Minisforum has told Tom’s Hardware that its powerful AI NAS, the N5 Max, will launch on April 23, 2026. The firm describes this as a breakthrough device, and indeed its specs are pretty extreme for a consumer NAS, with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 delivering 126 TOPS of AI compute power under the hood. It boasts 64GB LPDDR5X RAM, support for up to 200TB of storage, and comes with OpenClaw pre-installed on its 128GB system drive. We’ve also been given the full specs sheet (see below) and told the price for this tasty tech concoction. It will retail at $2,899.

The Minisforum N5 Max isn’t actually retail listed yet, but you should expect it to appear on the firm’s Amazon store on or around April 23, at that $2,899 sticker price.

Previously, we have reported on the overall product concept and key specs. It was already clear that this was a true Max member of the Minisforum N5 range, which also includes the N5 Pro with Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370 for $1,750, or $899 for barebones, and the N5 Air, based on an AMD Ryzen 7 255, which is $519 for barebones.

Minisforum expects users to wield this AMD Strix Halo power for “self-owned computing, privately controlled AI.” To help users get started box-fresh, it includes pre-integrated one-click deployment tools to enable full OpenClaw capabilities on the local platform. More specifically, the mini PC stalwart suggests using the N5 Max's power for “AI-powered semantic photo search… AI smart editing… [and] AI Agent OpenClaw” to work smartly on your behalf.

Enough of that AI waffle, though, let’s look at the cold, hard specs. The table below should let you know exactly what you are getting for your nearly $3,000.

Minisforum N5 Max specifications

Some of the key specs we have now that weren’t disclosed in the prior PR or official blogs include the supplied RAM and storage specs/quotas. In the era we live in now, these are sensitive stats.

You can see that the N5 Max, as priced, is configured with 64GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory, which is non-expandable. On the plus side, that's pretty fast system RAM, which the powerful iGPU will appreciate.

Though you can expand this device to 200TB of lovely storage with 5x HDDs and 5x M.2 SSDs, you don’t get much to start with. Minisforum is shipping this device with a 128GB system disk, according to the spec sheet. That uses one of the five M.2 slots.

There is probably sufficient I/O for many users, including a pair of 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports (but no wireless/BT). We also note that there are 3x USB4 ports, two of which are USB4 v2 with up to 80 Gbps.

We’ve seen Strix Halo systems without the NAS functionality around the $3,000 level, so this price is tolerable given that context. Has Minisforum chosen specs well with its fixed 64GB memory and minimal starter storage, given its product marketing? Buyers will vote with their wallets.

Minisforum has announced an upcoming NAS that is built from the ground up to run large language models locally. The yet-to-be-released N5 Max AI NAS comes with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Strix Halo APU and features OpenClaw pre-installed, an open-source AI framework that can be configured to run a variety of tasks. Pricing and a release date have yet to be announced.

The small-form-factor manufacturer neglected to share the NAS's full specifications, particularly the unit's storage capacity. All we know officially is the CPU inside, which is AMD's flagship Strix Halo APU sporting 16 Zen 5 CPU cores that can clock up to 5.1GHz, a Radeon 8060S iGPU with 40 CUs, XDNA 2 NPU, and 64MB of L3 cache. The 395+ can be configured with 32GB to 128GB of system memory; likely, Minisforum is using a higher memory capacity of 64GB to 128GB. LLMs are known to scale very well with larger amounts of memory capacity.

That said, we can make some logical guesses about the system's other specs. Minisforum's Max variant of the N5 series appears to be using the same chassis as the outgoing N5 AI NAS and N5 AI Pro NAS. If this is true, the Max version will likely share the same storage configuration as the N5 AI/N5 AI Pro, consisting of five 3.5/2.5' HDD drive bays and three M.2 slots, two of which support U.2 drives. The HDD bays alone support up to 30TB per drive.

AI acceleration in network-attached storage systems is a trend that is growing rapidly in the computing industry. Having this capability in a NAS gives it the ability to serve as both a NAS and a local AI server for users. Having the LLM localized also improves security as all of the data processing and interactions are done within the machine and aren't shared with the internet.

OpenClaw is not an LLM like Copilot or Gemini, but is an AI framework that can be programmed to run a variety of tasks. For instance, OpenClaw can be programmed to run a photo search engine that can be controlled with conversational prompts. It can also be configured to edit videos based on prompts, automate emails, publish social media posts, and more. Specifically, OpenClaw routes messages to an LLM, which will then decide which tools to use to fulfill the user's request.

OpenClaw has exploded in popularity; however, security is one of the framework's biggest flaws. Beyond the apps' already problematic security issues that can leak sensitive data to the internet if not configured properly, malicious content has been found on ClawHub, a hub for OpenClaw users to install third-party extensions.

A Reddit user on the r/DataHoarder subreddit shared how they were able to save money on hard drives by flying to the U.S. instead of purchasing them directly in the U.K. According to u/cgtechuk, they’ve been monitoring the prices of 28TB drives in the U.K., and only saw them go up. Because of this, they decided to take a trip after New Year's to buy ten of these high-capacity drives in the U.S. instead. Since Best Buy and B&H Photo both set a maximum purchase limit of just five drives each, the Redditor decided to get the drives from both shops. When the order was confirmed, they then booked a flight and a hotel in New York.

Decided to fly to the US to buy some hard drives from r/DataHoarder

We checked Amazon to see the cost of the Seagate IronWolf Pro 28TB HDDs in the U.K. and the U.S., and what we found was quite jaw-dropping. In the U.S., this hard drive "only" costs $609.99 a piece — and you could even get a discount on them if you’re able to find a good hard drive deal. On the other hand, Amazon UK lists the same drive and capacity at $980.46.

That’s a price difference of more than $370 per drive, and if you’re getting ten of these, then you’re looking at a savings of at least $3,700. On the other hand, the cheapest round-trip tickets between London Heathrow and JFK International start at less than $700. Even if you factor in the cost of a cheap hotel near JFK, which goes for around the same price for four nights, plus an extra $300 for pocket money, you’re still looking at savings of around $2,000. u/cgtechuk would have saved even more than that, though, as they said that they redeemed points for both the flight and the hotel stay.

To avoid getting scammed, they recorded everything when they picked up the drives they bought from Best Buy and B&H, including the serial numbers. They then tested each and every drive in their hotel with SeaTools, Crystal, and even copied files onto them to ensure that they didn’t get scammed with swapped-out drives. With everything verified, they then packed all ten drives (with their foam inserts) in their carry-on while putting their packaging in their checked luggage in case they need it for warranty.

Even though the AI build-out has mostly affected memory and storage chips, hard drives are also slowly but surely following the trend of limited availability and increased prices. In fact, their prices have surged by 46% since the third quarter of last year, and Western Digital has reported that its production capacity for 2026 is already sold out. This is because even though hard drives are much slower than SSDs, they’re still crucial for AI hyperscalers for nearline storage. With the latter surging in cost (up to 16x more expensive than HDDs), data centers are switching to more cost-efficient HDDs to store massive amounts of warm or cold datasets. This, in turn, drives up demand, resulting in higher prices for everyone, including consumers.

QNAP now offers pre-installed bundles for the company's NASbook TBS-h574TX, featuring EDSFF (Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor) E1.S SSDs, commonly referred to as the "ruler" form factor. The Thunderbolt 4 NAS, powered by an Intel processor, is now available with capacities of 9.6TB or 19.2TB.

The TBS-h574TX supports standard M.2 2280 and enterprise E1.S SSDs. The NAS employs a simple hot-swappable design that simplifies drive upgrades and replacements. It supports up to five SSDs. Two tiny 40mm cooling fans provide active airflow. While you can purchase the TBS-h574TX and install your own drives, QNAP's pre-configured option may be more convenient for those seeking to avoid the complexities of purchasing and installing compatible drives.

The 9.6TB configuration comprises five 1.92TB E1.S drives, while the 19.2TB configuration offers a per-drive capacity increase to 3.84TB. The mentioned capacity is with a RAID 0 array without drive redundancy. A RAID 5 configuration, which is the more common configuration, provides approximately 7.68TB or 15.36TB, respectively. The NAS employs QNAP-branded drives; however, the vendor does not specify the manufacturer. Notable manufacturers of E1.S drives include Solidigm, Kioxia, and Micron, but it remains unclear which, if any, QNAP uses.

The device employs a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface; therefore, although newer and faster drives may be used, their performance will be limited by the slower interface. QNAP's internal testing with five 3.84TB E1.S PCIe 4.0 SSDs in a RAID 5 array delivers sequential read and write speeds of approximately 1,400 MB/s. The vendor claims 4K random write speeds of up to 70,000 IOPS.

QNAP NASbook TBS-h574TX Specifications

QNAP offers the TBS-h574TX with three different processor options; however, the company only provides the pre-installed configuration featuring the Core i5-1235U, a processor from the 12th Generation Alder Lake series. The ten-core processor features two P-cores and eight E-cores, with a maximum turbo frequency of 4.4 GHz. The integrated Iris Xe graphics engine handles hardware decoding, encoding, and transcoding.

The Core i5-1235U represents a downgrade, especially since QNAP sells a variant of the TBS-h574TX equipped with a Core i5-1340PE (Raptor Lake), which is newer and more powerful. The only rationale we can think of for QNAP not utilizing the Core i5-1340PE is to minimize costs. The vendor pairs the Core i5-1235U with 16GB of soldered memory.

The TBS-h574TX's networking capabilities encompass a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port and a high-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet port. Although the NAS is equipped with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, it also offers a standard USB 2.0 port and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports supporting 10 Gbps data transfer. The sole display output is a single HDMI 1.4b port, which is suitable for up to 4K (3840x2160) at 30 Hz. The TBS-h574TX typically draws around 46W of power. The device comes with a 120W power adapter.

The TBS-h574TX-i5UC-05S01-US, the 9.6TB model, sells for $2,899 on QNAP's official website. Since the company does not offer a standalone Core i5-1235U model, it is impossible to determine the individual value of the five E1.S SSDs. However, by referencing the Core i5-1340PE model, the estimated cost per drive is approximately $290. The TBS-h574TX-i5UC-05S02-US, which has the largest storage capacity (19.2TB), comes with an even more eye-watering price tag at $4,399. Essentially, you are paying 52% more for double the storage capacity, which may be considered a reasonable offer when evaluated objectively.

QNAP offers a standard three-year warranty for the TBS-h574TX. Conversely, the E1.S drives are covered by an extended five-year warranty or until they reach the TBW rating — whichever occurs first. The specific TBW rating remains undisclosed, as QNAP does not specify the manufacturer or model of the drives used.

Synology has backtracked on its controversial self-branded drives-only policy, restoring the ability to use third-party and certified HDDs and SSDs on its 2025 Plus series NAS units. With the launch of its latest DiskStation Manager 7.3, users can once again use 3.5-inch hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs from brands like Western Digital and Seagate, without losing out on crucial features.

Earlier this year, the company had restricted core functionality for third-party and non-certified drives, including support for storage pools, health monitoring, deduplication, and firmware updates. The company made Synology-branded and Synology-certified drives compulsory, claiming that users of the Plus series NAS models would benefit from higher performance, increased reliability, and more efficient support.

In a way, the company forced users to rely solely on Synology-branded disks to unlock full capabilities. This reportedly resulted in community backlash, which eventually allowed rival brands to take advantage and promote their own hardware as more open and flexible alternatives.

For context, Synology does not manufacture its own hard drives. Instead, the company uses rebranded drives from popular vendors such as Seagate, Toshiba, or Western Digital, and applies a custom firmware. This firmware effectively acts as a form of digital rights management (DRM), which ensures that only these specific drives can access the NAS system’s full range of features and performance options.

With the latest update, Synology has restored some crucial features and aligned newer NAS models, including the DiskStation DS925+ and DiskStation DS1525,+ closer to how its NAS systems worked before introducing the policy. The company is also said to be working with major drive manufacturers to broaden the range of officially certified storage options.

Notably, the change does not apply to M.2 storage drives, meaning that creating storage pools still requires drives from the official Hardware Compatibility List.

Apart from restoring third-party drive support, Synology’s DiskStation Manager 7.3 introduces important upgrades focusing on performance, security, and flexibility. According to the official release notes, users will get access to intelligent data tiering for better storage efficiency, new security indicators for improved threat detection, support for native exFAT for external devices, email moderation for MailPlus, and enhanced collaboration tools like shared labels and advanced file locking in Synology Drive. The update also adds AI integration through the Synology AI Console with data masking and filtering.

Monday, March 31st, 2025, is World Backup Day and an annual reminder to regularly back up all your important data and documents to avoid headaches or heartache from losing precious business or personal data. What are your capacity and performance requirements, and is there any redundancy? These are questions you should ask yourself now and then to protect the data you have.

