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Thread ID: 135186	2013-10-05 10:39:00	Pros and cons of NAS - will it do what I need?	Chikara (5139)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1355143	2013-10-06 08:32:00	Just to add a few more comments in the Pot -- What you need to decide is do you want a NAS with limited upgrade for storage, or a Server that has a whole lot more options ? If you want to see a "over the top" example of a home server that you could use have a look at another video from that original link Here (www.youtube.com) Personally I wouldn't worry about a RAID setup -I'll try to explain what I was referring to: When I said backup of your data, if a drive is in RAID, and its making an exact image in case one drive fails, thats fine, BUT take a worse case -- Something goes wrong and the NAS short Circuits -- Blows everything, including BOTH HDD's -- Wheres your backup ? Its history. A backup doesn't have to be off site, but it needs to be on a separate HDD that you can attach and copy data to, or another Location on your LAN. I've seen it happen -- People back up to external drives ( which is good) BUT leave the drive attached, the PC cooks its self, and the External drive decides its history as well because its attached to the PC. If you built yourself a small server you can add in as many HDD's as you like (within reason) Mine can take 8 internal (currently got 3 in use) , and it runs windows home server ( mentioned in the above video) - It has remote access to the files from anywhere in the world via a web browser on just about any PC (If I gave you the address, user name and Password you could log in), does auto backups of all the computers every night. It also streams music or videos over the LAN without any trouble at all. -- Its a real grunter LOL P4 3.0 with 3 GB RAM ;) The "bottle Necks" are the series of switches it has to run through to get from the workshop to the lounge. There are plenty of OS's that can work very well, some free some not, you dont have to have server software. Windows Home Server was originally built on top of Server 2003 with a lot of the server actions hidden and a interface for operating / changing option available Via its connector software. These days Windows 8 can do the same thing ( to a degree) WHS has been replaced with Server Essentuals (www.microsoft.com) ( but this may be a bit over the top for what you want to do). My current setup as I mentioned has C drive as my main PC drive, and then D is a physical drive used for data. If I got NAS, would you recommend I remove the D drive from my PC and put all data only on the NAS As Ian mentioned, no home user NAS on a LAN will have the same speed as a directly attached drive. BUT depends on how much speed ypou want. All my daily usage documents are on the Server, and can be accessed from ANY of the PC's, they may take a second longer to open, but thats no big deal. While having everything on the NAS/Server is OK, its also a possibility of a huge disaster - you really want to have data in various places, having all your eggs in one basket can invite trouble. Hence the backups in another location.	wainuitech (129)
1355144	2013-10-06 08:54:00	I personally have Amahi home sever (Linux based, no monitor, keyboard or mouse once set up) With a 1TB HDD as my backup and media storage, then copy to a USB HDD once a week and take to work and keep in my desk Yeah good free software that. :thumbs: One day I'll get around to rebuilding the PC I had mine on-- It had a little accident with the hardware :xmouth: Someone let the smoke out of the PSU - took out the Motherboard and hard drive :( Apart from that its fine ;)	wainuitech (129)
1355145	2013-10-06 09:13:00	Thanks for all the useful info. I'm still not sure if I'm clear about whats involved with NAS vs a Home Server, or even the difference! Even in that video the vid title says Home NAS but he's referring to it as a server..what is the difference? When you're talking about a Home Server, you're referring to a machine build that is running server software, and is a lot more flexible - rather than a NAS which is basically limited by whatever storage capacity and vendor software that comes with it - am I correct? Can I do everything I need with either?? Going to the backup question - my logic (rightly or wrongly) was that in either a RAID1 setup, or a daily standalone backup done within the NAS HD's, that I would be mostly protected, unless both disks failed at the same time which is unlikely. Your scenario of something happening with the NAS that damages both or all disks at the same time - how likely is that? Is it a real risk, or more just a hypothetical risk that is extremely unlikely? I thought that even if something failed with the NAS itslef, the HD's contained within would still be intact (barring major disaster like a fire inside etc)...	Chikara (5139)
1355146	2013-10-06 09:20:00	I was going to build a windows home server machine for similar usage and automatic backups but I ended up buying a netgear stora instead, that was a mistake. The software and interface is clunky, the performance is poor (about half what windows file sharing manages with the same drives on the same network) and it turns out only the pro version of windows 7 does automatic backups to a network location without additional software. It's been sitting on the shelf unused for over 6 months because I don't really like it. Might resurrect it as a music server next time I have a drive spare. To add insult to injury they make it nearly impossible to resell as it requires an internet connection and registered account to use which is not transferable - stupid Idea for a local NAS. What I've been using instead which works much better for my purposes is a Vantec HX4 USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure. It takes up to 4 drives of up to 4TB each for a maximum of 16TB, is plenty fast using USB 3.0 (incidentally your bottleneck was undoubtedly the USB connection if it was not USB 3.0), and is simple to use. Drives show up as individual letters and can be added or removed without errecting each other. RAID version www.pp.co.nz My one www.pp.co.nz currently out of stock but someone probably has them	dugimodo (138)
1355147	2013-10-06 09:28:00	Your scenario of something happening with the NAS that damages both or all disks at the same time - how likely is that? Is it a real risk, or more just a hypothetical risk that is extremely unlikely? I thought that even if something failed with the NAS itslef, the HD's contained within would still be intact (barring major disaster like a fire inside etc)... Power spike that kills the NAS & it's drives (can be mostly mitigated by the good quality surge protector or UPS you will attach the NAS to) Theft Fire Probably a few other things Yes, the probability of both drives failing at once is very low, but it is not impossible. As I said above, a RAID mirror is not a backup solution - it's a data redundancy solution (it won't, for example, allow restoring an accidentally-deleted file, the way a proper backup regime would), and honestly, if this is any sort of important data, copying it to the other drive in the NAS isn't either. The critical files should either be synced online somewhere or synced to another device somewhere - most consumer-grade NAS devices have at least one USB port, giving the option to sync the important stuff off to a USB drive on a regular basis. Ultimately, it comes down to just how vital the resiliency of the data is and how much you're prepared to put in to ensuring it. Mirrored drives will mitigate the likelihood of data loss in case of a single drive failure. If that's your primary concern, it will do you fine.	inphinity (7274)
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