NAS storage advice

[Mr_Oujamaflip]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on getting a NAS for my brother. My budget is around £250 and I was hoping on getting an enclosure so it can be expanded upon but I don't have any experience with NAS drives so I don't know what I'm looking for. I don't think mirroring will be necessary since it will be for storing multimedia and backup images of his laptop but he might want to go down that route later on. 

 

I was leaning towards this: WD 4TB My Cloud EX2 since it comes with 4TB of storage, looks pretty swanky and is upgradeable. One thing I'm not sure about however is what hard drives to use to upgrade. You see lots of NAS specific hard drives but surely it's just a regular hard drive since I thought the NAS enclosure did the work but I don't know for sure.

 

Also if I was to get an enclosure without a HDD would I be able to just get one 4TB drive to go inside so the other bay would be used later on or does the RAID card require both bays to be used?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Sevilla]

There are a variety of drives and NAS enclosures to pick from, however, you always (specially when it comes to storage) want to side with safety moreso than affordability.

 

Hard drives rated for 24/7 use such as Seagate NAS or WD Red drives generally meant for these types of devices because they are tested to withstand 24/7 operation, generate less heat because they spin slower than most standard desktop drives, and have a bit of a longer warranty. Also, cost-wise they do not cost astronomically more than a regular desktop drive of comparable storage space.

 

In regards to a NAS enclosure, it'll depend. If you're buying one, make sure it's well reviewed and you read the warranty/support options carefully. The last thing you want is to buy an enclosure with a proprietary format (be it for RAID or encryption) and if it craps out on you, you won't be able to get your data back.

I personally did endless research into this and for years I had 2 copies of all my data on 2 4TB external drives (one Seagate, one WD). I eventually built myself a FreeNAS box, but that's a bit more of an undertaking knowledge and cost-wise, so I don't recommend that.

[Sevilla]

Also, quick note, that drive you pointed out has 4TBs of storage made up by 2 x 2TB HDDs in RAID 0 (which result in 4TB). You're effectively asking for a 50% higher fail rate if you get it. Because you have 2 drives acting as 1, if either fails, you'll lose your data. This doesn't mean you can recover data for the 2nd drive either. If any of the two drives fail, the array fails, thus your data is lost.

I recommend getting something more like this: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-DiskStation-DS215j-Desktop-Enclosure/dp/B00OZ0CTAU/ref=lp_430553031_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1458308753&sr=1-2

Then buying one of these:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-3-5-inch-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE/ref=pd_sim_147_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=51r9C%2BqBs8L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=1JCH5223KDXW0ZRKKCE3

 

The cost would be similar to what you're looking for but you gain a couple of benefits.

 

1. Synology's brand is one of the most trusted brands in NAS enclosures/setups.

2. Future redundancy/expandability: If you opt to get a 2nd 4TB RED, you can either get a RAID 0 going for 8TBs (I do not recommend--read what I said about RAID array failure) or redundancy where you keep 4TBs of storage, but now if one of the drives fail in RAID 1, all your data will be available in either of the working drives. 

 

Good luck in your quest to find a good storage solution for your brother.

[Mr_Oujamaflip]

Oh yeah I forgot about the fail rate. I really like that enclosure too, that looks ideal. As for the HDD does it matter what type I get? Does it have to be a NAS specific drive?

[Sevilla]

23 minutes ago, Mr_Oujamaflip said:

Oh yeah I forgot about the fail rate. I really like that enclosure too, that looks ideal. As for the HDD does it matter what type I get? Does it have to be a NAS specific drive?

NAS grade drive = meant/tested for 24/7 operation, considered more reliable, extra warranty.

Standard drive = meant/tested for daily desktop use only, can be reliable under intended usage, regular warranty.

 

Ultimately it's up to you. I'd personally go for a NAS drive, specially since the intended use of this drive is NAS storage and not just using it on a desktop.

[Mr_Oujamaflip]

OK I figured that would be the case. I think I'll go the what you recommended, I had a look at the Seagate drive but it's basically the same, a little cheaper but not on Amazon Prime so the cost is negligible.

 

Thanks for your help!

[Sevilla]

Yeah, I personally went with 4x4 TB Seagate NAS drives for my setup. So far extremely reliable drives.