There is a wide variety of storage options available, from older yet cheaper HDDs for large storage to SSDs for speedy data retrieval — external versions of both HDD and SSD drives, plus highly portable flash drives and cards. Even cloud backup solutions for personal and business users can be essential for securing your own and customer data.

This year, the Amazon Big Spring Sale runs alongside World Backup Day, with many deals from retailers and data protection providers. Now's your chance to pick up some storage deals with money off some of the most popular SSD, HHD, USB, microSD, and other storage solutions.

We've seen some of the fastest Gen 4/5 SSDs going for low prices in these Spring sales, such as the 4TB Samsung 990 Pro selling for just $279 or even the 2TB Crucial T705 hitting $239. Many SSDs, in particular, are selling out fast as people pick up on these storage deals.

We've collated some of the better storage deals and grouped them for you. For an easy comparison of current and lowest-ever prices, you can check these deals against our SSD Price Index, which is updated regularly with the current and lowest-ever pricing history.

SSD

SSDs are fast and commonplace in most laptops and PCs and come in various capacities, up to 8TB for most consumer drives. SSDs above 4TB in size have become exceptionally expensive, with the sweet spot being 2TB at the moment. You should check the PCIe generation and read/write speeds to understand your system's performance and compatibility.

HDD

Hard drives have been around for a long time, and mechanical drives show no sign of disappearing anytime soon. They may be slower than more modern SSDs, but their price per capacity makes them a great solution for storing larger quantities of data that also don't need blisteringly fast transfer speeds. Ideal for packing into a NAS, HDDs vary wildly in capacity options.

Portable Storage HDD, SSD, Flash

Portability makes backing up your data much more convenient. Being able to transport or even carry with you on the daily, makes portable storage a great option for regular storage and backups.

Portable storage options include SSDs, HDDs, flash memory for cameras/Pi's, flash drives, and even expansion cards for game consoles.

Software & Cloud Backup

There are many different backup software services available. Some organize backups locally, and others use cloud storage to protect data from loss or attacks. Here are a few of the best deals we've found on data protection.

It's Cyber Monday 2024 and getting near your last chance to pick up some great deals on HDDs, whether it's a large external drive with an enclosure for easily transporting and backing up your media to large-capacity drives for popping into your favorite NAS for beefy back-up capacity for you LAN network media and larger data files. Hard disk drives may feel old school, and they surely aren't as fast as the latest SSDs, but you just can't beat the price per GB cost and reliability of large-capacity HDDs.

Over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, we've been keeping a keen eye out for all the best HDD deals on some of our favorite HDD picks. With prices as low as only 2 cents per GB on high-reliability NAS drives such as the 20TB WD Red Pro at $319, there are some great bargains to be had.

We've curated the best HDD deals from across the web this Cyber Monday and curated them into a handy table with a rough idea of the cents per GB cost of each drive. Check back frequently as we keep this table updated as we uncover more great offers on HDDs from retailers such as Amazon, Newegg, B&H Photo, and Best Buy.

A note of caution: If you are concerned about getting the fastest performance possible, avoid drives with SMR recording technology. Slow SMR tech is inconsistent and is common in cheap drives, while CMR recording ensures consistent, fast performance. That said, if you are just using your hard drive for archival purposes, backups, videos, or pictures, SMR is often just fine. Just be aware of the tradeoff, but SMR drives do often comes at stiff discounts.

Among these drives, our favorite Cyber Monday HDD deals are:

We are working hard to find the best computer deals for you this Cyber Monday. If you're looking for more savings, check out our Cyber Monday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

If you’re looking for a reliable and affordable hard drive to populate your new NAS or expand your existing one, today’s Cyber Monday deal will save you some money on your upgrade. The Seagate IronWolf Pro 14TB NAS internal hard drive, designed for NAS RAID setups, is now at $223.99 on Amazon — an all-time low price.

Although it’s marketed as a NAS drive, our testing showed that the Seagate IronWolf Pro 14 TB is a great all-rounder, especially if you need a massive amount of space for storing your system data. Its 7200 RPM rating and 256MB cache allow it to hit 225 MB/s transfer speeds — while not as fast as M.2 NVMe SSDs, it’s good enough for storing large amounts of data for long periods. Furthermore, this drive uses Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology, which is faster and offers improved stability vs competing hard drives reliant on Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology.

Another thing that makes the IronWolf Pro 14TB a great option is Seagate’s confidence in the drive. It has a truly long-lasting five-year warranty, with Seagate providing Rescue Data Recovery Services for the first three years (with the company claiming a 90% recovery rate). It’s rare to see this kind of warranty, and if you’re looking for peace of mind, this could be more than enough for you to pick this HDD.

This drive made it on our list of the best hard drives of 2024, claiming the Best NAS Drive title. When we compared the IronWolf Pro to other options, like the WD Red Plus, Toshiba X300, or even the regular IronWolf hard drive, we figured that the IronWolf Pro is the best option at its regular price. And now that Seagate is putting it on a discount, the hard drive is so tempting to purchase for your NAS or PC.

We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Cyber Monday. If you're looking for other products, check out our Cyber Monday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

As NAS devices become more and more like everyday appliances for everyday users who need network storage. Alex Meub, a product engineering manager has made the ultimate blend of kitchen appliance and network storage by converting a cheap toaster into a NAS which houses two 3.5-inch mechanical hard drive, giving you a perfectly toasted compact NAS that blends well with the rest of your kitchen appliances. We just hope that Meub removed the heating element and emptied the crumb tray.

The DIY NAS drive, affectionately called the 'DataToaster 3000' is made to accommodate two 3.5-inch mechanical hard drives and from the outside, it looks like a typical toaster. The functional knob is replaced with a potentiometer and an LED light. The toaster internals are gutted to accommodate the hardware required to make this work. You'll need to make cuts into the steel chassis of the toaster and replace a connector, so you'll need the best soldering iron to get the job done. You will also need the best budget 3D printer to print out the housing for the internal casing.  Alex posted all the 3D printable layouts and a schematic for building a specific circuit as the means to control the NAS. 

Instead of a Raspberry Pi, the DataToaster uses a Zimaboard SBC as a server. We've reviewed the ZimaBlade, a similar device from the same company. This Intel Celeron "Apollo Lake" based SBC comes in a variety of configurations and being an X86 machine, it can run your choice of operating system. Meub chose to run CasaOS (just like the ZimaBlade) for this project. The Zimaboard unique design, heatsink and the I/O ports required a 80mm x 38 mm cut to be made into the toaster. The Zimaboard has dual SATA connectors, dual ethernet and USB Type-A ports with a single Type C port in the rear. The Zimaboard's PCB is modded with a right-angled GPIO header. 

The Toaster NAS also uses an Arduino Nano board which takes power from the Zimaboard's 5V GPIO line. The Arduino board uses a potentiometer to control an RGB (common anode) LED, turning the knob will change the color of the LED. Since the toaster already has an area for the LED light and has a passthrough for the potentiometer everything fits like a glove. Meub also provided the schematics for the required connections on the Arduino board.

Alas, the slider is non-functional. Though it would be cool to have the means to eject the drive via the slider, having an ejection system would be complicated and probably not the best idea for a spinning drive. But the slider bar has been retained for aesthetics.

While there are plenty of NAS options to choose from, having a custom-made NAS gives you the ability to choose the parts you need and use the operating system to wish to have, giving you full control of its operating system. The genius of this project  is using the toaster as a casing. Making the slots perfect to install a couple of hard drives wasn't an easy task, but works for the overall aesthetic. Meub has provided all of the instructions and 3D prints for those who wish to replicate the DataToaster 3000.

In 2014, a PC hardware enthusiast from the Netherlands built a 71-TiB (approximately 78 terabytes) network-attached storage (NAS) that used 24 4TB hard drives. Ten years later, Louwrentius says the NAS is still running and hasn’t experienced a single drive failure.

The NAS owner said the 4TB HGST drives have only accumulated 6,000 hours since their deployment, translating to about 600 hours or about 25 days annually. Louwrentius turns off the NAS when unused, which the user claims is the likely secret to its longevity.

The NAS is only turned on remotely when the user needs to read or write data using a script to switch on the smart power bar where the NAS is plugged in. When the baseboard management controller (BMC) on the NAS’s motherboard has booted, the owner then uses an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) system to turn on the NAS itself (although the owner said that they could use Wake-on-LAN, too). After Louwrentius finishes using the NAS, he runs another script that shuts down the server and the wall socket.

Although the enthusiast’s primary reason for setting up this seemingly complicated bootup process for their NAS is to save on energy consumption, it seems that it also had the side effect of prolonging the life of their hard drives. Given that most hard drives are only rated to last three to five years, then the 10-year longevity that Louwrentius has on the systems means that he is lucky with their drive choices or he’s doing something right. But even if it’s luck with the 24 installed drives in the system, Louwrentius also claims that a previous system, which has 20 1TB Samsung hard drives, didn’t experience any drive failures through its approximately five-year lifespan.

The only hardware replacement Louwrentius made to the system was when the motherboard failed. Since it was impossible to access the BIOS, the owner had to replace it. It’s a good thing he acquired a replacement on eBay, allowing the NAS setup to store data for another day.

While we cannot 100% determine that turning off the HDDs is the sole reason for the longevity of these drives, it seems that it does have some impact. Nevertheless, it might be a good idea for users to occasionally check the health of their storage devices or at least copy the backups on new drives every few years. That way, even if one of the drives fails because of age or deterioration, you’d still have a copy of your most important files — something that the music industry is just discovering now as their archival hard drives are now recording a 20% failure rate, even when stored properly.

Microsoft's principal program manager, Ned Pyle, addressed new security changes with Windows 11 24H2 via the Microsoft blog. The changes will deny access to unsecured routers with USB ports and some Network Attached Storage devices. Pyle mentions that the upcoming upgrade abandons the much earlier variants of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and hence the potential issue.

Pyle explains that SMB1 is over forty years old, and warnings of its demise have been echoed since 2022. The Windows 11 24H2 takes one step forward, as it requires SMB signing by default, which will avoid tampering on the network. Guest fallback will be disabled on Windows 11 Pro Edition, which provides better security as it allows access to an SMB server without a username or password. 

This added security is long overdue as SMB signing has been available in Windows for thirty years as an option. Guest in Windows was deprecated twenty-five years ago, while the Guest fallback option was disabled in Windows 10 Enterprise, Education, and Pro for Workstation editions. These security implementations have also been present in Windows Insider Dev, and Canary builds for a year. Pyle says that this change in Windows 11 24H2 will secure over a billion devices as it will force NAS and router makers to update unpatched devices. 

SMB signing could serve as an added layer of security against malicious programs that access unsecured servers without the user's knowledge and permission to transfer data. Pyle explains that the devices can no longer be tricked into connecting to a malicious server without login credentials, blocking access to ransomware or malicious programs designed to steal data. 

However, this would also mean blocking access to your NAS since it can't differentiate between a server with malicious intent or a trusted NAS that doesn't have the necessary protocols. Pyle explains that, as a result, it would generate the following error:

• 0xc000a000
• -1073700864
• STATUS_INVALID_SIGNATURE
• The cryptographic signature is invalid

NAS makers to follow suit?

Despite being disabled by default, one could revert the changes at the cost of having a less secure system. This is where device manufacturers must provide a security patch to unsecured devices. 

Pyle explains that Microsoft would like to know if users have routers with USB ports and NAS units that do not support SMB signing. He says, "If you have a third-party NAS device that doesn't support SMB signing, we want to hear about it. Please email wontsignsmb@microsoft.com with the make and model of your NAS device so we can share it with the world and perhaps get the vendor to fix it with an update."

It's also likely that the respective NAS and routers with USB ports may have the SMB signing but possibly turn it off by default. Users could probably turn it on via the NAS management software. However, this may encourage NAS and router makers to turn these off by default while providing the ability to turn on the SMB guest fallback option should the user need it. 

Helping to secure one's network-attached drives is always going to be seen in a positive light by several users. It is also unlikely many NAS makers would risk being named by Microsoft as an unsecured device. Still, you'll never know until Windows 11 24H2 is released and, eventually, a list of unsecured NASs is published. 

This isn't the only security provision provided with Windows 11 24H2, but only time will tell how many users would be affected by this change.

Toshiba just demonstrated its first drives that can store more than 30TB using HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) and MAMR (Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording) technologies — proof that there are still ways hard disk technology can compete against more modern solid-state drives. 

The company achieved 32TB on a drive that used the former, while it managed to get 31TB with the latter. Toshiba issued a press release detailing this achievement and mentioned a planned test deployment of the drive next year.

Although most commercial and end-users would prefer the faster speeds of SSDs they are often far more expensive than HDDs, especially for larger capacities. That means individuals, entities, and corporations that store a lot of data will find mechanical technology far more economical than solid state drives. So, you’ll usually find these types of drives in advanced data centers or on large NAS systems.

