NAS Recommendations

[drew]

Currently, I'm using my desktop's spare drive as a shared drive on the network (her mac is mapped to it, essentially it's "hers").


That said, I've been thinking about a NAS for a while (eg years), but never got any further than that.


What would you chaps recommend?

I currently have 2x 4GB "green" WDC drives. I doubt I would ever need more than 10GB, ever.

Is it worth the money (hassle?) to set up a NAS for a PC (ultimately two) and a Mac? Or just keep doing the clunky "shared drive" through W10?


I'm thinking one central location for both our collective shit, may be worth it, given we've fucked off twice because of goddamn hurricanes. Itd be easier to grab that box and bolt, than pull HDDs out of shit.

[Tom Servo]

I'm in a similar boat. No recommendations as I've never set up a NAS, but poking in to make sure I remember to keep tabs on this thread.

[drew]

I looked into it, a little, about 4-5 years ago, and said "fuck it". But I'm now seriously entertaining the idea. I know the price range varies, greatly, depending on brand/size, etc.

[JoshInKC]

I suggest Illmatic

[MR2 Fan]

I suggest Illmatic

damn, beat me to it

[JoeW]

Jokes on me. Having never heard of that particular NAS company, I did a search...very funny :)

Fud are you just using as backup or as actual shared files you access all the time?

[Freude am Fahren]

I saw something called FreeNAS (https://freenas.org/) recently that sounds interesting. I was going to look into it more down the line. Basically you just build a very basic PC, and use it as the OS, and set up all your options for Win/Mac/Linux, RAID, etc. I actually saw it in a huge dual build, using a huge EATX case with two mobo's, one for the main rig, then the NAS down in the bottom.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlVOV00NPq4&ab_channel=Paul%27sHardware

[Kchrpm]

I bet the market has changed now, thanks to apps and such, but after having backup hard drives and an NAS stop working consistently or at all, and struggling to have non-Windows devices access fiiles, I decided to spend my money on online storage instead. Nothing crazy, just a TB with Google, which got upgraded for free to 2 TB this year, for $100/year. It's not a perfect solution, and may not be right for you at all, but I think it's worth considering if you have fast, unlimited internet at home.

[Tom Servo]

I did the same thing with OneDrive and as far as I can tell, it likes to leave local copies on your hard drive. I'm looking to move large files into cloud storage to both handle backups for me and clear up local drive space, how well does Google work for that?

[drew]

Fud are you just using as backup or as actual shared files you access all the time?

A little of both, actually. Her Mac has a 500 gig drive in it, but she's got far more than that. I've got a 4TB drive on my PC shared with all her/my music/etc. She pulls her iTunes from the PC, since there's not enough space on her Mac. As well as the backup files/etc that she works with/on and needs.


That riptide thing is reediculous. But I approve. :up:

[Kchrpm]

I did the same thing with OneDrive and as far as I can tell, it likes to leave local copies on your hard drive. I'm looking to move large files into cloud storage to both handle backups for me and clear up local drive space, how well does Google work for that?

I use a Chromebook, so Drive functionality is built in. It self-manages local cache, and I believe typically the only things it keeps locally are Google Doc/Sheet/Slides files, and whatever you mark to be available offline.

There's also a download folder where you can manually save items locally only (which it claims it will delete automatically for space, though I don't think I've ever seen it do that).

[JoeW]

Well Synology makes a small 2 drive NAS which is nice for under $300. They also have much larger solutions as well. Drobo is another company but their systems start at 5 drives.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Bay-DiskStation-DS218-Diskless/dp/B075N1BYWX/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1547388197&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=drobo&dpPl=1&dpID=41ew6gtQQZL&ref=plSrch&th=1&psc=1

[Yw-slayer]

My old Raven RV02E case holds a 3rd gen i5 and basic motherboard with 4x6TB drives set up as a Win10 Storage Space with redundancy. It's the windows version of raid5 which gives me around 16-18TB of space. It's quite easy to set up although I did buy a kindle book on setting up a Win10 home server. The OS and not much else is on an old 128GB SSD. It runs Plex, an FTP server (within the household only), store all of the stuff including FLAC and MP3 files played via our Sonos and Heos kit. There are ways to set up external FTP access but I don't really need it.

I've reformatted the SSD once and the storage space picked up right after a fresh Win10 install. Once you've set it up you don't need to hook up a monitor. I use remote desktop connection to log in and sort out windows updates, driver updates, etc.

The only thing which has failed so far are the old and notoriously bad Seagate 3TB drives which is why I replaced them all one by one but as quickly as possible with the 6TB drives. It took a few days as Win10 needed time to build the array, which I would sort out in the evening. Basically 1 drive every day or so.

Something like that is worth considering (with a quieter case) if you don't think that's overkill. It is slight overkill for me and I am the sort of person who has backup keyboards, mice, and phones at home and in the office. So it depends on what your needs are. I do also have several cloud services. I use spideroak unlimited and actually back up all the stuff from that server onto it anyway. It's good but not the fastest. Dropbox is the fastest but the most expensive. Onedrive is good but sync can be slightly clunky although you can store a lot offline and download it if you want (and in latest version of Windows see at a glance in Explorer whether a file is local or cloud only). Google Drive is a good middle ground.

