NAS (network attached storage) advice.

[mccannable]

The wife's photography business is growing and we need a network drive for backup and storage. I am looking at the Western Digital My Cloud Mirror drives so we will have duplicates. There are a few different models and this will be my first NAS purchase and do not want to end up with a slow worthless drive. I will be using Time Machine on our Macbook to preform the standard backups.

Here are the two that have caught my eye.

http://www.amazon.com/WD-Cloud-EX2-P...y+cloud+mirror

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G4JZ42A/..._t2_B00I2P82CS

[dreamingat30fps]

I recently got my first NAS also. Although its mostly for storage I did want to do other stuff with it like use it to stream my movies, music and as a video station for my foscams. After much research I ended up with the Qnap 431. It was too slow for me and some of the apps I wanted to use did not support the atom processor. So I ended up returning the 431 and bought the 451 which has more ram (up-gradable) and an Intel chip instead of the atom. HUGE difference. This one is fast and I have had no issues with it crashing or anything like that.

If you ONLY want it for storage then honestly it probably doesn't matter that much. You might actually want to consider something like a drobo that has the redundancy but is also USB3 vs slower ethernet. I also found it to be more cost effective to buy the NAS diskless and shop for my own drives that way I could get the best deal on each.

[M_Six]

FWIW, I bought a My Book 4TB NAS last year. Sold and shipped by Amazon, not a 3rd party. When I got it I could tell it was a return that they resold as new. It had obviously been repacked. The software that was supposed to be on it for setup was gone, but there was still 68GB of someone else's data on it. I packed it up and sent it back. If you buy one of these, check it carefully and keep your shipping stuff until you have it up and running successfully.

[bmw1racer]

NAS article at How-To-Geek: http://www.howtogeek.com/208030/how-...storage-drive/

[mccannable]

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

I recently got my first NAS also. Although its mostly for storage I did want to do other stuff with it like use it to stream my movies, music and as a video station for my foscams. After much research I ended up with the Qnap 431. It was too slow for me and some of the apps I wanted to use did not support the atom processor. So I ended up returning the 431 and bought the 451 which has more ram (up-gradable) and an Intel chip instead of the atom. HUGE difference. This one is fast and I have had no issues with it crashing or anything like that.

If you ONLY want it for storage then honestly it probably doesn't matter that much. You might actually want to consider something like a drobo that has the redundancy but is also USB3 vs slower ethernet. I also found it to be more cost effective to buy the NAS diskless and shop for my own drives that way I could get the best deal on each.

It will be used mainly for storage for backup and her photos. I'll look into the drive you use.

Edit: Those look nice. Will my drives impact write speed? I see a lot of reviews using the wd red drives.

Edit 2: to clarify two separate main uses; first is time machine back up, second is loading her cards directly onto drive and editing the files without using our device storage. That's where the write speed seems like it would be a drag.

[mccannable]

Also looking at this brand.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=22-108-189

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by mccannable

It will be used mainly for storage for backup and her photos. I'll look into the drive you use.

Edit: Those look nice. Will my drives impact write speed? I see a lot of reviews using the wd red drives.

Edit 2: to clarify two separate main uses; first is time machine back up, second is loading her cards directly onto drive and editing the files without using our device storage. That's where the write speed seems like it would be a drag.

I'm sure the drives impact speed, however I'm betting it's minimal since your biggest bottle neck would be the ethernet itself. On the 451 I can transfer to and from the NAS at about 100MBps for large files (1GB+). I currently have it setup as raid 10 with 4 WD red 3 TB drives.

Red drives are used a lot because they are designed for NAS. They are made to handle being on 24/7. WD makes a couple of models, black, green, red, purple. Each serves a different purpose.

As for loading images from a card to the NAS I'm not sure if any have onboard card readers however I know many do have front USB ports like the 451. This allows one button copying of USB content into the NAS.

Synology is one of the big NAS brands and from my research their products are also very good. I ended up with qnap mainly because of price.

[jwzimm]

Woot has some NAS devices for sale right now:

http://computers.woot.com/plus/asust...?ref=cnt_wp_11
http://computers.woot.com/plus/netwo...1?ref=cnt_wp_1

[gtron]

is drobo still cool? they looked really neat but might have been expensive. not sure. definitely worth looking into.

[davis449]

If you're going to spend NAS money, go for a Synology.

[mccannable]

Originally Posted by davis449

If you're going to spend NAS money, go for a Synology.

That name keeps popping up but reviews seem to indicate it's more difficult to set up.

[UncleWede]

Synolgy was a little wonky when I set it up, but that's because I was trying to do so in multiple AD domains in a business environment. The thing has been rock-solid, although there have been about 6 OS updates per year. In a home environment, that isn't a problem at all.

I'm not sure if they are still around, but I found that Buffalo made quality products for home use.

Yes, you can buy them empty. Make sure you aren't buying hard drives on the cheap, that is the most critical part of your whole NAS. The red and purple are made with better quality parts all around. Limited vibration on spindles, better platters, more precise controllers on the read/write heads. The ones I bought for my Synology have 1.1million hours MTBF (mean time between failures) I'm pretty sure I will be putting in new technology before I have to replace a failed drive. . .

[13M5F10]

Some advice:

Whatever NAS you go with, always back of the drives. It has happened to me and has happened to others. It is possible for the drives to fail or for the NAS unit to fail rendering the drives useless.

It all depends on how the NAS unit operates but most write code to the drives so it's not possible to take the drives out and put them in another unless it's an identical chassis/system.

Google it if you need more info "swapping NAS drives into new NAS"

Also, synology NAS has been highly recommended by a lot of people
I know

[protecon]

I have a Synology 12 bay NAS with 4TB drives running RAID6.
Rock solid and easy to set up - heaps of handy apps to run too - does everything including IP security cam/web/mail server.

Highly recommended.

[mccannable]

I'm leaning towards qnap because it appears easier than synology for a beginner like me. I am not an idiot but I am inexperienced and busy.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by 13M5F10

Some advice:

Whatever NAS you go with, always back of the drives. It has happened to me and has happened to others. It is possible for the drives to fail or for the NAS unit to fail rendering the drives useless.

It all depends on how the NAS unit operates but most write code to the drives so it's not possible to take the drives out and put them in another unless it's an identical chassis/system.

Google it if you need more info "swapping NAS drives into new NAS"

Also, synology NAS has been highly recommended by a lot of people
I know

I agree. The RAID system in the NAS appliances is not a substitute for back ups. It's for data redundancy to ensure data availability/up time.

The reason drives are not interchangeable between manufacturers or even a different product family in a NAS is not because of any software written on the disks. It's due to how the data is laid down based on the RAID controller.

[UncleWede]

I've moved RAID drives, but to the same controller in another system. It detects them as "foreign" then will read and put them in use.

[dsad1]

Another +1 for synology. I have a 12 Bay and 2 Bay from them. They are rock solid.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

I've moved RAID drives, but to the same controller in another system. It detects them as "foreign" then will read and put them in use.

Yes. That worked because the controller is the same. Using a different generation controller and definitely a different manufacturer would reject the drives.

If you think about it, that ability has to work if the controller fails.

[RickFLM4]

Have you considered something like DropBox instead of buying something?

[mccannable]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Have you considered something like DropBox instead of buying something?

We need it for a few things including time
Machine backups. Plus it would be a large amount of files

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by mccannable

We need it for a few things including time
Machine backups. Plus it would be a large amount of files

Just send the time machine back to before it fails, and you can fix it???