QNAS [SOLVED]

[gael33]

As a writer, I have been using a NAS to save all my work. However, the NAS is now several years old, a bit slow and running out of room. I was wondering if any of you guys use a NAS and would recommend a reasonably priced and reliable NAS that I could look up, on the WWW. Any ideas will be most welcome, thanks.

Gael.

[JoeFootball]

... reasonably priced and reliable NAS ...

Would you have an old PC gathering dust somewhere?

https://www.openmediavault.org/

[Moonstone Man]

... reasonably priced and reliable NAS ...

Would you have an old PC gathering dust somewhere?

https://www.openmediavault.org/

lol - you read my mind. An old laptop with a couple of USB drives would be far cheaper than a dedicated NAS.

[gael33]

... reasonably priced and reliable NAS ...

Would you have an old PC gathering dust somewhere?

https://www.openmediavault.org/

Sadly, no old PC / Laptop is gathering dust in any corner of my humble abode.

[JoeFootball]

Sadly, no old PC / Laptop is gathering dust in any corner of my humble abode.

You must keep a tidy home. Ask around. With the demise of Windows 7 support last year, many of my friends abandoned their old computers for new ones. They gladly had me take their "junk", which I easily repurposed for myself and others via Linux.

[AndyMH]

I've been happy with my synology NAS, a DS216j, been running 24/7 since March 2017 with a couple of 2TB toshiba 7200rpm HDDs in it. Think the current model is 220j. Total cost £145 + £100 for the drives.

[Peter Linu]

I have bin using a Lenovo NAS for a few years without complaint but it is overkill if all you want to do is store data. My advice is to get a docking station with a USB connection to your computer. The only advice is to choose hard drives with 'industrial' longevity.

[gael33]

I've been happy with my synology NAS, a DS216j, been running 24/7 since March 2017 with a couple of 2TB toshiba 7200rpm HDDs in it. Think the current model is 220j. Total cost £145 + £100 for the drives.

Thanks for the advice.

[gael33]

I have bin using a Lenovo NAS for a few years without complaint but it is overkill if all you want to do is store data. My advice is to get a docking station with a USB connection to your computer. The only advice is to choose hard drives with 'industrial' longevity.

To be honest I store a lot of movies on the NAS as well as data. My NAS has 2 bays and I was considering upgrading to 4 bays, doubling the storage capacity. My 2 drives are WD Red and I could use the existing drives in a new NAS plus buy 2 new WD Red drives of the same capacity. That would give me enough space for expansion. I guess that is a good idea!

[Peter Linu]

My advice is different. Two drives are good so you don't need to expand. What you DO need to do is format the drives in a RAID format so that disk1 automatically copies the content to disk2. Once that is done calculate how much space you'll need and add 50% (experience informs me that not leaving plenty of free space will at the very least, slow down transfers and at worst will break the HDD.
If you want to do the same with a 4-bay, as I said before, I use a Lenovo NAS. Not cheap...but seemingly bullet-proof.
You could also keep your existing NAS for data and buy another for movies. Please keep in mind that RAID formatting is mandatory.

[gael33]

My advice is different. Two drives are good so you don't need to expand. What you DO need to do is format the drives in a RAID format so that disk1 automatically copies the content to disk2. Once that is done calculate how much space you'll need and add 50% (experience informs me that not leaving plenty of free space will at the very least, slow down transfers and at worst will break the HDD.
If you want to do the same with a 4-bay, as I said before, I use a Lenovo NAS. Not cheap...but seemingly bullet-proof.
You could also keep your existing NAS for data and buy another for movies. Please keep in mind that RAID formatting is mandatory.

Thanks for the reply, Peter. One of the main reasons for replacing the present NAS is that it is quite old, over 10 years old in fact. I could buy another more modern 2 drive NAS with a bigger capacity and transfer the present drives to the new drives. My problem is is that I'm not very technically minded and I don't know how to do the transfer. The NAS I have at present is the QNAP-212-E, and it's very basic and doesn't appear to have a transfer program to do the job required. The other reason for wanting a 4 Bay would be the ease of fitting 2 two new drives that are the same volume as the older drives, plus I would have a new Box with a more up to date Operating System and facilities. The QNAP-212-E cannot be upgraded. Incidentally, I already have the drives formatted as Raid.

[Peter Linu]

Sorry for long delay in responding. Other axes to grind.
My advice is far simpler. Since you are a complete noob in this regard and since what you are wanting to do risks losing it all, my fervent advice is to go to a shop or have a professional do it for you. The cost will far less than replacing all of your movies.

[gael33]

Sorry for long delay in responding. Other axes to grind.
My advice is far simpler. Since you are a complete noob in this regard and since what you are wanting to do risks losing it all, my fervent advice is to go to a shop or have a professional do it for you. The cost will far less than replacing all of your movies.

Thanks for your reply, Peter. Between the initial posts and now, my computer warned me that my 128GB SSD drive was nearing full and advised me to expand my working volume with a bigger drive. Yesterday I bought and fitted a new 1TB SSD drive which was not cheap. Therefore, the issue with QNAS has been placed on the back-burner until such time I have enough resources to solve that particular problem.

Thanks again, I will mark this thread as solved, at least for now.

Gael.

[GS3]

Would you have an old PC gathering dust somewhere?

https://www.openmediavault.org/

That looks interesting for anyone who needs a "real" NAS.

Over the years I have been thinking about NAS but then I just keep using shares on different computers and it works fine for my needs.

I have used and still use older computers not only for storage but also as routers and other functions. I am amazed at the sort of hardware people throw away just because they want to get the latest.

The only negative consideration might be power consumption because a conventional router, NAS, etc. will probably use less power than an old PC dedicated to that purpose.

Another one is physical space which for me is not a consideration but might be for some people.

I also keep about a dozen old IDE drives just for backups. Essentially free backup storage space.

[AndyMH]

The only negative consideration might be power consumption because a conventional router, NAS, etc. will probably use less power than an old PC dedicated to that purpose.

It will make a difference, my synology is something around 11W. Back in the day when I was running a tower as a file server (using Xandros) 24/7, I did notice the impact on my electricity bills.

IDE drives! I don't even have anything that I could plug one into, whatever I had went for recycling years ago. Is their capacity measured in MB

[GS3]

It will make a difference, my synology is something around 11W. Back in the day when I was running a tower as a file server (using Xandros) 24/7, I did notice the impact on my electricity bills.

Yes, this is something I should give more consideration. I have several desktops that, for various reasons, are running 24/7 and I never stop to consider how much they cost in energy because then I would be forced to do something about it. Better to keep my head in the sand...

IDE drives! I don't even have anything that I could plug one into, whatever I had went for recycling years ago. Is their capacity measured in MB

I have several IDE drives with capacities in the hundreds of GB and I have several IDE to USB adapters so I plug one in, do the backup and then disconnect it and put it away. I also have a few IDE drives with capacities in the tens of GB and they are still good for backups of certain select files like some passwords, my accounts, etc. I try to diversify my backups as much as I can because I have heard disk drives can fail.

All these drives have not cost me anything because they have been pulled from older computers.