For example, a 22TB Western Digital Gold hard drive will set you back $600, while an 8TB 2.5-inch Samsung SATA SSD costs more with its regular price of $849.99. Even when on sale, the 22TB HDD costs $459.99, while the latter costs $563. This means that the HDD costs around $27 per terabyte, while the SSD costs almost triple at a little over $70. You may say that the almost $50 price difference means nothing to big companies. But when you multiply this amount by the hundreds or thousands of drives a server uses, you’ll soon be saving real money.

The two technologies Toshiba used for its 30+TB drive, HAMR and MAMR, aren’t new developments. In fact, other companies have also launched drives using these technologies. Seagate, one of Toshiba’s biggest competitors, has already shipped samples of its 30TB+ HAMR HDDs to its server clients for testing in 2023, while Western Digital has reportedly been experimenting with MAMR tech in its 18 to 20TB HDDs since 2019.

With more and more services moving to the cloud each year, many data centers need to expand their storage capacities. 4K and 8K video is also likely playing a part in the growth of the demand for these massive hard drives, especially as more and more movies and videos are produced in such quality. That’s because a one-hour movie shot in full HD video only needs 1.4GB of storage while a one-hour 4K or 8K blockbuster averages 22 to 38GB.

Achieving 30TBs in a single hard drive will then be a massive space saver, especially as the next step down in the capacity ladder is just 24TB. Going up to 30TB from 24 means you get 25% more storage in the same size and, presumably, the same or almost similar power draw.

High capacity HDD competition

These developments will hopefully make data storage more affordable, keeping cloud services at a reasonable price. Here are some of the future HDD capacities we expect in the near future: Seagate said in 2023 that it has targeted 32TB and 40TB HDDs, while Western Digital announced in 2022 that it plans to hit 50TB in the coming years. Toshiba also expects to release a 40+TB hard drive by 2027. So, even though HDDs are getting rarer and rarer in the laptop and desktop PC spaces, HDD manufacturers are still going full steam ahead with their developments for servers and data centers.

Do you already own a NAS drive or maybe looking to build one? If you're looking to replace or boost your current storage drives, then this deal from Western Digital on the WD Red Pro 14TB Hard Disk Drive may be of interest to you.

You can save $180 off the total price when you purchase two WD Red Pro 14TB HDDs - getting them for just $439. Without the deal, the price would be $619. To take advantage of this sale, select the drive size and make sure you add two of them before going to checkout and there you will see the new calculated price.

The WD Red Pro 14TB HDD has a 512MB cache and is rated for 550TB/year workloads and up to 2.5M hours MTBF.

WD Red Pro hard drives are built to be more reliable. These are not your average consumer drives as they've been designed and engineered to be more rigorous and cope with vibrations, small shocks, and continuous operation. Whether for consumer or small business use, NAS drives are often accessible 24/7 and need drives that are up to the task. 

One of the big selling points of the WD Red Pro NAS Drives is that they also come with a 5 year limited warranty from Western Digital. So if something goes wrong with one of your drives, there's plenty of support from WD to get you back up and running.

IceWhale, the company behind the ZimaBoard, is gearing up for its upcoming product line: the ZimaCube. This is more ambitious than the ZimaBoard launch as it enters the network-attached storage (NAS) market with two models, the entry-level Cube and the more robust Cube Pro. Like the ZimaBoard, these run on Intel technology but offer significantly more power and expansion options. This includes multiple M.2 slots, plenty of USB ports, two PCIe slots, and more.

If you love your Raspberry Pi or other single-board computers (SBC), you certainly know that the space has opened up a lot in recent years. There are many alternatives, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, but the supportive Raspberry Pi community has long been a big selling point for the original. IceWhale Technology, a relative newcomer, entered the scene in 2021 with its ZimaBoard Kickstarter, which offered a unique look and an in-house, open-source operating system. This company and its product may have flown under some radars, but they are back with another passion project for home servers. We do remind you, though, that this is a Kickstarter campaign, so you do assume all of the normal risks of backing the project with your own money. 

CasaOS, which is to be renamed ZimaOS, is the OS originally designed for the ZimaBoard. It’s based on the user-friendly Debian, a Linux architecture OS from which the popular Ubuntu is derived. The Raspberry Pi OS, previously known as Raspbian, is also based on Debian, which has wide support. IceWhale continues to update its OS with a heavy focus on the Docker ecosystem, which provides an easy way to create and manage your own personal cloud. This makes the ZimaBoard a cool product for developers and tinkers, but the recent launch of the Raspberry Pi 5 puts downward pressure on its pricing given the inevitable hardware comparisons. Still, the ZimaBoard does retain its unique look and it is x86- rather than ARM-based. 

 The original Kickstarter campaign was quite successful, raising almost 50 times its original stated goal, but the company is not resting on its laurels. It intends to begin its next Kickstarter event later this month, around the 3rd of November, for its upcoming product line: the ZimaCube. This is more ambitious than the ZimaBoard launch as it seeks to enter into the competitive network-attached storage (NAS) market with two models, the entry-level Cube and the more robust Cube Pro. Like the ZimaBoard, these run on Intel technology, but offer significantly more power and expansion options. This includes multiple M.2 slots, plenty of USB ports, two PCIe slots, and more.

Of course, while M.2 SSDs are great, the real storage heavy lifting continues to come from capacious hard drives. Both models of the ZimaCube have six SATA ports with slots that can accommodate either 2.5” and 3.5” HDDs in addition to 2.5” SATA SSDs. The Cube, which could be priced in the $500+ range but will have an Early Bird discount, is perfect for those interested in getting into and learning about personal cloud technology. The Cube Pro, at up to $1500, takes this storage to another level with dual Thunderbolt 4, dual x4 PCIe 4.0, quad 2.5GbE, and a powerful i5 CPU, although it’s using the same cubic form factor with a convenient, drop-down HDD bay access plate.

Regardless of what model you choose, you’re not tied to the beginner-friendly ZimaOS. The hardware supports Linux, Windows, OpenWRT, pfsense/opnsense, Android, and more. Various forms of RAID are supported and you can also use Unraid or TrueNAS. The stock hardware is quite compatible but you can add your own, and there is also an official ZimaBoard Store for expansion accessories. This is a flexible system that can do a variety of tasks simultaneously, as shown with the live ZimaOS demo on its website, with enough ports to allow for a lot of customization. We do recommend ZimaOS for beginners who want to dip into this scene with the base Cube model.

The company compares the upcoming ZimaCube models favorably to Synology’s DS1621+ and QNAP’s TS-653D-4G-US, which are within the expected price range of the Cube Pro. It’s certainly worth shopping around to get the best fit for your NAS or homelab needs. If you have been waiting to jump into the fray or upgrade what you have, it’s probably worth paying attention to the upcoming Kickstarter campaign, which will have more information on the Cube and Cube Pro.

Recently we reviewed the ZimaBlade, a Walkman-esque device that crams an Intel SBC and up to 16GB of RAM for personal cloud storage.  

In recent years, Minisforum has become well known as a purveyor of mini PCs but has expanded its portfolio to include motherboards. On its Weibo social media pages, the firm announced that its Eyertec AD650i Mini-ITX motherboards are now on sale (h/t VideoCardz). In July, Minisforum first showcased these motherboards at a company event in China.

It wasn’t a massive step for Minisforum to add motherboards to its mini PC and barebones systems portfolio. We note that boards like the new AD650i are available in an industry-standard Mini ITX form factor, easing the transition. Therefore, people can fit them in an extensive range of existing PC cases without limiting their plans to custom solutions.

Looking closer at the AD650i, it is evident that Minisforum uses a processor intended to be shipped in PCs such as laptops and AiOs. This is why the motherboard is bundled with a processor – it is soldered onto the PCB, like a laptop. Many Minisforum mini PCs use this modus operandi. We don’t know the CPU cooler fitting if you want to source your own, but the product comes with a low-profile heatsink and fan pre-installed as standard.

The Minisforum Eyertec AD650i is currently only available with the Intel Core i7-12650H. This Alder Lake mobile chip has six performance cores and four efficiency cores to deliver a 10C / 16T configuration. It has a max clock of 4.70 GHz, 24 MB of Smart Cache, and runs at a base power of 45W, rising to 115W at max turbo. The integrated graphics features 64 EUs running up to 1.40 GHz and offers Intel Quick Sync Video support.

Minisforum’s Weibo post suggests users looking to build a home server or NAS consider its AD650i closely. The reasoning behind this recommendation is clearly the sheer amount of storage options this mini-ITX setup provides.

If our understanding of the machine translation of the Weibo post (and diagrams) is correct, the AD650i offers a single M.2 SSD and twin SATA 3.0 HDD ports. An MXM card bundled with the board also provides connectors for up to three further M.2 2280 PCIe3.0 SSDs.

Buyers are left to buy and configure their own M.2 / SATA drives, which can be set up in RAID0, RAID1 and RAID5 modes. Another critical component left up to buyers to sort out are the memory modules, which apparently need to be DDR4-3200 rated.

Minisforum doesn’t write about the I/O panel support, but in the images, you can see the rear I/O panel has connectors for a Wi-Fi antenna, USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C, 2x USB 3.2 Gen2, 2x USB 3.2 Gen1, 2x HDMI, 2.5G LAN, and 19V PSU. Meanwhile, there is a front panel header for USB 2 and 3.2 Gen 1.

The only current advertised outlet for the Minisforum Eyertek AD650i is the firm’s TikTok store, where the board sells for 2599 Chinese Yuan (about $355).

Building a Raspberry Pi powered NAS (Network Attached Storage) is one of the earliest projects achieved with the board. There was something about the $35 board back in 2012 that screamed "build a NAS", probably that it was running a Linux OS. You can spend big on a great NAS setup, you can spend smart on a kit such as the Argo EON, or you can spend little and build your own. The latter is what Michael Klements has achieved, a $35 Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W powered NAS in a custom 3D printed case.

Lets address the supply of Raspberry Pi before we dive in. Yes, Raspberry Pi are still hard to come by. Its getting better, and 2023 will see more Raspberry Pi arrive for retail. Right now, you need to be quick to secure a Pi. Using rpilocator is your best bet.

Klements' project specifically targets a low price-point, but rather than use a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, or $15 Pi Zero W, they go for the Pi Zero 2 W, also $15. The reason is clear. The Pi Zero 2 W provides roughly the same processing power as the Raspberry Pi 3, in a smaller package. Storage options are scaled back too. Instead of a large 2.5 inch drive, which would inflate the price of the build to three times the cost of a Pi Zero 2 W, Klements chose to use a 128GB micro USB flash drive. In a world of terabyte / petabyte storage capacities a paltry 128GB seems useless. But that 128GB of network storage is plenty for your most essential files. The micro USB flash drive was chosen given that the Pi Zero range of boards uses micro USB for its only USB port. Using anything else would require adapters and take up precious space in the case.

Talking of cases, the two part 3D printed case was designed in Autodesk's Fusion 360 and printed on a Creality Ender 3 3D printer. We're not exactly sure on the model of Ender 3, but the "Sprite" direct drive extruder makes us think that is could be a Creality Ender 3 S1 or the Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro, the latter being one of the best 3D printers for your money. The print took 19 hours, and Klements claims that it cost just $1 in PLA filament. The black case has been designed to accommodate the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a small fan is connected to the 3.3V pin of the GPIO to suck air into the case, keeping the Pi cool and the noise low. The Pi Zero 2 W sits at the top of the case and Klements has produced two versions of the case. One version enables the Pi to be screwed directly into plastic mounting holes. But the version that piqued our interest used brass M2.5 inserts that are melted into position using a Miniware TS100 soldering iron. This soldering iron was on our list of Best Soldering Irons and Soldering Stations, until it was knocked off the list by its successor the TS101 which we recently reviewed.

Klements chose to install Raspberry Pi OS Lite, a server centric version of the official OS. Using Raspberry Pi Imager, Klements enabled SSH access and pre-configured Wi-Fi access. After that it was just a case of installing OpenMediaVault, an application to easily create network storage devices using a web based interface.

The small size and wallet friendly price are the key outputs of this project. We love it and we can see it being used in many different scenarios. Portable file sharing in co-working spaces, on the commute into work or taking files to a friends home. This $35 project looks great and performs well.

Klements has documented the project via their blog and provides the 3D models for you to print on your own 3D printer.

Building a NAS box is one of the most popular things to do with a single-board computer, and this newly available carrier board from Radxa - known as the Taco - features plenty of SATA ports for you to connect hard drives too. Powered by a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 or a compatible board such as the Radxa CM3, it just needs a suitable case to make a fine storage device.

