what nas?

blastman · 14 Jun 2012 at 15:01

hey chaps,

I'm looking for a nas to run time machine and keep my media so I can use atv2 xmbc to stream to my TV.

I was about to buy a wd my book live 3tb for £150 but bad reviews have pushed my away due to slow read and write times.

What are you guys using?

any suggestions?

thanks

uniQ · 14 Jun 2012 at 15:17

I use a Synology DS212j. It's awesome. I recommend either a Synology or Qnap if budget allows there best of the breed in consumer NAS drives imo.

blastman · 14 Jun 2012 at 15:20

arh ok.

yes, i like. the encloser in just within budget. I have two 1tb drive at home. Can i slap any sata drive in?

or are there only specific drives that will allow time machine and whatnot?

LordSplodge · 14 Jun 2012 at 15:37

uniQ said:
I use a Synology DS212j. It's awesome. I recommend either a Synology or Qnap if budget allows there best of the breed in consumer NAS drives imo.

This.

LordSplodge · 14 Jun 2012 at 15:38

blastman said:
arh ok.

yes, i like. the encloser in just within budget. I have two 1tb drive at home. Can i slap any sata drive in?

or are there only specific drives that will allow time machine and whatnot?

Any SATA will do. Sometimes you need a firmware update on the NAS for big drives (3TB)

Marky · 14 Jun 2012 at 15:53

I'm using a ReadyNAS from Netgear. I tried a Synology but didn't get on with it at all. I sold it and got a ReadyNAS and haven't looked back. Very easy to use and has a nice community behind it for mods etc.

welshdragon · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:04

uniQ said:
I use a Synology DS212j. It's awesome. I recommend either a Synology or Qnap if budget allows there best of the breed in consumer NAS drives imo.

This. I have done some reviews here

Or if you don't mind a bigger unit and say a copy of windows home server the HP Microserver is a good buy with the cashback offer.

Qnap are also good.

blastman · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:10

cool. looks like synology for the win then

CrimsonAvenger · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:12

Marky said:
I'm using a ReadyNAS from Netgear. I tried a Synology but didn't get on with it at all. I sold it and got a ReadyNAS and haven't looked back. Very easy to use and has a nice community behind it for mods etc.

I did exactly the reverse

GeX · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:14

Tagging on a bit here, but it's relevant.

What does TimeMachine require from the NAS? Is it just somewhere to dump the data to? I have an HP Microserver with a couple of tb drives in it - will I be able to configure it to just write onto SMB shares / SCP?

blastman · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:18

of course the problem i now have is that all my content is on a pool of disks in my ms box. if i break the pool, i lose all data.

so, I need to copy off 1.5tb to a 3rd party, then move the 2 1tb disks to the nas, then copy back.

Anyone want to lean me a 1tb external usb drive??? :rolleyes:

BluSky · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:24

anything by synology would be my general recommendation for a nas box

Marky · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:24

CrimsonAvenger said:
I did exactly the reverse

Wow really? What didn't you like about the ReadyNAS?

Everyone raves about the Synology NAS but I hated it :/

blastman · 14 Jun 2012 at 16:39

oh, someone has just offered me a dlink dns325 for nothing.

2 bay encloser. got to be worth a bash at free!!

SimonR · 14 Jun 2012 at 20:31

+1 for the Synology. Installed it in my wife's clinic 12 months ago and has run flawlessly. Remote access, iPad and iPhone access, group calendar using CalDav, media streaming, secure file areas for clinicians and HR, and easily remote administered.

NightShadow · 14 Jun 2012 at 22:17

I setup a DS212j today with 2x3TB drives in. Very impressed with the interface compared to the QNAPs I have been using for the passed 6 months! Easy to setup and get Time Machine up and running on too. Woud reccommend one over getting the silly Apple TimeCapusule which is only a single hard drive with no resilience, no point in backing up to a single disk based appliance!

LordSplodge · 14 Jun 2012 at 22:59

NightShadow said:
I setup a DS212j today with 2x3TB drives in. Very impressed with the interface compared to the QNAPs I have been using for the passed 6 months! Easy to setup and get Time Machine up and running on too. Woud reccommend one over getting the silly Apple TimeCapusule which is only a single hard drive with no resilience, no point in backing up to a single disk based appliance!

No point backing up to a RAIDed device if you don't keep a regular offsite backup neither.

RAID != Backup.

NightShadow · 15 Jun 2012 at 21:55

LordSplodge said:
No point backing up to a RAIDed device if you don't keep a regular offsite backup neither.

RAID != Backup.

I agree, mechanical drives are only so useful for backups, hence the need to at least make sure they are resilient, wouldn't want my only backup/restore to be based in the cloud with a couple TB to download when it all goes wrong though!

Replication to an offsite NAS or cloud storage service is definitely recommended.

LordSplodge · 15 Jun 2012 at 22:21

NightShadow said:
I agree, mechanical drives are only so useful for backups, hence the need to at least make sure they are resilient, wouldn't want my only backup/restore to be based in the cloud with a couple TB to download when it all goes wrong though!

Replication to an offsite NAS or cloud storage service is definitely recommended.

Agreed.