"Simple" NAS drive for home

andyred

andyred

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Have been reading through the other threads re NAS drives - much too complex for me.

I'm thinking about getting a "simple" NAS drive for home use, so I can store my photos on there and music, so can stream music to various devices / speakers around house.

Potentially for storing and streaming movies...

Also trying to decide if I need a 2 bay system or if 1 bay is sufficient and back up via an external USB connected to the NAS...


Been looking at a couple of the Synology NAS (DS116 / DS216 / DS216play) and adding a WD Red NAS drive or one of the WD My Cloud options they do (which I think comes with a WD Red drive)...

As I say, after a fairly simple NAS setup, needs to be relatively easy to use / access as need to be able to show other half :) anyone offer any assistance, what to look for / what to check ?

Many thanks
 
I picked up a Synology DS216j a few weeks back with 2x 3TB Red Drives and its tremendous, dead easy to setup and seems plenty fast and easy to use, I've got mine setup to use all 6TB for the moment as I've been using it to backup files from the Macbook I've sold and other bits but will be planning on using it in it proper guise shortly (i.e as a RAID drive backing up one 3TB drive on the other)
 
I have a two-drive Asustor that I could put in the appropriate sales section if you're interested.
 
Netgear RN104 here (4 bay enclosure) bought because it was relatively cheap for my needs. Been chugging along happily for 2-3 years now. Only problem has been drive failures which with a RAID setup is easy to recover from. Easy to use, lots of online help - just works. Not played around with any of the apps though. Just use it as a network storage.
 
chrism_scotland said:
(i.e as a RAID drive backing up one 3TB drive on the other)
Click to expand...
Sorry if I'm jumping down your throat and you know this ... but RAID is NOT a backup. Ideally you would use your NAS as online backup from your other computers, but you should then backup the NAS to a second drive which you take off site.

RAID won't protect you from the most common causes of disaster - user error and corruption caused by the OS. It also won't protect you if your NAS device dies.
 
I have a simple WD 2TB network drive. Like this.
http://www.ebuyer.com/569164-wd-my-cloud-2tb-personal-cloud-nas-drive-wdbctl0020hwt-eesn

But then I don't require my photo storage or backups to be available on the network, that's all handled by USB external drives hooked up to my PC. The NAS for me is just for music/film storage which sounds more like what you are intending it for.

I did look into expensive NAS set ups with multiple drives and redundancy and blah blah blah, but it seemed over the top for my use.
 
I use a Synology 214play, and I've found it to be straight forward to use and very versatile. It did fail, though, but recovery was so simple with the help of Synology, who changed the unit under warranty and there was no loss of data.

All my photos, work files, videos are on it, and the NAS itself is backed up to a separate USB drive. When the unit failed all I had to do was move the drives from one unit to another. There was no data loss.

There are a host of apps for it, and using a dongle you can even record TV programmes to it directly.

The Play versions of the Synology NAS units do in-machine video decoding, so play back of videos on TVs are smoother. All my TVs are 'smart' and can access the NAS via DLNA over my home network via either Ethernet or power-line units.
 
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I have an old HP N40l Microserver. They used to cost next to nothing with cashback. I have it running NAS4free http://www.nas4free.org/ with 4x 3TB drives, and I think I upgraded it to 16gb. Set it up so long ago I forget the exact config, but I believe that is a hard drive dies completely I can just add in a new one and it should work again and have all the data. It works well enough for my needs. Time will tell what happens if a hard drive fails.

This is the latest deal I can find on something similar at hotukdeals http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hpe-proliant-ml10-gen9-164-99-104-99-after-cashback-ebuyer-2598231

I know my data isn't as safe as Fortknox with this arrangement. A fire would destroy it all. A big power surge probably would too etc. But losing all the data would be an inconvenience rather than a disaster. At least it's safer than just being on a single USB drive. I might look into means of backing this up properly, though I suspect I couldn't be bothered paying for whatever it would cost. I think the best approach would be to hookup a spare hard drive and copy over data to that, then disconnect it and keep it stored safely elsewhere.
 