As it uses a Compute Module, the carrier board has to supply all the ports, and this one has been neatly designed for network storage use with five SATA interfaces, each capable of taking a 2.5 inch hard drive or SSD up to 15mm (0.6in) thick. If you want to use 3.5in drives, that’s possible too with an extension cable. You can arrange the drives using software RAID in RAID 0, 1 or 5 configurations (with the last one requiring at least three disks). There's no mention of a maximum drive capacity.

In addition to this you get an M.2 M Key 2280 socket for an NVMe SSD, and a Micro SD card slot. There's another M.2 socket too, an E Key for a Wi-Fi module or a Google Coral AI accelerator. There's an optional OLED status screen too, and activity LEDs for all the drives.

The whole board hinges on a high-speed PCIe switch, so you get a pair of fast Ethernet ports to provide the wired connectivity more common in NAS boxes, one of them plain old gigabit and the other 2.5Gbe. You also get a USB 2.0 port that enables direct drive access from a PC, and an HDMI output, plus PWM fan control for cooling all those drives. Power comes from a 12V DC input, or an ATX power supply.

Measuring just 110 x 85mm (4.3x3.3in), the board is crying out for a case, as the drives plug into the bottom, leaving the Compute Module and other components exposed on the top. This could make an interesting 3D printing project, but a kit that includes one should be available soon. Right now the board itself is available from AllNet China for $95, but bear in mind you will have to source your Compute Module and drives separately.

There are alternatives, such as the Argon EON which we reviewed and gave an Editor's Choice award to. This all-in-one unit is made for the Raspberry Pi 4 and wraps all of the drives in a rather "Flatiron" looking package.

NAS specialist QNAP, whose tribulations we’ve mentioned previously in these pages, has released a high-severity security advisory warning of a flaw that may allow attackers to gain remote code execution privileges on an affected storage device.

The bug is in PHP and affects NAS boxes running QTS 5.0.x and later, QTS 4.5.x and later, QuTS hero h5.0.x and later, QuTS hero h4.5.x and later, and QuTScloud c5.0.x and later. It was already patched in QTS 5.0.1.2034 build 20220515 and later, as well as QuTS hero h5.0.0.2069 build 20220614 and later.

The problem appears to be in the part of PHP that deals with FPM and isn't a new vulnerability. It's been known about in theory for three years, but only now has it been shown to be exploitable. FPM is a FastCGI Process Manager that a webserver passes requests to and which can spawn and kill PHP processes as needed. If set up in a particular way, this FPM can be manipulated into writing data past allocated buffers into the space reserved for FCGI protocol data, thus opening the possibility of remote code execution.

Note that this is totally different from QNAP's recent unfortunate experience with Deadbolt ransomware. The reason why QNAP, out of all the NAS vendors, appears to have so many problems is that it's both very popular and takes a conscientious approach to issuing security advisories and deploying patches. Given that the vulnerability hasn't been patched for all QNAP operating systems yet, it has been assigned the status 'Fixing.'

In the meantime, QNAP recommends users update to the latest firmware for their storage box. This can be done in the system control panel, using the Live Update panel, or by downloading an update file directly from the QNAP website.

As tipped by a Redditor, Western Digital has started sending out cash payments to class members of the WD Red NAS class action lawsuit. The payout varies from $4 to $7 per hard drive, depending on the hard drive capacity that consumers had purchased.

In 2020, consumers discovered that Western Digital was utilizing inferior shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology in the company's WD Red hard drives that cater to NAS devices. The manufacturer later detailed all of its products that used SMR technology, including several Blue and one particular Black drive. Sadly, it was too late for the disclosure as firms have filed multiple class action lawsuits against Western Digital for false advertising.

Western Digital settled one of the lawsuits back in 2021 and created a $2.7 million compensation fund for consumers that had bought one or more of the brand's WD Red hard drives. Owners had to file a claim at WDRedNASHarddriveSettlement.com before November 8, 2021 to file a claim. If you're part of the group, it shouldn't be long until you get your compensation from Western Digital. The 2TB (WD20EFAX) and 3TB (WD30EFAX) models were eligible for $4.00 whereas the 4TB (WD40EFAX) and 6TB (WD60EFAX) drives are good for $7.00.

The user from the Reddit post received a payment of 18.00 Canadian dollars, equivalent to $14.00. It's not a considerable sum, but it's free money regardless - money that you can use to pay for a meal.

Network Attached Storage manufacturer QNAP has issued a security advisory warning that its devices may be vulnerable to the Dirty Pipe Linux vulnerability.

The warning covers QTS 5.0.x on all QNAP x86-based NAS and certain QNAP ARM-based NAS, and QuTS hero h5.0.x on all QNAP x86-based NAS and certain QNAP ARM-based NAS. QNAP NAS boxes running QTS 4.x are not affected. QNAP has a handy list online specifying which kernel version each of its storage systems uses, so you can quickly check if you’re likely to be affected. 

QNAP’s advisory notice, which has a severity rating of high (one down from critical, the highest level) and which is still being investigated at the time of writing, warns: “If exploited, this vulnerability allows an unprivileged user to gain administrator privileges and inject malicious code.”

As we reported last week, Dirty Pipe affects all Linux kernels, including Android, between 5.8 and 5.10.122, which has received a fix. Kernels 5.16.11 and 5.15.25 are similarly secure. The vulnerability is named CVE-2022-0847 in the National Vulnerability Database,  which describes how a hacker with local access to your machine can exploit a flaw “in the way the ‘flags’ member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe and push_pipe functions in the Linux kernel and could thus contain stale values. An unprivileged local user could use this flaw to write to pages in the page cache backed by read only files and as such escalate their privileges on the system.” Which is bad.

Luckily, the fix is already in place, so QNAP is recommending users wait for a security update, as “there is no mitigation available for this vulnerability”. There's no mention of taking their devices offline - or at least not exposing them to the internet -  as there was when the Deadbolt ransomware hit QNAP devices, among others, earlier this year.

QNAP has been speedy with such updates in the past, with the patch to prevent and remove Deadbolt arriving just eight days after the malware, which hijacked the NAS login page and encrypted files, began to infect systems.

Asustor NAS owners on Reddit and the official Asustor forums have reported that they've fallen victim to a DeadBolt ransomware attack. DeadBolt has been in the wild for some time now, infecting unprotected NAS systems connected to the Internet. The same ransomware previously wreaked havoc on QNAP devices, and it would appear that Asustor was the next target.

DeadBolt's modus operandi hasn't changed much. The attacker remotely slips into the victim's NAS, encrypts the latter's information, and consequently asks for a ransom in bitcoins. Each victim receives a unique Bitcoin address to send the funds. Once the payment goes through, the criminal sends the victim the decryption key to decrypt the files on the infected NAS system. The perpetrators are asking for 0.03 bitcoin, which by today's exchange rate is around $1,154. It's the same sum that the hijackers had demanded from their QNAP victims. Surprisingly, the gang didn't make Asustor any offers. With QNAP, the group had offered to share the vulnerability details with the company for five bitcoins ($184,000) or sell it the universal decryption master key for 50 bitcoins ($1.85 million).

Asustor users that synchronize their files from their NAS to a cloud service like Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive should sever the link as soon as possible. One Redditor commented his infected system pushed the encrypted files to his OneDrive and Google Drive accounts. While he could recover the files from the former, he didn't have any luck with the latter.

Asustor hasn't released a statement regarding the DeadBolt attack. The recommendation from infected owners is to disconnect the NAS system from the Internet and wait for Asustor's fix. Owners speculate that DeadBolt gained access through Asustor's EZ Connect utility, which allows users to connect to their NAS systems from anywhere around the world. What's funny is that even the live demo of ADM (Asustor Data Master), the operating system for Asustor NAS devices, wasn't saved from the DeadBolt.

It's unknown if all Asustor NAS devices are susceptible to the DeadBolt attack as there is user feedback that some models, such as the AS6602T, AS-6210T-4K, AS5304T, AS6102T, or AS5304T, are free of infection. Meanwhile, some affected models include the AS5304T, AS6404T, AS5104T, and AS7004T.

Suppose you're one of the lucky owners that didn't get infected. In that case, one Redditor recommends taking some preventative measures, such as disabling EZ Connect, automatic updates, SSH, blocking all NAS ports from your router, and only allowing connections from within your network.

Update 2/7/2022 06:15 PST

The creator of this project has provided an update on this project. The project now uses a WD My Passport Ultra 5TB HDD and features a HDHomeRun Extend HDTV tuner. More details can be found in the original reddit post.

Original Article

We’ve seen Raspberry Pi hotspots before but this one, created by Reddit user Treasurehunter613, has a few extra features that really add to the on-the-go experience. This Pi-powered LTE WiFi hotspot doubles as an NAS and comes with all of the support provided by the Raspberry Pi.

According to Treasurehunter613, the module uses very little power which makes it ideal to take on trips. Expanding the NAS storage capacity is as easy as attaching a second drive. The NAS aspect of the build is via Samba a free software re-implementation of the SMB networking protocol. Samba is very popular with Raspberry Pi network storage project creators.

The project doesn’t even require the latest Pi, relying on a Raspberry Pi 3B+. While still a formidable Raspberry Pi,  the Raspberry Pi 4 has the horsepower and support for Gigabit Ethernet. For LTE support, it has a Waveshare 3G/4G/LTE HAT along with dual Proxicast 3G/4G/LTE antennas. To keep things compact, a SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB SSD Flash Drive is used for NAS storage space while battery makes the whole operation mobile. 

Treasurehunter613 has documented the parts and configurations steps necessary for anyone recreate the project. The steps include setting up Wi-Fi access points and setting up the 4G HAT.

While plenty of modules already exist that provide mobile WiFi support, the benefit here lies in the versatility of the Pi. Attaching a larger MIMO antenna or bigger drive for the NAS is always an option. It also adds functionality that can be shared with multiple users who can access media hosted on the NAS using their mobile devices locally.

To get a closer look, check out the original project thread shared to Reddit and be sure to follow Treasurehunter613 for any future updates.

Expansive carrier boards for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 certainly aren’t unheard of, but the $99 Interceptor Carrier Board from Axzez, with five SATA ports and four gigabit Ethernet sockets (as reported by CNX Software) certainly stands out.

The Interceptor carrier board is designed to be the center of your NAS. Those five SATA ports are connected via a JMicron JMB585 PCIe to SATA controller to a single 5Gbps PCIe interface, which may create a bottleneck, while the network ports connect to a Realtek RTL8367RB switch. This looks like a board custom-made for a home-made NAS or managed switch, and the only thing it lacks is USB 3 support, as both the Type-A ports built into the board, and the extra two nine-pin headers, are USB 2. Video is taken care of by a pair of full-size HDMI ports capable of 4K 60Hz output. Missing from the board is the ubiquitous 40 pin GPIO. While not strictly necessary for the intended market, it would've been nice to have some basic GPIO options.

A Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye image is available from the company’s website which contains all the necessary drivers, and there's a forum for asking questions on. Pre-orders are currently being taken for the board, which is being offered at $99, to ship in February.

Qnap has introduced the industry's first 4-bay NAS with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and 10GbE connectivity. The TS-464T4 NAS can house four 20TB 3.5-inch hard drives (80TB in JBOD mode), uses Intel's quad-core Jasper Lake system-on-chip, has two M.2 slots with a PCIe interface for SSDs as well as 2.5GbE and 10GbE connectivity. Perhaps the most critical improvement over TB3-supporting NAS is that this one promises to improve Thunderbolt bandwidth significantly. 

Modern 4-bay NAS devices with RAID 5 and SSD caching support tend to offer relatively high performance with premium drives. Still, when you need to load a large amount of data on them, their network interface becomes a performance bottleneck. Therefore, Thunderbolt 3/4-enabled NAS comes into play with their 40 Gbps interface. The problem is that some TB3-supporting NAS (including Qnap's previous-generation TS-453BT3) utilize outdated SoCs that can provide a TB3 controller with only about 1.6 GB/s of usable bandwidth (PCIe 2.0 offers 5 GT/s per lane and uses an 8b/10b encoding with a 20% overhead). It's far from saturating TB3's peak usable bandwidth of 25.92 GT/s (3.24 GB/s). 

Qnap's TS-464T4 brings numerous significant improvements over its predecessor in pretty much every aspect possible, including enabling higher TB3/TB4 bandwidth thanks to its eight PCIe 3.0 lanes.  

The new unit employs Intel's quad-core Celeron N5105/N5095 'Jasper Lake' SoC that has four Tremont cores at 2.0 – 2.9 GHz with 4MB of L3 and supports 16GB of dual-channel DDR4-2933. Other attributes include a Gen11 GPU, HEVC, H.264, VP9 encoding/decoding for 4Kp60 videos, eight PCIe Gen3 lanes, 2.5GbE MAC, and 10/15W TDP. As a result, it features considerably higher general-purpose performance than Apollo Lake (Goldmont) and Gemini Lake (Goldmont Plus) SoCs used for Qnap's more or less recent 4-bay NAS. That extra performance, along with support for 16GB of DDR4-2933 memory, will likely make performance-demanding workloads like rebuilding a RAID array faster. 

