Best drives for a SYnology DS211J

welshdragon · 5 Mar 2011 at 13:44

Going to buy a DS211J (or maybe a 2110J). In fact 90% sure I will get the DS211J.

Can anyone with experience of this drive recommned 2x1/1.5tb hard drives for use with it. I know the list on their website is a good guide but just wondering what people are using and feel is the best to get?

I've been looking at the western digital greens but the seagte green drive also caught my eye.

Cheers for any advice.

Yas786 · 5 Mar 2011 at 16:22

welshdragon said:
the seagte green drive also caught my eye.

Cheers for any advice.

I have 2 of these in my DS211j NAS and they are pretty damn good...quick and pretty quiet....i have 2 x1.5tb of these drives...

welshdragon · 5 Mar 2011 at 16:35

Cheers for the reply mate. They look pretty good price/performance wise. Will probably go for those then

ringo747 · 7 Mar 2011 at 11:43

I have the HD204UI Samsung F4s which at the moment aren't on the Synology supported list but work fine. You will need to ensure they have the latest firmware on the drives.

Very good value for money for the 2TB drives.

shine · 7 Mar 2011 at 11:46

ringo747 said:
I have the HD204UI Samsung F4s which at the moment aren't on the Synology supported list but work fine. You will need to ensure they have the latest firmware on the drives.

Very good value for money for the 2TB drives.

I've got the same setup and agree with ringo.

welshdragon · 7 Mar 2011 at 15:38

Mmm, might go for two seagate barracuda greens. ANyone know what the rma is like if they die?

welshdragon · 7 Mar 2011 at 17:34

Witht hese drives in Raid 1. If one drive fails the other is obviously mirroring it. Would it be a case of inserting a new blank drive and it would rebuild the array and re-mirror the other drive?

Firegod · 7 Mar 2011 at 18:16

I was looking at 2TB Samsung drives. In the end, I couldn't stretch to 2GB drives so bought 2x 1.5TB drives. Cost £53ea. Bargain!

These are the ones: Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB. I also used the Samsung tool and set the Acoustic mode to Quiet before fitting them in the NAS unit.

So far so good!

.:SAmSuNG:. · 7 Mar 2011 at 18:51

I run 2 Samsung 2TB F4 eco in mine with latest firmware. Cheapest and decent. Not sure i would go with the seagates. Samsung or if your feeling flush the WD greens.

welshdragon · 7 Mar 2011 at 19:12

Also, does anyone know a good mirror for downloading the synolgy install software and teh latest dsm 3.1? Tried direct on Synology's website and it was painfully slow, and I'm on 50mb cable. Maybe I should try in the morning when the world is asleep.....

.:SAmSuNG:. · 7 Mar 2011 at 19:48

Took me a few hours also but not sure if theres anywhere else.

welshdragon · 8 Mar 2011 at 08:31

Can you update the drives firmware when their installed in the nas or do they have to be in the pc to do it?

Edit: downloaded the synology software in under two minutes this morning. Must have caught them at a busy time!

welshdragon · 8 Mar 2011 at 12:20

Well I've opted for two 2tb Westerb Digital Green drives. Fingers crossed

stoofa · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:50

I went for the following in my DS211J:

2x Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST32000542AS)

I wanted to make sure I got disks from the supported list and also ones where I didn't have to worry or "faf" around with making sure I was running the latest firmware on them.

So far they have been great and quiet too.

welshdragon · 8 Mar 2011 at 14:59

Yeah the ones I have are on the supported list. From what I can see I just install and format them to the WD advanced file thingy....thats the technical term.

I really can't wait now, got a shiney nearly new DS210J on the way!

Simpic · 10 Mar 2011 at 11:34

I have 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS SATA-300 3.5" 7200rpm (1TB) in my DS-211.

It runs very nicely at about 55MB/s write when transferring MKV's from my desktop to the NAS for the media server.

Only problem is I'm going to run out of space before all my discs are ripped!!!

enigma27 · 10 Mar 2011 at 16:03

Anyone got a guide on how to update the samsung F4's to work in the 211J?

Does the hard drive need to be installed in a PC first to accomplish this?

just ordered the below

Product Name Price Qty Line Total
Synology Diskstation DS211J 2-Bay Gigabit Ethernet Network Attached Storage Enclosure £133.32 1 £133.32
Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £52.49 1 £52.49

shine · 10 Mar 2011 at 16:05

Yes, the drives need to be in a PC to update the firmware. Everything you need should be in this thread:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18247837

enigma27 · 10 Mar 2011 at 17:16

Perfect thank you.

welshdragon · 10 Mar 2011 at 19:37

Once the drives are in and you install the dsm software I take it that it gives you the format options and from there I can select the WD advanced format?