Synology DS215j

DataVampire

DataVampire

DataVampire

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Hey guys I decided to buy my first nas the one below(its on its way to me now)


Diskstation DS215j 2-Bay Gigabit Ethernet Network Attached Storage Enclosure.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-078-SY&groupid=46&catid=2125&subcat=2127

It was in my budget, I am going to see how I get on with it and maybe get another 4 bay one later next year.

First question is:
I have got x2 3tb drives from 2 different manufactures is it ok to put the both in and wil they work ok ?

Second question is
I think I have read this correctly when putting in drives into the Synology it will format the drives ?

Third question is:
I need a s much storage as possible. so how would I configure it so I get a virtual 6tb one drive pls.

Fourth question is:
I bought this to store media and serve that and also general files and whatnot. and also to stream movies/mp3s to my lg smart tv along with various Xboxes ect. i presume it will be ok for this ?.

Thank you for the advice
 
Hey,

I have 2x 413j so can answer your questions...

1. Yes - different drives will work. If they are different speeds, the combined speed will be that of the slower of the two drives (likely won't notice much there).

2. Yes - it will format the drives. You can get it to just read from them if you were to setup as JBOD (just a bunch of disks, no raid) but as (q3) you want to setup as a single 6tb drive - then you would need to format the disks anyway in that setup procedure.

3. As you go through the first setup wizard when you connect to the device after installing the hard drives and powering it on, the wizard will guide you through setting up a "raid-0" configuration... this will give you the two drives as effective single drive with almost-double the performance for sequential read-writes.

However, it is worth noting that there is no data-redundancy for raid-0... if one of the drives fails, you will lose the data on both hard drives. So just make sure you have anything important backed up somewhere else.

4. Yes - you may wish to use some of the in-built applications for it, take a look at the package centre when you have powered the device on.
 
Thank you very much for your reply.

Will be fun to use, my first. if all goes well I will upgrade to a 4 bay one, then that will do for me for quite a long time.

I bought the Synology as the apps are supposed to be pretty good and for the money, these units are not the fastest out there but not to bad.
I was originally looking at the asor ones as they have a intel cpu and more ram ect , but was not sure if or how many apps ect they had.

Have you tried the plex server on yours ?
 
Still fast enough... mine nearly max my internal wired gigabit network for large sequential file transfers, so I'm not complaining. I also have a home server and that can truly max the gigabit connectivity... but there is only about 10% difference.

They will be more than fast enough for streaming whatever follows 4k :)

It depends on the files, they do slow down for many smaller files... but then that's a spinning-platter drive thing anyway.

They seem to handle multiple-access quite well.

I have not tried plex, no... I used to just play straight through VLC... but now use XBMC (Kodi)
 
Ive read that plex works ok , but it will not transcode video on the fly very well....cpu isn't up to the job.

this is why I built my own nas and used xpenology, it uses synologys software wink wink but you aren't allowed to use certain apps. This is because you need to set up and register your official nas....

I use plex, audio and photo station and also have a play with the web site stuff.

The only downfall is when synology release a new version, the patches are a bit behind at the moment..
 
DataVampire said:
I will most prob at a later date, budget was a problem. it is Christmas lol.

Anyhow those reds are extremely expensive considering other nas disk offering
Click to expand...

They're not really that much more than the cheapy drives.

But they're worth it.

I had 4 of 6 Seagate 3TB budget drives fail on me within 2 years...
 
Ok I have my new shiny nas.

I have installed the drives connected it to my network, installed the dsm software, installed the recommended apps, ie ds photo.nedia ect ect.

Erm now I am lost.

How do I upload files to my nas. then how do I accses them, ie movies/mp3s and other files for example.
 
thank you for the reply.

Sorry to ask this. kinda feel dumb for asking.

How do I do this ? via the dsm ?

Appologies this is my first time owning a nas/sinology product.
Thank you
 
do you know the IP address of the nas drive?

not too sure if this will work but you can go to start and then run

type in the following

\\192.168.1.1\

and press enter, the one above is a example and it should load up a folder called public.

right click on this folder and then go to map network drive.

if you want to create any other shared folders it can be done through the DSM software
 
Hi there, if you don't the ip of your nas, download Synology assistant, this will tell you what ip your nas is on.

Once you have logged into dsm , if you have installed photo or video station or music station they will create its own folders. Just upload your files into the provided folders.

I use my main PC to transfer files to my nas over my network via my computer, it should show under networks.

If you want to make a shared folder just create a new folder on the volume you first created, that's if you created a volume. Not at home at the mo so can't say what options you go through , i found it to be a bit strange at first but once you get used to it, it's a nice bit of software and very easy to use.
 
Dho!!! I sorted it.

Ofc it does help if you install the apps lol.

Once I did that I then had to edit each folder in dsm, then assign permissions.
Once I had done that, they showed up in my computer.

The only problems I have atm, that it keeps dropping the lan connection when I try to upload mp3s tot he music folder.
It is running a parity check and scrubbing one of the drives ? It also says system performance may be decreased.

Also I have found it impossible to create a raid 0: I get an error msg saying one of the disks keep crashing, it was working perfectly until I put it in the nas.
 
First connect or always?

If you haven't accessed it for a little while... say overnight or however long the disk standby is enabled... it will spin the disks up to full speed before it lets you access.

Can take 15-20 seconds or so for first access after spin down (which I think I have set at 15 or 30 minutes), after that it's instant access & fast transfer.
 
crinkleshoes said:
First connect or always?

If you haven't accessed it for a little while... say overnight or however long the disk standby is enabled... it will spin the disks up to full speed before it lets you access.

Can take 15-20 seconds or so for first access after spin down (which I think I have set at 15 or 30 minutes), after that it's instant access & fast transfer.
Click to expand...

Always.
I have ahd it a few days now and have not even been able to put anything on it. I think I need to reset it to factory defaults and start over.

Does anyone know how I do this please. I have no data on it so not worried about loosing anything.

Cheers
 
I guess press and hold the reset button on the back of the unit or something. I don't think Plex is also available on this NAS, I bought one a week or two ago and reading forums it sounds like Plex isn't developed for the type of CPU in this :(
 
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