While eight PCIe 3.0 lanes is a significant improvement over six PCIe 2.0 lanes on the TS-453BT3, there are still some caveats. Assuming that Qnap uses four PCIe 3.0 lanes for its TB4 controller (Intel's JHL8440/Goshen Ridge, we presume), there are only four lanes left for the 10GbE controller and two M.2 slots for caching/Qtier SSDs. Probably, one PCIe 3.0 lane (8 GT/s or 0.985 GB/s with a 128b/130b encoding) is enough for the 10GbE controller, and we can speculate that one M.2 slot uses a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface, while another uses a PCIe 3.0 x1 interface. Even TB4 provides 25.92 GT/s, but the actual bandwidth available will be limited to 16 GT/s to the end-user if this drive becomes a medium for writing/reading. 

Like other modern 4-bay NAS from Qnap, this one comes with an HDMI 2.0 output and may be equipped with a remote to work as an HTPC. In addition to two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the front, it also has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port near them. 

Unlike some other Qnap NAS, the TS-464T4 no longer has a PCIe slot for expansion cards. It's a logical compromise as there are no spare PCIe lanes left, but this is a good thing since original Qnap accessories (10GbE adapter or M.2 to PCIe card converter) are pretty expensive. Besides, nobody guarantees that third-party hardware will work with Qnap's QTS operating system. 

Speaking of QTS, the manufacturer will ship the TS-464T4 with the latest QTS 5 version that improves performance, enhances security. It also supports Coral Edge TPU that can do image recognition and even attempt to predict hardware failures using cloud-based AI. 

Unfortunately, QNAP has neither announced its official MSRP for the TS-464T4 nor disclosed its launch window.

The new disaster-resistant ioSafe 1520+ NAS announced this month could protect drives in temperatures of up to 1,550ºF/843ºC (in accordance with the ASTM E-119 testing standard) for up to 30 minutes as well as keep the drives safe for up to three days when submerged in up to 10 feet/3 meters of water. 

With modern high-capacity hard drives, storing loads of data locally is fairly easy and cheap. But what if you want not only to store data but protect it against natural disasters, fire or flood? This is exactly what disaster-proof NAS and servers from ioSafe are for, as they can withstand extreme heat, floods, and physical impact. 

As far as storage capabilities are concerned, the catastrophe-proof ioSafe 1520+ NAS can house up to five hot-swappable 3.5-inch hard drives, meaning that it can store up to 100TB using 20TB HDDs depending on the RAID configuration. Also, it can be further expanded with disaster-resistant expansion modules to host up to 300TB of data. Furthermore, the drives' contents can be encrypted using the AES-256 algorithm. 

The ioSafe 1520+ runs the Synology DSM operating system designed primarily for business users (so do not expect to run sophisticated multimedia or consumer-grade software on it). On the hardware side of matters, ioSafe's 1520+ NAS is based on the Intel Celeron J4125 system-on-chip (four cores, 1.5 GHz ~ 2.30 GHz, hardware AES-256 support) paired with 8GB of DDR3L memory. It can connect to a local network using four GbE ports (up to 2GbE is supported when two ports are aggregated) and supports various external storage devices using its USB 3.0 Type-A and eSATA interfaces. 

For a five-drive NAS, the ioSafe 1520+ is pretty large and heavy: it measures 406×483×534mm (16×19×21 inches, W×L×H) and weighs 29 kilograms without drives and 33 kilograms when fully packed. 

ioSafe positions its disaster-proof 1520+ NAS for those who want to protect their data, but do not want to store their information in the cloud. 

"The new 1520+ offers our customers data center-class storage while saving customers over 75% of the cost of one year of cloud storage," said Robin Wessel, Executive Vice President of ioSafe. "With unprecedented speed-to-recovery, media companies and creative professionals, businesses and government agencies can recover the massive amounts of data they generate without loss when a water leak, wildfire, or virtually any major disaster occurs." 

ioSafe plans to begin shipments of its 1520+ NAS in February, 2022. One diskless unit can be purchased for $1,919 (down from its list price of $2,399), whereas a fully populated NAS with five 14TB HDDs can be pre-ordered directly from the company for $11,999 (down from the list price of $14,999). 

NAS specialist QNAP has launched a drive failure prediction tool, in partnership with ULINK Technology, that uses cloud-based AI to protect against server downtime and data loss caused by hard drive failures. The announcement came via a QNAP press release.

The AI makes use of the reams of statistics generated by millions of drives reporting their status. The data is used to make predictions about whether particular discs are likely to fail, allowing them to be replaced before the worst happens. It should be able to predict drive failures that would be missed by the usual SMART tools, and comes with a friendly and intuitive interface. At the present time all QNAP NAS with QTS 5.0 / QuTS hero h5.0 (or later) are supported. NVMe and SAS drives are currently not supported. SATA drives support (HDD and SSD drive list) is determined by firmware compatibility. 

“QNAP is acutely aware that potential server down time is a critical concern for QNAP NAS users and sudden drive failure is one of its primary causes. We are honored to have the chance to partner with ULINK to develop the DA Drive Analyzer to help users, especially IT staff who must manage large numbers of NAS devices. We envision that the DA Drive Analyzer will be a great assist to users looking to build advanced disaster recovery plans,” said Tim Lin, product manager of QNAP.

A free trial of the DA Drive Analyzer is available until March 2022, after which it requires an annual subscription that scales with the number of drives you’re running.

Qnap has introduced its new portable NAS designed primarily for laptop users and mobile workers who need to carry loads of data, but don't need extreme performance storage while on the go. The Qnap TBS-464 NASbook houses up to four M.2-2280 SSDs, weighs less than a kilogram, and you can use it to store data and backups, or it can serve as a cache for data that's stored in the cloud. Additionally, you can also use it as a media server. 

Qnap's TBS-464 M.2 NVMe SSD NASbook is based on Intel's quad-core Celeron N5105/N5095 system-on-chip (Jasper Lake) that combines low power consumption with decent performance and up-to-date multimedia decoding/encoding capabilities. The device also comes with 8GB of DDR4 soldered-down memory. 

The portable NAS supports up to four M.2-2280 SSDs with a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface, and you can connect to a network using two 2.5GbE ports. The unit also has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI 2.0 outputs (supporting up to 4Kp60 resolution) and an IR sensor.

Four M.2 SSDs can store up to 32TB of data, which is formidable for a device that only measures 30 × 230 × 165 mm and weighs in at 1.7 pounds (800 grams). However, the TBS-464 isn't fast primarily because of its 2.5GbE network connectivity. With a single port active, Qnap rates the NASbook for up to 287MB/s during downloads and up to 294MB/s during uploads, but it can hit 574 / 586 MB/s (respectively) with port trunking enabled with the two 2.5GbE ports. That's slightly faster than high-performance SATA SSDs. However, the network interface introduces a bottleneck, so you would probably prefer a DAS with a Thunderbolt 3/4 or USB4 interface if you need high read and write speeds.

Like other NAS from Qnap, the TBS-464 M.2 NVMe SSD NASbook is based on the QTS operating system (version 5.0 in this case) and therefore can run all the apps the company designed for its other NAS devices. Given the TBS-464's positioning, Qnap ships the NAS with the KoiMeeter app for enabling video conferencing and wireless presentations for small businesses and remote workers. In addition, the NAS can work as Plex Media Server and can stream content to compatible mobile and media streaming devices.

Qnap has not announced the TBS-464 NASbook's pricing or exact launch date. However, the company already lists the product on its website and offers support for the device, so we expect it to hit the market shortly.

Toshiba this week announced the industry's first 18TB hard drives featuring flux-control microwave-assisted magnetic recording (FC-MAMR) technology, that are designed for desktops and inexpensive NAS. The X300 and N300 drives not only offer a very high capacity and enhanced performance, but they also promise enhanced reliability.

Toshiba's X300 18TB HDDs for high-end desktops, as well as N300 18TB HDDs for NAS with up to eight drives, use the same platform as the company's MG09-series HDDs for enterprise and nearline applications. This is the company's third-generation 7200 RPM-class helium-sealed platform, sporting nine aluminum platters as well as a microwave-emitting component near the write heads that changes the magnetic coercivity of the media before recording data. The platters are made by Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) and feature a 2TB capacity, as well as approximately 1.5 Tb/inch2 areal density that was enabled by Toshiba's FC-MAMR technology.

Toshiba has not formally disclosed performance numbers for its 18TB HDDs for desktops and NAS, but since they have the same spindle speed and the same areal density as the MG09-series devices, expect them to offer similarly high — 281 MB/s — maximum sustained data transfer rate.

In a bid to better address desktops, Toshiba's X300 18TB hard drives feature a new stabilization mechanism to guarantee 'improved operational reliability (though Toshiba is not talking about RV sensors or top-and-bottom attached spindle here) as well as a new caching technology with optimized allocation to increase performance. Keep in mind that high-capacity HDDs have a rather low random read/write performance per TB (IOPS-per-TB) and have to perform background operations. Optimizing caching and prioritizing workloads is a way to make such drives more responsive. For some reason though, these drives are only covered with a two-year warranty.

The interesting part about Toshiba's X300 18TB HDDs is that they are the world's only hard drives for desktops that use energy-assisted magnetic recording technology. Seagate currently does not use energy-assisted recording on any of its 18TB drives, whereas Western Digital formally does not position its WD Gold 18TB and Ultrastar 18TB products (which use ePMR) for desktops. Obviously, many workstations still use enterprise-grade 18TB HDDs for bulk storage, yet these drives are not optimized for desktop workloads, and are pretty loud.

As noted above, Toshiba's N300 18TB HDDs are designed for NAS with up to eight hard drives. To ensure consistent performance in vibrating environments, these HDDs are equipped with integrated RV sensors to compensate for the effects of rotational vibrations, as well as appropriate firmware. The HDDs are rated for an up to 180TB/year workload and are backed with a three-year warranty. 

Toshiba did not announce MSRPs for its 18TB X300 or N300 drives, but said that they would be available sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

One of the most frustrating things about the increasing popularity of the Chia cryptocurrency is the rising prices of the high capacity storage needed to mine it. So, when big hard drives fall to pre-chia prices, we pay attention!

At Newegg, the 8TB Seagate IronWolf 7,200 RPM HDD just got a huge $50 price cut — taking the cost down to just $189.99.

• More: Chia Coin RAM Guide
• How to use Raspberry Pi to farm Chia Coin
• Best Chia Plotting PC Builds

Read our Seagate IronWolf review for more on what makes this one of the best NAS drives you can buy today. Beyond the essential specs for effective Chia mining, the IronWolf also offers Rotational Vibration (RV) sensors, to maintain high performance and durability.

All of this comes protected by a generous three year warranty and a comprehensive software suite for managing the health of your drive, which you can tune to regularly monitor and notify you with user alerts if anything changes.

But be quick, this deal is set to expire at the end of the day. This drive is a great addition to any build, Chia or no, and knowing how quickly essential components like this sell out, it will probably be gone soon!

In a proposed settlement to a lawsuit against Western Digital for using technology that could slow down drives, the company will create a compensation fund to the tune of $2.7 million dollars. Claimants must file by November 27.

in June, Western Digital agreed to settle a lawsuit about the use of shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology, which could slow drive performance, in some of its hard drives without disclosing it. Now, JDN Legal Administration, one of the representatives for plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, has put up details about how to get a payout.

Potential plaintiffs can file a claim at a website set up for the settlement. The payouts to claimants will be based on the size of the HDD they purchased, as well as how many they bought. Those who purchased either the 2TB or 3TB WD Red NAS Drives is eligible to receive $4.00 for each drive, while those who bought either 4TB or 6TB WD Red capacity drives are entitled to $7.00 for each drive purchased. These values may be adjusted on a pro-rata basis depending on the number of claims filed, up to 85% of the value of each drive. The specific HDD models are: WD20EFAX (2TB capacity), WD30EFAX (3TB capacity), WD40EFAX (4TB capacity), and WD60EFAX (6TB capacity) HDDs.

The lawsuit, Malone, et al v. Western Digital Corporation, claims that Western Digital misrepresented the drives' performance by not listing the usage of SMR anywhere in their specifications. Per the settlement, Western Digital will mention the use of SMR on WD Red NAS Drives for "no less than 4 years after Final Approval of the Settlement."