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even a 2nd hand Gen 7 be fine for file/print share duties. picked my second one up for £70 shipped. slap synology's free OS on it and away you go.

edit - missed alans post where he says pretty much the same :D
 
chrism_scotland said:
I picked up a Synology DS216j a few weeks back with 2x 3TB Red Drives and its tremendous, dead easy to setup and seems plenty fast and easy to use, I've got mine setup to use all 6TB for the moment as I've been using it to backup files from the Macbook I've sold and other bits but will be planning on using it in it proper guise shortly (i.e as a RAID drive backing up one 3TB drive on the other)
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris

I was looking at the 116 also, which I think is primarily the same, just a 1 disc version...
 
bass_junkie83 said:
I have a simple WD 2TB network drive. Like this.
http://www.ebuyer.com/569164-wd-my-cloud-2tb-personal-cloud-nas-drive-wdbctl0020hwt-eesn

But then I don't require my photo storage or backups to be available on the network, that's all handled by USB external drives hooked up to my PC. The NAS for me is just for music/film storage which sounds more like what you are intending it for.

I did look into expensive NAS set ups with multiple drives and redundancy and blah blah blah, but it seemed over the top for my use.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave

Do you find it streams music / films okay ?
 
JohnX said:
I use a Synology 214play, and I've found it to be straight forward to use and very versatile. It did fail, though, but recovery was so simple with the help of Synology, who changed the unit under warranty and there was no loss of data.

All my photos, work files, videos are on it, and the NAS itself is backed up to a separate USB drive. When the unit failed all I had to do was move the drives from one unit to another. There was no data loss.

There are a host of apps for it, and using a dongle you can even record TV programmes to it directly.

The Play versions of the Synology NAS units do in-machine video decoding, so play back of videos on TVs are smoother. All my TVs are 'smart' and can access the NAS via DLNA over my home network via either Ethernet or power-line units.
Click to expand...

Thanks John

This kind of sounds like what I'm after doing, good to know about the Play versions do make a difference - you don't have any issues watching any videos you have stored on it on your TV ?
 
neil_g said:
Synology are one of the best NAS makers out there. their interface is ridiculously easy to use and configure and has a plethora of apps to add on for media streaming etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks Neil, good to know about the interface - are the apps free from Synology or do they charge for them ?
 
Eloise said:
Sorry if I'm jumping down your throat and you know this ... but RAID is NOT a backup. Ideally you would use your NAS as online backup from your other computers, but you should then backup the NAS to a second drive which you take off site.

RAID won't protect you from the most common causes of disaster - user error and corruption caused by the OS. It also won't protect you if your NAS device dies.
Click to expand...

True, I plan to backup to my other secondary external drive also. Anything truly critical is also stored online.
 
andyred said:
Thanks John

This kind of sounds like what I'm after doing, good to know about the Play versions do make a difference - you don't have any issues watching any videos you have stored on it on your TV ?
Click to expand...
None at all. I have two Samsung TVs that use apps to access the NAS, and an LG that accesses it directly. All three playback video smoothly. If there's an issue it's finding software to rip DVDs and BluRays to the NAS. Can't remember off-hand what I use.

NAS also stores and plays back music, videos and photos to my TVs, tablets, phones, and computers, both within my home and from outside via any internet connection. Also allows me to access my work files from anywhere too.
 
andyred said:
Thanks Dave

Do you find it streams music / films okay ?
Click to expand...
Music absolutely fine.
Films, I haven't really tried it out in anger yet. I started ripping a few as a test and seemed to be fine. But then moved house, got into one hell of a refurb project and haven't yet had the chance to get back to work on that side of things. But I do keep a few family videos on there and a couple of slideshows that I have running on the tv when I have clients over and it's never been a problem.
 
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