Anyone using a NAS setup?

This NAS is Network Attached Storage, not the NAS we are so fond of
(if anyone wants to know - Wikipedia Link)

Anyone using this at home or maybe a small office?

If yes, is it a DIY setup or one of the fancy and more expensive enclosures?

I use one and have been for years. Very simple setup and it works.

Western Digital My Book Live 1TB Personal Cloud Storage - Newegg.com

What is so nice is that you get auto backup. You can also configure it to save just the last copy or up to the last three versions of a file. Great for edited photos or the word document that you have been working on for weeks. Also for photographers there is a smart phone app that will let you see the photos from your iPhone any time you want.

Not yet, but I just saw 4TB (!) external HDD's at Costco for what would be $150 taxed and out the door.

And that kinda got me to thinking...

.......

Here is the software that came with my drive

Automatic data backup and recovery software for your home - Memeo Instant Backup

I was wondering about multiple HDDs with RAID interface..
I have 3 WD HDDs (2 of 2TB & 1 of 3 TB).. along with 3 smaller HDDs (were internal, but the systems crashed)..
I need to use this with my iMac, Win PC & Win Laptop and my PS3... to be able to access on the fly and for streaming to the TV as well..

I have been using the 1 TB Seagate Goflex Home network storage at home. I have added one 3 TB drive but am running out of space so I need to add another one. I can add up to a total of 4 additional drives hanging off the main 1 TB device. It connects to my router via ethernet cable. I have been using it for about 3 years or so. The 3 TB drive has nothing but videos: movies, TV shows, documentaries. I have about 790 GB free left on the 3 TB drive and 765 GB left on the main drive. It works flawlessly with all my devices that connect to our LAN: Macbook Pro, Ubuntu Linux laptops, spousal unit's decade old WinXP "Dell that will not die," iPad mini, Sony 32" HD TV (I set this as wired not wireless), and Sony Blu Ray player (Internet ready). I also have an HP Photosmart D7560 printer that is connected directly to the main network storage drive via USB port. That makes the D7560 accessible to anyone/anything on the network.

It was very easy to set up and takes up very little space. I have been happy with its reliability and ease of use. Another thing that I like about it is that I can access file on it remotely. That way, I have my own personal cloud. It comes in handy at times.

Many moons ago I used an old PC and built it up with FREENAS. It's an opensource NAS OS that works pretty good. But nowadays the NAS externals available are pretty cheap and work well.

I shopped around for some but I think I'm going to wait for the 4TB disks to come down some. Pretty much any device that you can stick on your network can be shared amongst any platform.

So right now all my PCs have an extra internal HD and they're backed up that way. My MacBook Pro is backed up by an external that's attached to my Apple Airport thing.

PapaST said:

Many moons ago I used an old PC and built it up with FREENAS. It's an opensource NAS OS that works pretty good. But nowadays the NAS externals available are pretty cheap and work well.

I shopped around for some but I think I'm going to wait for the 4TB disks to come down some. Pretty much any device that you can stick on your network can be shared amongst any platform.

So right now all my PCs have an extra internal HD and they're backed up that way. My MacBook Pro is backed up by an external that's attached to my Apple Airport thing.

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Yep.. exactly..
have thoughts on FreeNAS with a really old system..

WhiteLight said:

This NAS is Network Attached Storage, not the NAS we are so fond of
(if anyone wants to know - Wikipedia Link)

Anyone using this at home or maybe a small office?

If yes, is it a DIY setup or one of the fancy and more expensive enclosures?

Click to expand...

A number of drives and drive enclosures today are network ready (NAS) and all you have to do is plug them into your network with a CAT 5 network cable. They are network aware and addressable on the network just like printer or another network pc. I just added an 8 port switch to my home system directly off my AT&T Uverse modem/router. I've connected a network printer and next will be a network storage drive the entire fam cam use for general storage or to back up their local systems.

Wither it be at home or office if you have a spare port on your router or network switch the NAS drive is a better way to go and everybody can access it. Start off with at least 1 or 2 TB.

WhiteLight said:

Anyone using this at home or maybe a small office?

If yes, is it a DIY setup or one of the fancy and more expensive enclosures?

Click to expand...

I've been running one since I built my home office almost 2 years ago. I have an IT and networking background but still think it was very easy to setup. I shopped more on price since I was looking for storage and not features. I'm using the D-Link DNS-325.

I have a qnap 4 bay with 1.6tb and it has worked well for me. I recently jumped into Freenas and built my own 32tb and it is the cat's meow. Will be building two more of them. Only part that sucks is time and money. Got too many expensive hobbies. Those wd red 4tb are nice but pricey.

xicaque said:

I have a qnap 4 bay with 1.6tb and it has worked well for me. I recently jumped into Freenas and built my own 32tb and it is the cat's meow. Will be building two more of them. Only part that sucks is time and money. Got too many expensive hobbies. Those wd red 4tb are nice but pricey.

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Wow...isn't online cloud backup much cheaper? Even if you signed up with multiple different companies so that you'd be protected from an issue with one of them?

Mind if I ask what your setup is and how much all of the hardware cost? I set up an old computer with CentOS 6 to use as my backup server (and I will eventually hook it up to the cloud), but it's not running any sort of data protection and is much smaller.

kluisi said:

Wow...isn't online cloud backup much cheaper? Even if you signed up with multiple different companies so that you'd be protected from an issue with one of them?

Mind if I ask what your setup is and how much all of the hardware cost? I set up an old computer with CentOS 6 to use as my backup server (and I will eventually hook it up to the cloud), but it's not running any sort of data protection and is much smaller.