The next hearing is scheduled for December 22nd 2, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. PT, at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Should the judge approve the settlement proposal and the remaining legal quandaries appeased, users who filed claims will receive their share of the settlement. As is the case in these matters, filing a claim towards the settlement means that should it be made final, those who are compensated this way give up the right to sue WD about the issues in this lawsuit. If affected users do nothing, they receive no payment and, if the settlement becomes final, they'll nevertheless give up the right to sue WD and its affiliates about the issues in this lawsuit.

Argon Forty, makers of fine Raspberry Pi casings such as the Argon ONE M.2 and the excellent Argon NEO has announced a Kickstarter campaign for the Argon EON, a four-bay network storage array powered by your choice of Raspberry Pi 4.

The Argon EON, is a tall triangular NAS enclosure which stands like an open book, with an exterior made from a glossy black plastic. That, however, is all we know about the mysterious data depository - the makers have yet to reveal any information beyond a brief statement to Kickstarter members:

"We will be launching our latest project on Kickstarter on 09 September 2021, and we decided to let you know in advance as you are one of our avid supporters. Argon EON is a four-Bay SATA enclosure that allows you to connect four storage drives, two 3.5" HDD and two 2.5" HDD or SSD. It will be powered by the Raspberry Pi 4 of your choice.

“It is again a build-your-own system much like the Argon ONE and Argon ONE M.2. We believe that letting you the makers enjoy the build is part of the experience that makes using the Raspberry Pi great."

As yet, we have no idea whether the EON will require a tool to access its drive bays, nor do we know of the prices per pledge - you will certainly need to supply your own Pi board and drives, though some sort of bundle seems possible - and software support will be just as important as the construction of the hardware.

The Kickstarter campaign starts on September 9 and you can register for updates at the pre-launch page. We have reached out to Argon Forty for more information.

Qnap has quietly introduced its six-bay TVS-675 NAS powered by an eight-core Chinese x86 CPU designed by Zhaoxin, a joint venture between Via Technologies and the Shanghai Municipal Government. The NAS for small businesses (SMBs) is one of the first (if not the first) commercial devices set to be available in the U.S. and Europe, with the KaiXian KX-U6580 processor developed primarily for the Chinese market. 

Zhaoxin was established in 2013 to build x86 processors in China for the local market and cut reliance on processors designed by AMD and Intel, but retain compatibility with the vast library of x86 software. The initial generations of Zhaoxin's products weren't successful because of utterly low performance, and the latest KaiXian KX-6000-series is also not a performance champion in general-purpose tasks (according to our review). But it looks like Qnap found the eight-core 2.50 GHz KaiXian KX-U6580 (with Zhaoxin C-960 graphics) good enough for its entry-level NAS.  

Usually, Qnap's entry-level network area storage devices use Arm-based SoCs or Intel's Celeron SoCs powered by the company’s low-power architecture. NAS manage files, run light applications, or encode videos, so these inexpensive SoCs are good enough for their workloads. Zhaoxin's KaiXian KX-6000 can certainly run light apps, but as our review revealed, its media encoding performance is very low by today's standards, possibly because it lacks certain hardware encoders applicable to our test scenarios under Windows, whereas its general-purpose architecture is not exactly suited for such tasks. Keeping in mind that Qnap's TVS-675 NAS is aimed primarily at SMBs that hardly need it for media encoding, this drawback of the KaiXian KX-6000 probably won't affect users of this NAS. Furthermore, Qnap says that the SoC does support H.264/H.265 transcoding with its OS.

Speaking of the Qnap TVS-675, this NAS promises to provide SMBs high capacity, high performance, expandability, and rather fast network connectivity. The NAS has six hot-swappable 3.5-inch bays for high-capacity SATA HDDs, two SO-DIMM slots for DDR4 memory modules (the system ships with 8GB, but you can install up to 64GB), two M.2-2280 slots for SSDs supporting a PCIe 3.0 x1 or SATA interface, and two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots for SSDs or network cards. The unit also has two 2.5 GbE ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connectors, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and one HDMI 2.0 output.  

Qnap equipped the TVS-675 with three fans to cool down the PC-oriented SoC, six HDDs, two SSDs, and expansion cards. The company claims that the fans produce 23 dB of noise (though it does not disclose how it measured this level). 

The Qnap TVS-675 ships with a choice of either QTS or the enterprise-grade ZFS QuTS operating system. QTS supports all the capabilities expected from an entry-level NAS, including, Qsync cross-platform file sharing (for Apple, Windows, IBM AIX, and Linux machines), Qtier caching technology that automatically moves frequently-used file/data to SSDs, snapshots, RAID modes, virtual JBOD, FTP server, HTTP access, and so on. The NAS also supports QNAP-certified first-party and third-party apps.

Qnap hasn't disclosed pricing yet, though this is a business-oriented machine with rich features and will be priced accordingly.

Owners of Western Digital My Book Live drives are being advised to unplug them from the internet today, after some users woke up to find their previously data-filled drives were looking suspiciously empty, with users taking to the company’s support forum to report the issue.

If the data loss wasn’t enough, My Book Live owners are also reporting that their passwords no longer work to open up the drive’s admin console, some users also report that the default admin passwords also no longer work. One user has reported that a message in the GUI “says it was ‘Factory reset’ today”. The My Book Live and My Book Live Duo are older products, and no longer supported by Western Digital, but are apparently still being used as a backup solution by many.

Jun 23 15:14:05 MyBookLive factoryRestore.sh: begin script:Jun 23 15:14:05 MyBookLive shutdown[24582]: shutting down for system rebootJun 23 16:02:26 MyBookLive S15mountDataVolume.sh: begin script: startJun 23 16:02:29 MyBookLive _: pkg: wd-nasJun 23 16:02:30 MyBookLive _: pkg: networking-generalJun 23 16:02:30 MyBookLive _: pkg: apache-php-webdavJun 23 16:02:31 MyBookLive _: pkg: date-timeJun 23 16:02:31 MyBookLive _: pkg: alertsJun 23 16:02:31 MyBookLive logger: hostname=MyBookLiveJun 23 16:02:32 MyBookLive _: pkg: admin-rest-api

Console log from WD My Book Live owner Sunpeak via WD Forums

Western Digital released the following statement on its support forum: “Western Digital has determined that some My Book Live devices are being compromised by malicious software. In some cases, this compromise has led to a factory reset that appears to erase all data on the device. The My Book Live device received its final firmware update in 2015. We understand that our customers’ data is very important. At this time, we recommend you disconnect your My Book Live from the Internet to protect your data on the device. We are actively investigating and we will provide updates to this thread when they are available.”

In an email seen by Ars Technica, Western Digital say that the incident is "under active investigation" and "We do not have any indications of a breach or compromise of Western Digital cloud services or systems."

My Book Live devices were an early form of ‘personal cloud’ storage, and ranged in capacity from one to three terabytes, with the Duo model available up to eight TB. They were designed to plug into your home network via Ethernet, to be accessed by any device that was also connected, and it could run automatic backups, DLNA streaming, and even an iTunes media server. Duo devices could use RAID-1 for safer backups. They also offered secure remote access over the internet.

Qnap has introduced a dual-port 100GbE network adapter that is aimed primarily at the company's flagship 24-bay NVMe all-flash storage solution that has a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, but it is also compatible with other NAS systems as well as Linux and Windows-based PCs. 

The Qnap QXG-100G2SF-E810 dual-port 100GbE adapter is based on the Intel Ethernet Controller E810 and is equipped with two QSFP28 connectors. The card has a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface offering a bandwidth of 31.5 GB/s and is designed for Qnap's top-of-the-range 24-bay TS-h2490FU all-flash storage system that is based on AMD's Epyc 7302P processor and can pack up to 24 U.2 SSDs.  

The all-flash storage system equipped with a dual-port 100GbE network adaptor can be connected to a switch and use one 100GbE connection as the main connection and another as backup. Qnap says that it also plans to launch a quad-port 25GbE switch that can be connected to one 100GbE port (or both 100GbE ports) on the QXG-100G2SF-E810 and enable eight 25GbE ports to connect the NAS to multiple servers in a datacenter. 

The card fully supports all advanced networking capabilities, such as Forward Error Correction (FEC), including Base-R FEC featuring Firecode encoding as well as RS-FEC featuring Reed Solomon encoding. It will also support iWARP/RDMA and SR-IOV features for I/O-intensive and latency-sensitive virtualization workloads. 

"The QXG-100G2SF-E810 redefines ultra-high-speed networking with 100Gbps connectivity," said Stanley Huang, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Users can also configure network redundancy to achieve network failover via the switch for continuous service and high availability." 

Qnap's QXG-100G2SF-E810 network card will be available directly from the company and its resellers shortly. Pricing is unknown.

Qihoo 360's Network Security Research Lab said Friday that vulnerabilities in QNAP products have been exploited to turn NAS devices into cryptocurrency miners. Those devices were tampered with to hide their CPU usage, too, making it difficult for their owners to discover something was wrong if they checked their system's diagnostics.

It seems like the efforts were pretty straightforward: Attackers reportedly exploited vulnerabilities in QNAP products to gain root access to them, installed mining software that was configured to use only half of the available CPU cores, and then covered their tracks by making CPU usage rates and temperatures appear normal.

The cryptocurrency mined by a single NAS isn't worth the trouble of finding a vulnerability, exploiting it, and configuring it in this manner. The attackers probably had no intention of limiting their efforts to a single NAS, however. Schemes like this are all about achieving as much scale as possible as quickly as possible.

Put another way: It wouldn't matter if each affected NAS only net the hackers $0.01 every day so long as they were able to infect a decent number of devices. They would also offset the costs of crypto mining—namely the upfront costs of buying a device and the ongoing cost of powering it—to their victims. All gain, no pain.

Note that while CPU mining of cryptocurrencies generally takes a back seat to GPU and ASIC mining, certain algorithms (specifically CryptoNightR used in Monero) can provide decent returns. Even an old Core i5-7600K 4-core CPU can do about $0.15-$0.20 per day (not counting electrical costs), while an i9-9900K can do nearly $0.50 per day. Infecting tens of thousands of NAS devices obviously gets into large sums of cryptocurrency very quickly, and Monero also happens to be a 'privacy coin' — meaning it's not possible to track where coin transfers go.

The researchers didn't offer many specifics, however, because they "speculate that there are still hundreds of thousands of online QNAP NAS devices with the vulnerability." That's a fraction of the nearly 4.3 million online devices they said they found using one of their security tools, but it's still nothing to sneeze at.

That number might be lower if the researchers had followed the industry standard process of giving vendors 90 days to respond to vulnerability disclosures. Instead the researchers at 360 Netlab said they discovered the scheme on March 2 and disclosed it to QNAP on March 3. They published a blog post about it on March 5.

The researchers said they rushed to share their discovery with the public "due to the possible big impact" of the security flaws. We've reached out to QNAP to confirm the timeline established in 360 Netlab's blog post as well as its potential impact and will update this post if the company responds.

For now, the researchers at 360 Netlab said the vulnerabilities it discovered were present in all of the QNAP NAS firmware released before August 2020. Ensuring a device has the most recent firmware should limit its exposure, and the researchers provided a list of IPs and URLs to block for additional security, too.

One of the typical use cases for a single-board computer (SBC) is acting as network attached storage (NAS). HardKernel embraces this concept and has announced its ODROID-HC4, a $65 SBC designed to provide NAS duties solely (via CNX Software).

ODROID-HC4 Hardware Specifications

• SoC – Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 Arm V8 processor @ 1.8 GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU @ 650 MHz
• System Memory – 4GB DDR4
• UHS-1 compatible MicroSD card slot for the operating system
• 2x SATA III ports using an ASM1061 PCIe to SATA controller
• Networking – Gigabit Ethernet via Realtek RTL8211F PHY
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K UHD @ 60 Hz
• USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port
• Optional OLED Display and Real Time Clock via 7-pin header with SPI and I2C
• Debugging – 4-pin UART header for serial console
• IR receiver for remote controller
• Power Supply – 15V DC via barrel jack
• Dimensions –  3.3 x 3.5 x 1 inch (84 x 90.5 x 25.0mm)

The ODROID-HC4 is designed for two 2.5 / 3.5-inch SATA drives, which are then inserted vertically into the clear plastic shell, where they are guided down to two SATA connectors. Hardkernel uses an ASM1061 PCIe-to-SATA controller to connect the drives to the external interface, and it's good for around a 400MB/s transfer speed. 

The main board contains the Cortex-A55 Arm v8 CPU along with 4GB of RAM and a micro SD card slot for the operating system. At the time of writing, the OS is limited to Ubuntu 20.04, but third-party images will be available in due course. A single 15V 4A power supply, available from Hardkernel, powers the ODROID-HC4 and SSD drives.

Launching October 27, the ODROID-HC4 starts from $65 for just the board and the plastic enclosure. Spending $10 more, we get a real-time clock and OLED screen that provides live information about the NAS. Hardkernel will also offer optional accessories such as WiFi and Bluetooth adaptors and a remote control. 

