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Looking to get a NAS

Cloutier369
By Cloutier369
in Storage Devices
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In the new year, I will be heading to grad school and need a way to backup my computers, and am looking at building (maybe buying) a NAS. I will primarily be using the NAS for file storage and backing up my computers, and don't really care about using this as a media server. 

 

My requirements for the NAS are:

- Easily share files between computers

- Some way to automatically backup the computers (I'm terrible at remembering to backup computers, and have lost many files as a result)

- Remote access would be nice

 

Should I build a NAS or should I just buy one since I will only be using it for file sharing and backups? I do have an older pre-built pc that I would be willing to salvage to use for the NAS. HP p7-1243: intel i3-2120, 4gb ram.

 

 

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@Captain_WD wanna handle this one? xD

 

I do actually recommend a prebuilt NAS for this application.... automatic backups, an openness to buying over building... sounds right up your alley!

 

maybe a WD My Cloud EX2?

ESXi SysAdmin

I have more cores/threads than you...and I use them all

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Since it seems like you have the parts and (most likely) the know-how to build your own NAS, it would be more economical to build one. Look into buying a store bought diskless NAS and adding a 1TB WD RED if you are looking for as close to 100% reliability that you can get really as they are used with parts that are designed to have power in them 24/7. But if money is an issue buying the same HDD for the i3 and 4 gigs of ram will save you about 140$, it might even be a bit faster too :). Either way you'll have a pretty nice NAS  :)

                                                                                                                                                                            Professional Girl

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~snip~

 

Hey there Cloutier369,
 
A pre-built NAS should be a great fit for what you are looking for, as @Sunshine1868 suggested. Such devices are extremely easy to set up and manage, offer remote access and file sharing and the more advanced ones even offer additional features such as third-party support which can be useful. How much storage space are you looking for? How about the data redundancy/RAID type? 
I can suggest checking out WD My Cloud and WD My Cloud Mirror for simple data sharing and backups. Both drives are great for that and offer remote data access. The second one comes with two drives and is pre-configured in RAID1 Mirroring mode for data redundancy but can be changed to RAID0 Striping for speed and JBOD for simple storage. 
What Sunshine suggested is also a good NAS which offers additional features to what WD My Cloud Mirror can offer but comes at a higher cost. It really depends on what you need from the NAS. :) Here's a link to these three products and a bit more info on them:
 
You can check out the other WD NAS devices and ask if you have questions :) 
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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Hey there Cloutier369,
 
A pre-built NAS should be a great fit for what you are looking for, as @Sunshine1868 suggested. Such devices are extremely easy to set up and manage, offer remote access and file sharing and the more advanced ones even offer additional features such as third-party support which can be useful. How much storage space are you looking for? How about the data redundancy/RAID type? 
I can suggest checking out WD My Cloud and WD My Cloud Mirror for simple data sharing and backups. Both drives are great for that and offer remote data access. The second one comes with two drives and is pre-configured in RAID1 Mirroring mode for data redundancy but can be changed to RAID0 Striping for speed and JBOD for simple storage. 
What Sunshine suggested is also a good NAS which offers additional features to what WD My Cloud Mirror can offer but comes at a higher cost. It really depends on what you need from the NAS. :) Here's a link to these three products and a bit more info on them:
 
You can check out the other WD NAS devices and ask if you have questions :)
 
Captain_WD.

If i buy the WD My Cloud instead of the WD My Cloud Mirror, can i change the My Cloud to Raid 1 for 2TB of effective storage? I think that should be more than enough for what i plan to store on it (just word documents, excel spreadsheets and pictures) and i would really like a raid 1 array (losing these files wouldn't be good at all) but i don't want to spend the extra money for the Mirror version.

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The My Cloud is a single drive device. You can not do RAID with a single drive. 

 

The My Cloud Mirror is a poor choice for anyone. RAID1 is made for redundancy, not backups. Having a single device with two copies does nothing for the security of your data. What happens to your data if you have a fire or flood at home? what happens if there is a break-in and somebody steals it? 

 

You'd be much better off to buy the single drive My Cloud and use the money you save to pay for a cloud backup solution.

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~snip~

 

As @braneopbru pointed out correctly, WD My Cloud is a single-drive NAS device. You need multiple drives in order to for a RAID array. You can use the single-drive WD My Cloud as a standalone NAS device and attach an external drive on the back USB3.0 ports and use it as a backup solution for your important files on the NAS. Otherwise you would need a multi-drive NAS in order to configure a RAID array (no matter which one). :)
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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As @braneopbru pointed out correctly, WD My Cloud is a single-drive NAS device. You need multiple drives in order to for a RAID array. You can use the single-drive WD My Cloud as a standalone NAS device and attach an external drive on the back USB3.0 ports and use it as a backup solution for your important files on the NAS. Otherwise you would need a multi-drive NAS in order to configure a RAID array (no matter which one). :)

Captain_WD.

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought the My Cloud had 2 drives.
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