# NAS (Network Attached Storage) advice needed



## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

I was considering getting an Apple Time Capsule for backing up my Macbook Pro, but ive read mixed reports regarding failure rates. It seems that NAS is a favourable option, but I know very little about them.

I assume its a device that can sit somewhere in the house that will allow me to perform wireless back ups from anywhere with a wireless signal? And am I right in thinking some have dual drives in case one fails?

I guess the only concern would be if it got stolen if I got burgled?

Any other advice/recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks:thumb:


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## Spoony (May 28, 2007)

I'm interested also in this. My thought are you use dual drives to have a running back up of the data and that any computer with a signal can access the data from anywhere as long as they are connected to the network?

I stupidly bought a 2TB external recently where I really should have went NAS.

I also use Dropbox for document back ups. It seems sensible for that.


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## Will_G (Jan 23, 2012)

I would think it'd be best for data transfer rates to have the nas hooked up to your router via a wire.

I believe you can get them in a raid setup whereby you'll have two drives with one as a live backup incase the other drive fails. There are a few boxes available from pc world but they seem expensive.


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## Dizzle77 (Mar 27, 2010)

I have a Synology 211+ with two 2TB drives. The NAS is hidden away upstairs and is connected to my wireless router via ethernet. 

You connect to the NAS via your web browser. The UI is straight forward and easy to use. 

-Time Machine backups wirelessly work fine. 
-Accessing music/movies is painless as folders appear as network drive on Mac. 
-stream content to my media player/PS3 as both connected via router
- Both my drives setup in RAID1, so data automatically mirrored on second disk

There are loads of options out there, but I can only recommend Synology as that's the only one I've used. Think they start from about £140. Their support is pretty good too and regularly provide software updates etc

They also have IOS/Android apps so you can connect using your iPad/iPhone etc


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## cdti_sri (Jul 17, 2006)

I also have a Synology 211+ and its a very good entry level server.


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks so far :thumb:

Been looking at this one but why does it say 'No HDD'? Is it just an enclosure that requires you to then insert your own HDD's?

Dont they sell them complete with HDD's?

Actually, Ive just found this one that has the option of including a HDD size of your choice. Is this priced about right?

So assuming it needs to be connected to my router vis ethernet I guess Im restricted by the length of the ethernet cable as to where I position it. It would be nice to have had it in the loft away from the eyes of would be burglars. I guess Id need to run a long cable from my living room, through my house and then to the NAS?


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## simonjj (Sep 25, 2010)

I've got a ReadNAS NVX 4 bay at present with 4 x 500GB HDD's, it's been excellent and can be set to email if there are problems with any disks, i have had to replace one but being hot swappable it's just a case of taking one out and putting a new one in.

I run mine in X-Raid 2 ( http://www.readynas.com/?p=656 ) so i have at present 1.5TB of storage with the 4 HDD being the backup.
All photo's videos, music can be streamed or accessed via LAN.
They really are very clever / useful bits of kit.


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## Dizzle77 (Mar 27, 2010)

LeadFarmer said:


> Thanks so far :thumb:
> 
> Been looking at this one but why does it say 'No HDD'? Is it just an enclosure that requires you to then insert your own HDD's?
> 
> ...


Yep you can buy them with or without HDD. I bought mine without and just bought two Samsung 2TB drives separately and installed them myself. They were about £60 each at the time. Really easy to install.

For the two bay Synology boxes they do a range of three. Each differ in terms of performance with slightly different CPU/RAM specs. So for mine there is

entry level 211J
Intermediate level 211
Maxed out 211+ (which is what I have)

There newer models are 212

When I first bought a NAS a few years ago, I originally went for the 211J partly because it was cheapest, but I found it lagged performance wise, especially when trying to do loads of things at the same time (downloading, backup, stream etc). I ended up selling it to my sister's partner who was after one, I picked up the 211+ and have never looked back. I can stream blu ray rips to my media player/TV whilst doing other things and it performs great.

I have mine upstairs in my mezzanine so it's hidden away. My router is underneath my AV Stand, so I run a long 16m+ CAT6 cable along the skirting and dado rails.

Might be worth checking out Dabs too. They were slightly cheaper than Amazon when I was ordering mine
http://www.dabs.com/search?q=synology 212


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks Dizzle, thats helped clear things up for me. Looks like the 211+ or 212 models are the ones to have. 

What are the approx dimensions of these Synology units?


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## Buck (Jan 16, 2008)

Steve

I run two Buffalo NAS drives. Both are wireless. 

The 500gb has all y music on for my Sonos music system. The other is a 2 x 1TB in RAID format for back up of all my data inc the music NAS. 

I then back this up on a 1TB external drive each month and keep this drive at work should the worst happens I've only lost one month. 