Western Digital this week expanded its WD Red Pro family of hard drives designed for enterprise NAS with up to 24 bays. The HDDs promise predictable performance in all modes, compatibility with ZFS-powered NAS, and allow building highly-reliable storage systems that can host up to 432 TB of data. 

The WD Red Pro 16 TB and 18 TB hard drives come in a 3.5-inch form-factor and feature a SATA 6 Gbps interface. The helium-filled HDDs use conventional magnetic recording (CMR) technology and come equipped with a 7200 RPM motor and a 512 MB cache. The 16 TB SKU is rated for up to 259 MB/s host to drive transfer rate, whereas the 18 TB model is rated for up to 272 MB/s host to drive transfer rate. As for power consumption, the HDDs are said to consume up to 6.1 Watts during reads and writes and up to 3.6 Watts in idle.

The top-of-the-range WD Red Pro drives likely rely on the company’s 6th Generation HelioSeal platform that uses nine platters both for 16 TB and 18 TB versions as well as Western Digital’s energy-assisted magnetic recording technology (EAMR) to maximize areal density. For some reason, Western Digital does not mention EAMR or 6th Generation HelioSeal in its documents covering the new drives. Still, it is unlikely that the new HDDs use a significantly different platform than the latest Ultrastar or WD Gold products. 

Hard drives for enterprise-grade NAS with 24 bays have a lot in common with enterprise-grade nearline HDDs in terms of internal hardware. Typically, such drives feature a dual-attached motor, top and bottom attached disk clamps, and multi-axis shock sensor to ensure consistent performance and longevity in vibrating environments. What sets datacenter and enterprise-grade HDDs apart are firmware optimizations. Western Digital’s latest WD Red Pro hard drives for NAS come with the company’s NASware 3.0 firmware specifically optimized for things like RAID environments operating under heavy demand, error recovery controls, RAID array rebuilds and expansions, and lower noise.

Western Digital’s WD Red Pro HDDs are rated for a 300 TB annual workload and a covered with a five-year warranty. 

Western Digital will start shipments of its WD Red Pro 16 TB and 18 TB HDDs next month. Pricing will be announced at the time of availability, but keeping in mind that even the enterprise-grade WD Gold 18 TB costs less than $600, it is likely that the WD Red Pro 18 TB model will sit slightly below that.

Source: Western Digital

QNAP announced a new family of NAS devices on Tuesday. The TS-x53D 2.5GbE NAS series target both gamers AMD professionals that require high-speed network storage for their daily activities.

The TS-x53D series' biggest attraction is the built-in 2.5GbE networking. The NAS sports two 2.5GbE Ethernet ports to deliver transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps without a sweat. If 2.5GbE connectivity isn't enough for you, the TS-x53D series features a standard PCIe 2.0 slot that lets you install expansion cards that'll upgrade to 5GbE or even 10GbE networking.

Intel's Celeron J4125 quad-core processor powers the QNAP TS-x53D series. The 10W chip comes equipped with a 2 GHz base clock and a boost clock that climbs up to 2.7 GHz. The processor's integrated Intel HD Graphics 600 solution takes care of all the graphical responsibilities.

The TS-x53D series feature two SO-DIMM DDR4 RAM slots and can be configured with up to 8GB (2x 4GB) of memory. QNAP offers the TS-x53D series in 2, 4 and 6-bay configurations. The NAS can house both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch devices, whether they be hard drives or lightning-fast SSDs. As expected, the drives communicate with the NAS via a SATA III interface.

QNAP TS-x53D Specifications

That PCIe 2.0 slot we mentioned has additional uses,. You can install QNAP's own QM2 expansion cards to add M.2 SSDs to your NAS or the QWA-AC2600 wireless adapter to enjoy Wi‑Fi 5 connectivity. It's important to note that only the 2-bay model provides four PCIe 2.0 lanes through the slot, while remaining models are limited to two PCIe 2.0 lanes.

Regardless of the model, each NAS provides the same level of connectivity. There's one HDMI 2.0 port that delivers 4K resolution at a 60 Hz refresh rate, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and three USB 2.0 ports. If you're not using the PCIe 2.0 slot for anything else, you could also install an expansion card to get some USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

QNAP backs the TS-x53D series with a a limited three-year warranty, but you can extend it to five years by purchasing a warranty extension.

QNAP TS-x53D Price and Availability

The new devices are already available online. The 2-bay and 4-bay models sell for $469 and $579, while the 6-bay model retails for $699. Where applicable, the 8GB variants cost a $100 premium, which seems like an upsell. The cheapest 4GB SO-DIMM DDR4 module on the market goes for $15. We would recommend opting for the base model with 4GB and expanding the memory on your own. That should save you a lot of money.

Update, 4/16/2020 10am PT: Our follow-up story covers the fact that both Seagate and Toshiba are also engaging in this tactic. 

Original Article: 

Several interesting threads popped up in Reddit over the weekend claiming that WD was surreptitiously shipping inferior shingled magnetic recording (SMR) hard drives in its new WD Red NAS line of drives, but without disclosing that the drives use the slower recording technique. We sent queries to WD over the weekend, and the company confirmed to Tom's Hardware today that the drives do use SMR technology. However, WD doesn't list that fact in its advertising or on the specification sheets made available to consumers.

Why is this important? SMR is a relatively new tactic that HDD vendors use to increase storage density over HDDs that use 'standard' conventional magnetic recording (CMR), but the tech comes with notably slower performance in some workloads than 'normal' hard drives. Some users claim that SMR drives also do not work correctly when rebuilding ZFS arrays, which means customers could be exposed to data loss. Users have also complained that the drives won't work in some NAS when added to existing RAID arrays.

However, while these drives are cheaper to produce, WD isn't passing on the savings in a discernible way. SMR drives have made their way into any number of external devices for regular consumers, but the use of the technology has always been clearly explained to the customer and typically comes with a discounted price tag. 

Not anymore. The data archivists at R/DataHoarder, among other users, discovered that certain new WD Red NAS drives behaved erratically in RAID arrays, and WD representatives purportedly denied the accusations. Other resourceful users then used drive monitoring tools that seemingly confirmed the use of SMR. 

Think of this as buying an SSD with cheaper QLC NAND that isn't marked as such. We followed up with WD, which provided Tom's Hardware with the following statement: 

"All our WD Red drives are designed meet or exceed the performance requirements and specifications for common small business/home NAS workloads. We work closely with major NAS providers to ensure WD Red HDDs (and SSDs) at all capacities have broad compatibility with host systems. Currently, Western Digital’s WD Red 2TB-6TB drives are device-managed SMR (DMSMR). WD Red 8TB-14TB are CMR-based."

A quick glance at the specification sheet [PDF] confirms there is a marked performance decline between the 2- to 6-TB models, which mostly operate at 150 MBps, and the 8- to 14TB models that churn out from 196 to 210 MBps of performance. Some of this lower performance is expected from less capacious drives that use fewer platters, but SMR technology also likely weighs in on the differing speed ratings. SMR drives are also incredibly slow at random write performance, which is a specification that WD doesn't reveal in its spec sheet.

Notably, the two types of drives both tout the same 180 TB/year endurance rating and three-year limited warranty. Again, the use of SMR is never mentioned in the documents. 

We followed up with WD for more information, such as if it intends to keep marketing the drives without revealing their lesser recording technology, and if it is using SMR tech in other consumer drives without properly listing that important detail. We'll update as we learn more. 

What is Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR)?

As a quick and almost criminally simplistic explainer, it's important to know that hard drives write data to circular tracks on the platter. Today's 'write tracks' are roughly 75nm wide, or smaller than the flu virus, so shrinking them really isn't an option without more exotic approaches, like using lasers or even microwaves.

Instead, SMR increases density by roughly 25% by overlapping the write tracks where data is recorded, much like the shingles on a roof. This leaves a small stripe of each track exposed that can then be read back normally. That means the drive features fairly standard performance when reading back files. 

However, if new (or modified) data needs to be placed near existing data, the drive will have to overwrite the neighboring shingled tracks. Thus, an overwrite triggers a read-modify-write procedure due to the inevitable impact on the adjacent overlapped tracks. That makes the drive significantly slower at writing tasks, especially for random writes, which is a performance metric that WD doesn't disclose in any of its literature. 

SMR drives are designed to be used for cold data storage, like archives and backups, because of their poor performance. To extract the utmost performance from the drives, you'll need to use Host Managed SMR drives (HM-SMR). These drives are controlled directly by the operating system, file system, and drivers to optimize data placement, which reduces the performance impact. However, that isn't usable with standard desktop PC operating systems, and you only see that type of use-case in massive data centers or with hyperscalers that control their entire hardware and software stack. However, the complexity of deploying these types of solutions resulted in limited uptake, taking the shine off of the promise of SMR drives.

There are also Drive Managed SMR (DM-SMR) drives that handle the process of shuffling data around inside of the drive, and they are seen as a normal storage device to the end user and operating system. However, these drives are not nearly as performant as the host managed types. The WD Red NAS drives fall into the DM-SMR category, but as some ZFS users claim, they aren't performant enough for some use-cases. 

Seagate's IronWolf 510 is the world's first purpose-built NAS NVMe SSD, and the latest addition to the company's IronWolf product line. Designed to speed up network transfers between your 10GbE NAS and workstation with 24/7 reliability, Seagate designed the IronWolf 510 NAS SSD for creative pros and businesses whose NASes feature NVMe caching.

Like the FireCuda 510, Seagate's IronWolf 510 is a high-performance PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe 1.3 storage device in a compact M.2 2280 form factor. Similarly, it features a Phison NVMe SSD controller, DDR4 DRAM, and TLC NAND flash. The main difference between the two is that rather than the vanilla Phison PS5012-E12 with the FireCuda drive, the IronWolf comes with an enterprise-class Phison PS5012-E12DC NVMe SSD controller. But it also comes at a hefty price increase. The IronWolf 510 is available in capacities of 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, and 1.92TB, and has fairly high pricing of $119.99, $169.99, $319.99, and $539.99, respectively.

"We are the first to provide a purpose-built M.2 NVMe for NAS that not only goes beyond SATA performance metrics but also provides 3x the endurance when compared to the competition. This meets the required endurance spec of one DWPD which our NAS partners expect for their customers," said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president, devices. "Because of such high endurance, our customers are getting a tough SSD for small business and creative professional NAS environments."

Meiji Chang, General Manager of QNAP Systems, Inc., commented, "We’re thrilled to see new additions to Seagate’s solid-state drive line for NAS which caters specifically to SSD requirements in the network storage segment enhancing performance and endurance. This enables QNAP to build more performance-driven and reliable systems and applications, including all-flash arrays, on which our users can rely.”

With an increased focus on reliability and consistency, Seagate rates the IronWolf 510 to perform at more conservative speeds that range up to 3GBps. Phison’s third-gen LDPC ECC engine is tuned in for NAND endurance, so the drive can withstand up to one drive write per day within its five-year limited warranty. The company also throws in two years of data recovery services, too.

Finally, one of the most useful features of the IronWolf 510 is probably the IronWolf Health Management software. While it isn’t out quite yet, it will soon be available on compatible NAS systems and will help analyze drive health.

Radxa announced its new Rock Pi SATA HAT on Sunday. It's a few accessories that allow people to use their single-board computers as NAS solutions, and one of them is compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4 as well as the company's own Rock Pi 4.

That product is the aptly named Dual/Quad SATA HAT. Radxa said it supports up to four HDDs or SSDs (2.5-inch and 3.5-inch) via the Raspberry Pi 4 and Rock Pi 4's USB 3 buses. It also boasts USB Type-C power input with support for USB Power Delivery (PD) and Quick Charge (QC) for both 2.5-inch SSDs and the Raspberry Pi 4.

Here are the Dual/Quad SATA HAT's other highlights:

• Up to 4x HDD/SSD, support 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SSD
• Utilize two independent USB3 buses on Raspberry Pi 4
• Type C power input with USB PD/QC support for both 2.5inch SSD and Raspberry Pi 4
• External standard ATX power supply support for 3.5inch HDD
• Fan and heatsink for Raspberry Pi 4 CPU cooling
• Support HDD suspend mode
• Support UASP
• Support software RAID 0/1/5
• Optional PWM control fan for HDD heat dispatching
• Optional OLED display for IP Address/Storage info

Supporting the Raspberry Pi 4 makes sense. It's easily the most well-known single-board computer on the market, and for good reason, as we explained in our review. (We also called it the ultimate gift for geeks, in case you have some holiday shopping left to do.) Why not benefit from its popularity by supporting it with an accessory?

