external hard drive with Time Machine on my macbook, and for archiving purposes I move things to another separate external drive. The archive drive is getting full, so I'd like to switch over to a big capacity network drive if possible, perhaps 2 or 3TB.

Does anyone have experience with these, and have any recommendations? I'm looking at things like the WD My Cloud drives - I'm very unlikely to use any of the extra features they appear to come with, just purely using it as a network attached hard drive.
 
Depending on your budget, units from Synology or Qnap are generally regarded to be good. I have a Qnap 412 and had no issues with it.

Did have a WD external drive a few years ago, the Power Supply went faulty in that,
 
To expand on what Paul says, you're probably better off buying a generic two-bay NAS and adding your choice of discs than buying a sealed unit. I see the WD My Cloud boxes are available without drives but reviews are a bit mixed. Any of the major players (Asustor, Qnap or Synology) is okay; just don't go for DLink or Netgear. You don't have to add both discs at once but having the second allows RAID 1 for added data protection.
 
I would second a good Synology or QNap model. When you look at speed as well it makes a huge difference between devices. On my Synology DS713 I easily get the full Gigabit access and saturation whilst others barely reach half the speed.
 
I have owned my old 212J Synology NAS for the past 3 years. One of my disks broke last month but the RAID rebuilding was reasonably quick and pain free. The OS Synology use is simple and very effective. I'd definitely recommend Synology NAS's for home users based on my experiences.
 
Synology is a name that keeps popping up. The DS215J looks solid, and the 4TB option would be ideal.

The Amazon bundle pricing seems a bit odd, however - unless I'm missing something?

4TB bundle inc 2x 2TB WD Red drives - £314.09
Adding items separately (empty bay @ £133.29, 2x 2TB WD Red @ £69.99 each) - £273.27
 
Synology are good, but after mine failed I switched to a hp mini server for £110 and put my drives into it. Started running Freenas, but now runs server 2008 so I can use it for the webcams as well.
 
Another vote for the HP mini server. Often available for little more than £100 after cash back. Quiet, cheap to run and reliable 24/7. Mine backs up all the PCs and laptops overnight, and acts as a media server to stream music throughout the house. Comes with a single hard drive, with caddies for three more. Hugely flexible.
 
Cyprino said:
Synology is a name that keeps popping up. The DS215J looks solid, and the 4TB option would be ideal.

The Amazon bundle pricing seems a bit odd, however - unless I'm missing something?

4TB bundle inc 2x 2TB WD Red drives - £314.09
Adding items separately (empty bay @ £133.29, 2x 2TB WD Red @ £69.99 each) - £273.27
Click to expand...
Yes, you're paying the extra for someone to assemble and, possibly, test it for you.
 
I need a NAS that has a silent sleep mode. No fan, no HD noise when idle. It's in our living room. And as it only gets occasional use each day, it's just a madness for it to be running day and night.
My old, trusty 1TB WD NAS was silent. But it's full up now. I like the look of the latest WD 4TB mirror one. Which seems not to have a fan either and is reasonably priced. High performance is not a priority. Any suggestions appreciated.
 
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ianp5a said:
I need a NAS that has a silent sleep mode. No fan, no HD noise when idle. It's in our living room. And as it only gets occasional use each day, it's just a madness for it to be running day and night.
My old, trusty 1TB WD NAS was silent. But it's full up now. I like the look of the latest WD 4TB mirror one. Which seems not to have a fan either and is reasonably priced. High performance is not a priority. Any suggestions appreciated.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother with a NAS based on your requirements - just keep using external USB drives.
Just remember: 1 copy is just redundancy, 2 + copies are a backup.
 
Exactly as above - even with my HP mini server I still run backups to usb disks as well.
 
Diving Pete said:
I wouldn't bother with a NAS based on your requirements - just keep using external USB drives.
Just remember: 1 copy is just redundancy, 2 + copies are a backup.
Click to expand...
I don't have a USB drive. Just a NAS that is full. I'm used to having a NAS that is accessible from all devices and starts on demand. The automatic backup likes it too. But I could think about moving over to a USB drive instead. Hmmm.
 
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Snapsh0t said:
Yes, you're paying the extra for someone to assemble and, possibly, test it for you.
Click to expand...
Thought as much, glad I'm not going mad!
I've not yet decided on the route to go down, it's a question of whether I make the bigger investment into a 2 bay synology setup, or stick with USB. I do like the idea of having my own file server though...
 
I have a 3tb wd nas drive. Been going solidly for about three years now.
Sure synology would be nice, but with the price difference they are not comparable.
 
Erm, I'm not sure. I can check when I get home. But the fact that I need to check suggests that if it's not silent, then it's bloody close.
 
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