Click to expand...

I don't believe online cloud storage works cheaper in the long run..
costs of HDDs are constantly reducing..
but one thing that really turns me away from cloud is just that fact - it's cloud.
i don't really have anything sensitive or worth protecting, but even if it were a rag i wouldn't want prying eyes on it
plus add the cost of data if you are streaming everything you have from an online server..
NAS and personal storage is definitely the way for me

I'll echo what white light said on the cloud. You are basically renting virtual space. I like my stuff within reach and regardless of the government snooping into my network, not that I have classified stuff or such, the cloud concept still very new to society. Google u-nas. They make the 8 bay case. I am very happy with it. When I first got my qnap 4 bay, that one was about 800 or so w/o hdd. It was just barely hitting the market so price was high. Building my own was cheaper for the 8 bay w/o hdd's. It was a fun project since it was my first time with computers. I even built my son a PC. DIY is the way to go with NAS and PCs.

All the hardware I used is server grade. Don't cut corners or you'll pay the price. Freenas is very powerful (first time using it), it has a unique error correcting algorithm. Can't remember what is called but their forum has a lot of great info and members like here

@WhiteLight and @xicaque: Are you doing any offsite methods? I use cloud as my offsite solution as described here. That is my fail-safe as I found myself inconsistent with rotating an external drive.

Eduard said:

@WhiteLight and @xicaque: Are you doing any offsite methods? I use cloud as my offsite solution as described here. That is my fail-safe as I found myself inconsistent with rotating an external drive.

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Haha.. i do step 1 diligently
none of the rest..
Thanks for the link, i had missed it

That's my issue.. i have computers on 3 different floors.. my bedroom is on top, so my iMac & router is here..
One floor below me (it's actually a kinda mezzanine floor) which has a Windows PC & in he ground floor is a Windows Laptop..
And i use any of these machines so i need to have access to the data..
Add to that a PS3 & a few Android phones which rely on wifi
pretty soon am gonna be outside as well in the garage when the studio gets done

wifi isn't strong enough in the first place, so there is low connectivity on the ground floor..
so along with setting up a NAS, i also need to ensure good connectivity all round so file access can be quick all around..
haven't really been able to find a decent solution to really do a complete setup
i have an old win machine and some internal hard drives as well, so was thinking along the lines of FreeNAS..
but at the moment, it's in a limbo

There are so many scenarios that one could face. Any one backup is near impossible to satisfy all of the requirements. First and foremost, any backup is better than no backup. But once you've past that hurdle you start to consider things like your residence facing natural disasters or completely robbed. Or losing your data and having to restore 2TB from the cloud (would take a month at least). I use FREENAS for my onsite storage and Crashplan for offsite. Everything serves its purpose.

I will say that cloud storage is really coming down in price now. I'm paying about $60/year for unlimited storage and bandwidth utilization isn't bad but it's fairly slow. I'm still uploading my data to Crashplan and I started back in early March.

Crashplan does offer a nifty solution that could be useful to "forum friends". Basically say Eduard and I both have large TB drives connected to our computer. With Crashplan running on both our computers, I can backup my data to him and he can backup his data to me. It's a free service and it's totally encrypted so neither of us could see what the other person had. And he would have his backup in FL and I'd have my backup in PA. Not a bad plan.

That being said, I love my FreeNAS. It's run flawlessly (knock knock) since I brought it up.

Of course this is old hat for most of you guys. I figured it's good to reiterate it to new forum members.

WhiteLight said:

I don't believe online cloud storage works cheaper in the long run..
costs of HDDs are constantly reducing..
but one thing that really turns me away from cloud is just that fact - it's cloud.
i don't really have anything sensitive or worth protecting, but even if it were a rag i wouldn't want prying eyes on it
plus add the cost of data if you are streaming everything you have from an online server..
NAS and personal storage is definitely the way for me

Click to expand...

I completely agree with you about cloud storage costs, and the issue of privacy. I have 7 TB of storage set up using Seagate's Goflex Home server. When I start to run out of space, all I have to do is add another External drive to the setup. I have been using it for almost 3 years now. It works with any OS and has been very reliable. I even have all my movies, TV shows, etc. on it. I can access the files from either TV in the house. It worked out very well, especially for Gary, when his headaches were really bad and all he could do was watch TV and movies. I do have everything backed up on a series of portable, external drives, so it is not as if I have no back up.

I also use it as a backup for my photos (which are also backed up on a portable external drive) so i can get to them from whatever computer I may be using.

I found the Seagate GoFlex system affordable and reliable. Oh, and I can access it from anywhere, not just my home network. I have my own personal cloud.

The NAS is hardwired to the router via ethernet, as is one of the TVs. Everything else is wireless. I do not have a large house, so that is not a problem. I am able to access everything even if I am outside or at the barn. The barn is about 100+ feet from the house.

I finished my setup. I have a total of 5 TB in my desktop (1 TB & 4 TB) and then my new NAS setup with 8 TB (Raid 5) so have around 6 TB total. I use (cloud) zenfolio for the shots I sell and high quality DVD's for one more level for weddings etc and that's it. I am no Ansel Adams so if I lose something the world will never know so this is going to be it. But, I did think that when I went from dual 5 1/4 floppys to my first, "how would I ever fill it 30 mb hard drive", oh well.

WJYPhoto said:

I am no Ansel Adams so if I lose something the world will never know so this is going to be it.

Click to expand...

I just want to make sure that "She Who Must Be Obeyed" doesn't lose her images.