But the company did also introduce a Penta SATA HAT that's exclusive to the Rock Pi 4. Radxa said this model "utilize[s] the M.2/PCIe on ROCK Pi 4 to expand to up 5x SATA ports," and that it "adapt[ed] four internal SATA and one eSATA design which makes the connection flexible if the user wants to use external disks."

Here are the Penta SATA HAT's other highlights:

• Up to 5x HDD/SSD, support 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SSD, up to 100T Storage
• 4x SATA + 1x eSATA with power
• Utilize two lanes PCIe 2.1 buses on ROCK Pi 4
• Type C power input with USB PD support for both 2.5-inch SSD and ROCK Pi 4
• External standard ATX power supply support for 3.5-inch HDD
• Support HDD suspend mode
• Support software RAID 0/1/5
• Optional PWM control fan for HDD heat dispatching
• Optional OLED display for IP/Storage info

Radxa also designed a metal case for use with the Dual/Quad SATA HAT and Raspberry Pi 4. The company said this case fits up to four 2.5-inch HDDs as well as the top board, but it doesn't currently appear to be available, however. More information about the Rock Pi 4 and its accessories can be found on Radxa's site.

QNAP, a Taiwan-based network-attached storage (NAS) vendor, warned its NAS customers to make sure they're using strong passwords, have the latest version of its QTS firmware installed and are staying vigilant about their device's security in response to Anomali's disclosure of the eCh0raix Ransomware earlier this month.

IT security firm Anomali revealed eCh0raix on July 10. The ransomware appears to be fairly standard: it compromises QNAP devices "by brute forcing weak credentials and exploiting known vulnerabilities in targeted attacks," before a "malicious payload encrypts the targeted file extensions on the NAS using AES encryption and appends .encrypt extension to the encrypted files." That's where the ransom comes in.

The ransom note instructs victims to visit a website using the Tor browser for more information about retrieving their files. Most security companies advise ransomware victims not to pay the ransom; the attackers have little motivation to hold up their end of the bargain. 

According to Anomali, eCh0raix specifically targeted publicly accessible NAS from QNAP that weren't located in Belarus, Ukraine, or Russia, potentially because the attackers operate in one of those countries. The best mitigation against this attack, the company said, would be to restrict external access to the device while also following QNAP's advice regarding strong credentials and firmware updates.

QNAP released a security advisory related to eCh0raix on July 11. Here are the company's recommendations:

1. Update QTS to the latest version.
2. Install and update Malware Remover to the latest version.
3. Use a stronger admin password.
4. Enable Network Access Protection to protect accounts from brute force attacks.
5. Disable SSH and Telnet services if you are not using them.
6. Avoid using default port numbers 443 and 8080.

QNAP also said that it's "urgently working on a solution to remove malware from infected devices and will release it at the soonest possible time." Anyone who owns a QNAP product can reach out to the company via the QNAP Helpdesk for additional information about eCh0raix, protecting their devices, etc. In the meantime, this is simply another reminder to be diligent about strong passwords and firmware updates.

QNAP released new dual-port 25GbE and 10GbE network expansion cards (NECs) for use in high-end PCs and NAS setups. They're called the QXG-25G2SF-CX4 and QXG-10G2SF-CX4, respectively, and they're meant to help professionals manage a ton of data.

As QNAP product manager Dan Lin explained in a press release: “Cloud, big data, high-speed storage, virtualization, and AI are strongly pushing 25GbE into the mainstream. QNAP now provides users with a scalable solution for adopting 25GbE infrastructure by leveraging the industry-leading Mellanox Ethernet solution to deliver a next-gen 25GbE NIC for NAS, servers and workstations."

It's no secret that consumers and companies have both grown increasingly data-hungry. Content starts taking up more space as movies and games catch up with higher resolutions. More information is being tracked digitally. And artificial intelligence requires the use of massive amounts of data. All that leads to more demands of storage devices' performance than ever.

Both of the new NECs are built with a Mellanox ConnectX-4Lx controller, utilize a PCIe Gen 3 x8 interface, and come with a low-profile bracket pre-installed. They're also compatible with QNAP's QTS as well as Windows and Linux. (Provided you install the appropriate driver for each model.) The 25GbE version relies on an SFP28 connection; the 10GbE version uses an SFP+ connection.

Even QNAP notes on the 25GbE model's product page that "25GbE NICs are designed for data-intensive applications and enterprise IT environments." The company said reaching the product's full potential requires "at least three workstations with Intel Core i5/i7 processors (or similar) at 3.3 GHz (or higher) and NVMe SSDs" as well as a similarly specced QNAP NAS loaded with SSDs.

The 10GbE model is probably more suited to home use. But it only costs $20 less than the 25GbE model, and we suspect that most enthusiasts would rather spend that twenty bucks to get an extra 15Gb/s of potential performance just to be on the safe side. Who knows when storage needs will need to be adjusted, right? (Eh, who are we kidding, we just like higher performance numbers.)

QNAP is selling the QXG-25G2SF-CX4 for $287 from its Accessories Store with a two-three day wait time. The QXG-10G2SF-CX4 is also available now for $267 with the same waiting period. Both models are backed by one-year limited warranties.

We teamed up with our friends at Drobo to giveaway the Drobo 8D DAS plus two 4TB Seagate Barracuda Pro Hard Drives. Featuring dual Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and solid-state drive acceleration, the Drobo 8D is a great way to protect against hard drive failures. 

For your chance to enter head to the Storage Forum and follow the instructions in the giveaway thread.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Giveaway is only open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States, and the District of Columbia, 18 or older. For a complete list of rules please see the Terms and Conditions on the Gleam Giveaway Widget. This giveaway is open until January 28th, 2019.

Many people like being able to access their files no matter what device they're using. That's why services like Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud and OneDrive have become all but ubiquitous. It's also why companies like Western Digital offer connected drives like the My Cloud products, but in that particular case, a security flaw means the person who owns the drive isn't the only one who can access its contents.

Securify's Remco Vermeulen and Exploitee.rs independently found and disclosed a major authentication bypass flaw in My Cloud products in 2017. Vermeulen said he disclosed the problem to Western Digital last April but never received a response from the company. Exploitee.rs also said it contacted Western Digital about the problem last year and even publicly discussed it at Def Con 25, but its warnings also fell on deaf ears.

The flaw in question allows someone to gain administrator access to a My Cloud drive without a password. Vermeulen said that person could "run commands that would normally require admin privileges and gain complete control of the My Cloud device." He proved this on a My Cloud model WDBCTL0020HWT running firmware version 2.30.172 but said other models likely bear the same flaw because they use the same code.

Vermeulen and Exploitee.rs both developed proofs of concept demonstrating the flaw in action. It doesn't appear to be particularly difficult--Vermeulen's demo was presented in a GIF--and could probably be exploited by amateurs now that the flaw has been disclosed to the public. Western Digital hasn't developed a fix yet, either, but a year-and-a-half of silence left the researchers little choice but to go public.

We couldn't find public acknowledgement of this vulnerability from Western Digital on its website, blog, or Twitter account. The company has responded directly to some Twitter users, however, and linked to an unlisted blog post it quietly published on September 19. In it, the company said that My Cloud Home devices aren't affected and that it plans to address the vulnerability with a firmware update "within a few weeks."

Western Digital also seemed keen on downplaying its slow response to Vermeulen and Exploitee.rs' disclosures.

"Western Digital works continuously to improve the capability and security of our products, including with the security research community to address issues they may uncover. We encourage responsible disclosure by customers and researchers to ensure our customers are protected while we address valid vulnerabilities," it said in its blog post. 

My Cloud device owners are encouraged to enable automatic updates to make sure their devices aren't affected by this flaw as soon as possible.

Seagate tapped the Tom's Hardware Community to help celebrate their new line of 14TB Hard Drives. Up for grabs is the Seagate BarraCuda Pro, the IrownWolf Pro, and IronWolf hard drives all in a massive 14TB in size.

To find out the full scoop on features and pricing check out our announcement on the Tom's Hardware news feed.

For your chance to win one of 3 massive 14TB Hard Drives, head to the giveaway thread in the Tom's Hardware forum.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Giveaway is only open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States, and the District of Columbia, 18 or older. For a complete list of rules please see the Terms and Conditions on the Gleam Giveaway Widget. This giveaway is open until September 24, 2018.

Everyone in tech knows that person who takes it upon themselves to remind everyone, every chance they get, of the importance of backing up data. Annoying as this behavior can be, perhaps it’s for the better, because there’s also the other that person who never listens to this sound advice. I wasn’t quite the latter, but I definitely didn’t back up as much as I should and could have.

That changed early last year when, for the first time ever, I irrecoverably lost some of my data. Without any signs of impending failure, my Z77 motherboard went up in sparks and killed the SDD and all three of the 1TB hard drives inside my desktop. The SSD was a goner, but advice from the Tom’s forums gave me hope of recovering data from the hard drives. Unfortunately, life was only briefly restored to one of them, and it wasn’t for long enough to evacuate any data.

The CrashPlan Crash

Fortunately, I had backed up the important parts of those drives, so their loss wasn’t crippling. The event did, however, put the fear of god into me, and I resolved not to continue without a solid backup plan. I decided that the cheap and convenient cloud-backup service CrashPlan was the perfect solution. It took nearly a week to upload and synchronize with the server, but I felt I was well protected after. That cozy feeling didn't’ last long long, however, and my CrashPlan Home subscription metaphorically crashed when the service surprisingly ceased operation in late 2017.

I trusted CrashPlan because I knew the service had been operating for years and was generally well-received. CrashPlan did offer alternatives: upgrade to a small business account for exactly double the price or switch to a competitor. I decided to do neither and instead go back to doing local backups, but this time, I’d automate it with a NAS. As secure as cloud services claim to be, there’s no point to them if they stop servicing you.

Back To Local Backups

I was well aware of RAID, which most NAS makers expect people to use, but I was only looking to use my NAS as a device to store individual drives. After a few weeks of research, I settled on the Asustor AS3204T. It’s not the cheapest four-bay NAS--the Qnap TS-431P can be had for less--but it is pretty cheap for one with a quad-core x86 processor, dual rear USB 3.0 ports, and a direct video output. I wasn’t buying it to do video transcoding, because all my media devices have PCs attached to them, so the desire for an x86 processor was admittedly irrational. I planned to use the dual rear USB ports for external expansion and backup, and I convinced myself that the direct video output, which is only HDMI 1.4, might be useful in troubleshooting in case I can’t reach the NAS over the network.

The Asustor AS3204T Is More And Less Than I Need At Once

Although I won’t put the blame on Asustor, the AS3204T proved that my buying criterion were a bit out of line with what a NAS is meant to be. Setting up the device was simple, even for a NAS newbie like me. The AS3204T doesn’t have hot-swap drive bays, so you have to disconnect and open the unit to install drives. This process reveals a well-cooled processor, a well-placed 120mm fan that blows evenly over the drives, and generally high-quality construction. After connecting the NAS to my router, I used its web interface to complete the setup. You can also use an app to set up the NAS, but I didn’t need it, or the HDMI port, because I was instantly able to access the NAS using its IP over the network.

A flawless boot process was a welcome surprise for me, because I knew NASes can be finicky, but some of the limitations of an embedded Linux system immediately started to become apparent. For starters, I wasn’t expecting the NAS’ OS and apps to actually require some space on one of the drive volumes. The NAS itself has 512MB of flash to hold the OS, but that’s not considered a volume. Only drives in the drive bay can be volumes, so you’ll need at least one to even boot the NAS. It effectively uses one of the volumes as a “C:” drive. This doesn’t consume an appreciable amount of space, but it does mean that you can only freely swap out, at most, three of the four drives in the NAS.

Another thing I quickly discovered is that the Asustor can’t use external drives as storage expansion. Like all NASes, the AS3204T can access external drives formatted in file systems different from its own, but it can’t put them onto the network or add them as a volume. You’re limited to accessing them through the NAS’ file browser or backup app.

All-Around Decent

For an experienced NAS user, these limitations might be commonly understood, and they don’t detract from the fact that my AS3204T has operated and performed flawlessly. Its SMB service works by default, so mapping the NAS’ volumes as network drives in Windows is simple. Its speed over the network caps out at ~106MB/s, which is close enough to saturating gigabit LAN to satisfy me.

The AS3204T has also seen major and minor software updates applied without hassle. I don’t have any other NAS to compare to, but so far, I’ve found Asustor first-party software to be reliable. The UPnP server, which I briefly fired up to test, doesn’t transcode media unnecessarily and correctly sends native files according to what my devices support. The automated backup software has all the flexibility I need. And the NAS’ settings has detailed controls for power saving and drive spin-down.

I haven’t dug into the AS3204T’s other features as I basically use it purely as a device to host network drives and run backup routines. In truth, I probably paid much more than I needed to for this basic functionality, but at least it performs outstandingly in its most important functions.