First time NAS advice

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benjo09

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Dec 27, 2009
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So I'm looking to get my first NAS set up and would like some advice on what to buy.

I will be using it to store all my music, pictures and movies as well as a Time Machine backup of my Mac Book Pro and would like a 2 bay device so I can have the main drive backed up.

I will be accessing the drive with my Mac Book, Windows Laptop, Windows PC, Phone and Tablet and would like the ability to access the files from anywhere with an internet connection.

Finally is it possible for my Mac Book to have a copy of my music folder from the NAS that updates automatically whenever I'm connected to my NAS locally?

I will probably be using 2 x 2TB WD Red HDD and looking to keep the enclosure under £250.

Cheers
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

Titan
Mar 25, 2010
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There is a new virus out there that has made me think a bit about using RAID 1 for data safety. RAID 1 writes to both drives at once, if one drive dies, the other has a copy of the data from the second before the first drive died. BUT.. since the new virus encrypts the files you have that it can hit, if you have a RAID 1 setup, you will end up with copied of the encrypted files you can't access.

A better plan is to keep the driver in the NAS separate and do a weekly manual incremental backup to the second drive. Really only because of now nasty this new encryption virus is.

This is a pretty good brand for dual drives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822102083
 
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eday_2010

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Apr 27, 2012
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I'll be a first time NAS builder as well. Mine will be strictly a media server for music, photos, TV shows, and movies, and a couple of Office documents. I won't need it for backup since I am running mirrored hard drives for my files in my desktop. I'll also have a spare external drive that I will backup to as well.

I've been looking at a 2-bay NAS that can take two 4TB drive and use RAID 0. No need to back up the content on the NAS as there are copies already on other drives and burnt discs.

There is a lot of choices out there, none of them that cheap. But as long as I can access the files from all the PCs and the media streamer in the living room, I'll be happy. I've attempted to set up a Homegroup, but it doesn't work more often than it does work.

WD Red drives seem like the best drive to go with even though they are pricier (and WDs). My issue is finding an affordable case that has what I need and good speeds.
 
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popatim

popatim

Titan
Moderator
Dec 2, 2009
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I typically recommend Synology and Qnap for Nas's
Sometimes you can build a decent home server for not much more. For example a diskless Synology DS212j is about 190 and for ~$200 you can assemble this into a freenas server just add in a 4gb usb flash boot drive ($5?) for the OS. or spend another $50 for Win Home Server 2011
SHELLSHOCKER- $197 - http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=ShellShocker-_-1490507-_-11192013_1

whs11 - $50 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416443
 
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