[drew]

Interesting. The Synology one may be the ticket. I won't ask about RAID, as I:
A: Know fuck all about it
B: Don't care to know more about it.

[Yw-slayer]

Same, which is why I use Windows RAID.

If it helps, a long time ago I had a 2-bay QNAP NAS. I ended up replacing it with this Windows machine since it was just too slow for almost anything and I didn't like having to work through the software. It just felt limiting, whereas with Windows you can do anything.

There is also some utility in having 2 full-size computers at home, namely redundancy. However I then built a 4-series HTPC in a Silverstone Sugo case which now has a GTX1060 in it for VR (which I haven't had time or energy to set up at home). So I'd probably use that if I had to, particularly as it's a tiny and easily transported. :lol:

[Tom Servo]

I use a Chromebook, so Drive functionality is built in. It self-manages local cache, and I believe typically the only things it keeps locally are Google Doc/Sheet/Slides files, and whatever you mark to be available offline.

There's also a download folder where you can manually save items locally only (which it claims it will delete automatically for space, though I don't think I've ever seen it do that).

Nice, I might end up switching to Google Drive and see how it works.

[JoeW]

I literally have a drawer full of labeled hard drives and a use a two bay docking station that cost $29 to get old info when I need it. Just grab a drive out of the drawer and pop it in the docking station. That is NAS on the super cheap ;)

[drew]

:up:

[KillerB]

I've got a Synology DS218+ with two 8TB WD HDs - I forget the model but they're the ones intended for NAS. Aside from ease of setup, the other reason I went this route is power consumption. I looked into building my own, and - at the time anyway - it would lead to me pulling a lot more wattage. I don't download and stream video from it, I mostly use it to store my RAW photo library and to store backups of the other devices in my home, so I didn't really need peak performance, and I wanted an always-on solution.

I can't say enough about how simple it was to set up.

I don't have the information handy (I did a fair amount of research on some NAS and photography forums) but as I recall, unless you're running a lot of data in and out of it all day, the NAS-specific solutions can save a lot of electricity.

That said, the model I bought supposedly can stream 4K video quite well - but I don't have a 4K TV. :lol: Right now the real limit on performance is being on WiFi vs hardwired - the problem is that I'd much rather be on my couch than in my office most of the time. :)

[drew]

I believe, with that testimony, I'm sold. :up:

I have a switch in the living room that I can plug it into. Provided the fucking cat didn't chew through the ethernet like it has every other thing. (Xbox AV cable, Mac charger cable, about 3 dozen earbuds, my phone, my driver's license, toilet handle...)

[drew]

I pulled the trigger this week on the DS218+, got the 3xtra 4GB RAM and a single WD RED 6TB.

Once I got done fucking around with being able to see it on the network, transfers are a breeze. (Apparently, it doesn't like being plugged straight into the modem, once I put it on the router, it magically appeared....)

An Explorer-to-Explorer (through Windows) is infinitely faster than through the Synology Web Assistant. I moved 600GB that took about 5 hours through the assistant, and 1.7TB through Explorer in roughly 3.

Just need to get the Mac pointed at it, and I think we're good.

[mk]

Interesting. The Synology one may be the ticket. I won't ask about RAID, as I:
A: Know fuck all about it
B: Don't care to know more about it.

I'll tell you anyway.

RAID is a very simple concept.
Same data is stored to more than one place.

First type is mirroring, that is IMO only sane backup in use method.
Like disks 1, 2 and 3 have identical logical contents.

Second type is splitting, where a logical disk is more than one physical device.

Combinations of both are also possible.

Reliability and speed were propably basic thoughts when inventing the thing.
Until bean counters came and mirroring were left behind.

[drew]

I understand the concept, just never used it in practice. :)

[JoeW]

So how do you like the Synology?

I am considering getting a Drobo or Synology for all my photos and files for backup purposes. I probably need at least 25TB to cover current needs. Maybe 6-8 drive capacity.

Wouldn’t necessarily be using it for everyday access...strictly for backup and occasional access. I currently use a bunch of hard drives sitting in the drawer with labels on them. Real classy but I’d like to have a more robust solution.

Recommendations welcome.

[FaultyMario]

Eyeing the WD My cloud EX2. Anybody have any experience with it? The internetz is all over in its critique of it.

[Yw-slayer]

I have an original MyCloud 8TB version - it's OK for local storage on the LAN, but for about a year I have been unable to access it over the internet. Admittedly I haven't tried too hard to fix it.

[drew]

Shit, did I really miss this for a month??

Joe, It's good. Got it set up/connected to every PC in the house, she's got her own folder for her stuff, got all my music/etc on it.

Currently have about 1.9TB left of the 6TB drive. I think I'm set for a while.

The only real bitch I have about it, is if the power blinks out. I've thrown vulgarity and objects at the wall trying to re-find the fucking thing, and have had to remap drives through the Assistant (finding the server was the bitch part, first).