Just remember that raid is or true back up should you have a power surge, lightening strike (yes one of my partners had this and it fried their time machine !!) or a fire or burglary.

I nearly upgraded to a Synology recently as there was one for sale on another forum I frequent. They are awesome machines - cheaper to. Us without the HDD and source your own.


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks Buck :thumb: Interesting to know.



Buck said:


> Just remember that raid is or true back up should you have a power surge, lightening strike (yes one of my partners had this and it fried their time machine !!) or a fire or burglary


So in the event of a power surge then data could be lost?


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

LeadFarmer said:


> So in the event of a power surge then data could be lost?


Yes, but if you have a surge protector then you will only potentially have minimal data loss if files are being transferred at the time it happens.

Although I had a power surge on an old PC which took out the PSU and the motherboard but the hard drive appeared to be fine (although I never really trusted it so used it to keep non-important things).


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## ardandy (Aug 18, 2006)

Raid or not. NAS Box backups are still a single point of failure which is theft. Raid array's can also fail and wipe stuff. Mine went nuts years ago and although I could see all my files they were all 0kb!

Try at least hide a NAS box somewhere so if you do get burgaled it's at least hidden.

All my backups are done to spare HD's via a caddy and then shoved in my safe. But I'm a geek so little excessive for most. Online backups for truely important stuff is the only way to guarantee against fire/theft/failure.


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

I bought a GoFlex NAS drive last year and just bought a Time Capsule so swap into it's place. Both of these solutions house a single disk so don't give loss protection if that's all you use. If it's a back up of your computer then you should be ok. As with all things important an offsite back up is a good way of protecting against fire/flood/theft etc.

I have all my Music/TV Shows and Films on it for playing through the house.

If you go for a Time Capsule be aware it can't replace your modem - It can act as a router and create a dual band wireless network but it still needs to be plugged into a modem (or your current wireless modem/router)


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

A Time Capsule is a second option for me. So what connections do they need? Are they powered off the mains or off the laptop? And do they actually need wiring to the router/modem?


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Time capsule just needs wired to power and a patch cable to a modem or your existing wireless router.

I currently have 2 wireless networks, one from my free TalkTalk wireless router/modem and one from the Time Capsule, I might buy a modem in the future if the TalkTalk wireless annoys me enough. The TimeCapsule was bought as my Wireless Streaming was cutting out and I believe (rightly or wrongly) that the TalkTalk freebee was at fault, I've done some streaming on the new wi-fi network and it has been 100% stable so far.

I went for a TimeCapsule over an Airport Extreme so reduce the number of electrical components.


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

I was originally going to buy a Time Capsule but they get very mixed reviews regarding failure rates, which is when I started reading about NAS instead.


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## Buck (Jan 16, 2008)

LeadFarmer said:


> Thanks Buck :thumb: Interesting to know.
> 
> So in the event of a power surge then data could be lost?


Yes, that _could_ happen.

It's like lots of things - risk vs. probability.

I'd go for a NAS with a further (less frequent) back up off site (you could save it at your parents/in-laws - as long as it is off site and you can access with reasonable notice)


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

LeadFarmer said:


> I was originally going to buy a Time Capsule but they get very mixed reviews regarding failure rates, which is when I started reading about NAS instead.


A time capsule is just a NAS drive really. The 1st generation ones (2008) did have problems, which were repaired by apple, I've not heard of problems with the 2nd, 3rd or 4th gen ones, but could well be wrong.


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks. 

I guess Ive got to decide between the 2TB Time Capsule @ £250, or a Synology NAS costing a little more. The Time Capsule certainly looks a very neat and compact device to hide away behind the TV etc and I assume would work well with iCloud on my other Apple products (Macbook & iPhone)?

But obviously a NAS has other advantages.


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

This was on dabs email today, without researching it looks like a decent deal

http://m.dabs.com/products/netgear-...----no-drives-included-7SLK.html?q=Nas&src=16


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## Spoony (May 28, 2007)

I'm thinking on this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-rev...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

I know this was mentioned earlier in the thread, but I recently bought one of these http://www.maplin.co.uk/2tb-seagate...smart-phone-access-476983?action=noagentcheck

My needs were quite simple though, I wanted somewhere to back up my photos etc. and this did three full back ups (pc and two laptops) with auto back up and I have a shared folder for photos, music etc. so the kids can access a central music database on their laptops, ipods etc and I can also access it via iPhone, iPad etc.

I can also back up files from the work pc in the office via the Internet. Seems I can only add files though, and not whole folders this way.

As I said, it is probably quite basic, but as knew little to nothing about Nas drives I'm well impressed. I've also plugged our old Epson printer into it so we can print from any pc through the network, rather than having it connected to a pc and only working if the pc is on.


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

^^That looks good. I particularly like the ability to view its content via a smart phone :thumb:


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## Superspec (Feb 25, 2011)

Have you thought about cloud storage? 

It is completely safe, uses military level encryption in most cases, uses multiple backs ups to protect your data, can be accessed by you (or anyone you choose) anywhere in the world, means things like your smart phone, tablet etc can access your media files, meets insurance requirements for off premises storage of data etc.

They are dead easy to use and set up. It behaves like it's on your machine.

It's the way things are going.....You could get 3 years worth of service for what you would pay for a NAS drive, more if you got into the realms of RAID pricing.


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Shiny said:


> I know this was mentioned earlier in the thread, but I recently bought one of these http://www.maplin.co.uk/2tb-seagate...smart-phone-access-476983?action=noagentcheck


That's what i had (up till yesterday when I gave it to the Ex). I had a couple issues with the computer not picking it up, or the drive name apparently tweeking its self slightly so Plex could not find it without being pointed in the right direction again and reloading all the meta data.

The app is very limited if your using it to view video files, 95%+ of the files I had were unsupported. Being able to log into it from any computer with an internet connection was really simple to set up and good though!

Overall it worked great (nearly all of the time).


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Superspec said:


> Have you thought about cloud storage?


Thats a good suggestion, but ive got about 70GB of camcorder video files and I guess these would take forever to upload, even on BT Infinity?

But I guess I could back those up to a normal external HDD and then use cloud for everything else?

Are you referring to iCloud in particular?


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Most cloud storage suppliers will have file size limits so if some of the video files are quite big you may struggle to get them backed up anyway.

Google is $4.99 a month for 100GB
Apple iCloud only seems to go up to 50GB and that works out at $100 for a year
Box.net also seems to only go up to 50GB (£15 a month) although the business package is £11 a month for 1TB)
SugarSync is $14.99 a month for 100GB
Dropbox is $9.99 a month for 100GB
Microsoft Skydrive is $50 a year for 100GB

Most of them have free options for anywhere up to 7GB (Skydrive) which is perfectly adequate for documents etc.


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks for all the help everyone :thumb:

Talk about good timing, but a friend told me yesterday that he knew someone who was selling a brand new sealed Apple Time Capsule which I bought today for £125. Its a 2010 1TB model but this will solve some of my issues for now.

But I intend to continue researching NAS, so feel free to add further suggestions please


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## Superspec (Feb 25, 2011)

KNOWHOW (Currys/Dixons) do a 500gb Cloud Back up for £90 for 5 years!!

http://www.knowhow.com/uk/help-support-pillar/cloud-backup.aspx

That only backs up single machines but they also do one for multiple machine too, I think. They used to!! It's provided by a 3rd party, not Dixons, so at least it'll be safe lol


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## Superspec (Feb 25, 2011)

KNOWHOW (Currys/Dixons) do a 500gb Cloud Back up for £90 for 5 years!!

http://www.knowhow.com/uk/help-support-pillar/cloud-backup.aspx

That only backs up single machines but they also do one for multiple machine too, I think. They used to!! It's provided by a 3rd party, not Dixons, so at least it'll be safe lol


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## Pezza4u (Jun 7, 2007)

Can anyone recommend a NAS that is under £80? I only want to keep my data on there and have it backed up to the second drive (I already have these). I've been looking at the D-Link one - 




How safe are these when being connected to the internet, is it possible for them to be hacked into? Can the feature be disabled so it's only accessed locally?

Also how much electric do they use if left on all the time or do those of you who have them turn them on and off when needed?


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Pezza4u said:


> Can anyone recommend a NAS that is under £80? I only want to keep my data on there and have it backed up to the second drive (I already have these). I've been looking at the D-Link one - D-Link ShareCenter Pulse 2-bay Network Storage Enclosure: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
> 
> How safe are these when being connected to the internet, is it possible for them to be hacked into? Can the feature be disabled so it's only accessed locally?
> 
> Also how much electric do they use if left on all the time or do those of you who have them turn them on and off when needed?


That is only the enclosure, so you will need to purchase a drive(s) for it.

As for internet, virtually always just downloading data so there won't be any outside connection unless a serious security flaw is found.

As for power, not much. When the hard drive isn't in use they are normally spun down to save power.


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## Pezza4u (Jun 7, 2007)

I know mate, I already have the drives as said :thumb:

When the drives spin down are they fairly quiet?

I like the fact I can connect a printer to it as well, will save me buying a wireless one.

Thanks


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

When the drives spin down they should be silent or at least near enough. The enclosure itself will probably have a fan which will also probably change speed depending on temperature.

Best thing to do is read through various reviews and see if there are any complaints regarding noise.


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