Thinking of putting in a NAS, right now I have two external drives off USB ports for backup of data locally.

Thinking I don't need more than two or three drives in the NAS, it's not that significant amount of data files, and I'd like to run a full backup of the PC hard drive for restorative purpose.

Interested in learning more about NAS, like can a NAS act like a cloud and you can access data files remotely on a laptop via wifi, what NAS are best, reasonable priced, what hard drives aka WD Red or some other drive is best.

And what am I missing as far as what needs to run one.

I have been running one for several years (15 or so). Just upgraded from a 2 bay to a 6 bay.

I run a media server on it, it backs up all of my PC's every night (full on Saturdays, incremental the other days), stores all of our family pictures, important docs, and all of the digital crap we have accumulated over the years.

The important information gets backed-up to the cloud weekly (tax info, wills, and other critical items).

Highly recommended and you do not need to be a tech whiz to do this.

I currently have 6, 14TB WD Red Pro drives in RAID 6. You can get them on sale from time to time at Western Digital. Also, you do not need to populate all 6 bays with my NAS. So, you can start small and add to it.

PS - Yes... you can enable cloud services and have the NAS act like any of the Google or Apple cloud services for you computer or phone (remote image backup and retrieval, document storage, etc.).

Almost all commercial NAS boxes use open source software for the OS and network services. Their "value-added" is a web-based configuration GUI. I have consistently heard that Synology has one of the more flexible GUIs. If you are comfortable with doing configuration "by hand," it isn't rocket science to build your own NAS (and you will learn much more). There are some FOSS GUIs available as well.

As far as hardware goes, pretty much the same things that enhance a desktop system can be put to use in a NAS, whether commercially-packaged or DIY. Things like fast solid state drives, plenty of memory capacity/bandwidth, multi-core CPU, etc. OTOH, if you have a lot of data, and not so much money, it is still possible to configure multiple spinning drives into a RAID array on a NAS. The biggest benefit of a NAS is to allow all or most of your systems to share a data space, reducing the cost of maintaining such on multiple storage units.

If you are using the NAS for shared storage and also backup (presumably on a separate RAID array), prepare to see the disk space get eaten up quickly. Many people have found that their NAS does not last nearly as long as they expected before the storage has to be increased (and they have to find somewhere to house their data while the hardware is being re-worked).

WRT access when away from your LAN, this would be more the responsibility of your router. You would probably want to set up a personal VPN "server" on the router so you could "dial-in" from any Internet connection, and access any resource on your LAN as if you were present.

At one point I've looked into it, I just don't horde data.

What's your use-case? if you look at the costs, it could be more effective to use a privacy focused cloud like Proton Drive.

To add... I would recommend you consider a 4 bay with smaller, cheaper drives. This way you can have a RAID 5 setup where if 1 drive fails (and they do sometimes), you do not lose everything.

I would stay away from Synology as they have been playing games with drive compatibility and other things. They have the most advance software/complete software suite out there (per most peoples opinion), but you probably do not need all of the tools. Also, their hardware and expansion routes are limited/non-existent.

I settled on and would recommend UGREEN. They have 2-8 bay solutions (probably more to be honest). RAM is easily upgradable (I am running 64GB on mine), they use modern processors, and have M.2 bays in most models.

I would not run an all solid state NAS. SSD's are still much more expensive than mechanical drives and they will not last as long if you are actually using the NAS (daily read and write access).

Just set up my NAS last year. I use it primarily as a media server, but do keep a local copy of all the digital pictures. I otherwise rely on cloud backup. I don't do full PC backups.

I decided against Synology based on their recent moves to lock-in their NAS to only Synology hard drives. Ended up with an Asustor 4 bay and couldn't be happier. Running it with 3 12GB Seagate drives with an SSD for the OS and Apps. Very happy.

I was using an entry-level 2-bay Synology for a few years but last year went to a 4-bay Terramaster F4-424 Pro due to a faster CPU for virtual machines and high RAM capacity. Also it came with a 2.5Gb network port. Pretty happy with it.

I have been running Synology NAS boxes for some time now. Currently running a DS920+ and an older DS214.

I store all my multi media and use Plex to stream movies. I also store full image backups of my PC's on it as well. You can expose it externally and host your own "cloud". I back up both NAS devices to external drives using Hyper Backup.

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:
At one point I've looked into it, I just don't horde data.

What's your use-case? if you look at the costs, it could be more effective to use a privacy focused cloud like Proton Drive.

I'm not into PLEX or sharing audio/video files with family, although a good place to store images off phones/computers is something that should be in my consideration.

Mainly for small business, Database, word, pdf, spreadsheets, outlook file with contacts and emails, both backup and possibly to put the main files used on the NAS such as a spreadsheet and work it from there vs on the PC/Laptop.

Right now desktop is older, and at the end of upgradable options, main SSD 256 is just about full and will need to be upgraded or replaced with new Laptop, which is the plan.

This way I have a local backup solution, file access just like on a Windows Server where the applications reside on the desktop/laptop and then serve data from the NAS/Server if possible.

Been looking at Synology but if they are moving to locking people into their drives that is problematic since they could then raise drive prices beyond market price for those with their NAS units.

Final use would be to access a data file and outlook file from the laptop when travelling occasionally.

I am also running a Synology (DS 723+). used as a plex media server (1200 movies/ 400 music albums/ 50 years worth of scanned photos) and family photo stash. backs up a Mac desktop, 2 laptops, an iPad and 4 iPhones. I use WD red drives and synology cache/ OWC memory. it's expandable if required and has a full suite of tools for all of the requirements you mentioned. been running for approx. 6 years with no issues. make sure you get something with a good processor and lots of memory. it has a great software control interface, very user friendly. also very quiet if that is important to you.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:
At one point I've looked into it, I just don't horde data.

What's your use-case? if you look at the costs, it could be more effective to use a privacy focused cloud like Proton Drive.

I'm not into PLEX or sharing audio/video files with family, although a good place to store images off phones/computers is something that should be in my consideration.

Mainly for small business, Database, word, pdf, spreadsheets, outlook file with contacts and emails, both backup and possibly to put the main files used on the NAS such as a spreadsheet and work it from there vs on the PC/Laptop.

Right now desktop is older, and at the end of upgradable options, main SSD 256 is just about full and will need to be upgraded or replaced with new Laptop, which is the plan.

This way I have a local backup solution, file access just like on a Windows Server where the applications reside on the desktop/laptop and then serve data from the NAS/Server if possible.

Been looking at Synology but if they are moving to locking people into their drives that is problematic since they could then raise drive prices beyond market price for those with their NAS units.

Final use would be to access a data file and outlook file from the laptop when travelling occasionally.

I pay $10 a month get 500gb of cloud storage, a VPN, 15 email addresses and effectively fully replace Google services.

Also I don't have to worry about power consumption, potential fire caused data loss, and outdated hardware. assuming I've got an internet connection I can access it just like a NAS.

also all my data is locked up under Swiss privacy laws, so no one can go snooping.

I have been using a 4-bay QNAP NAS running RAID 6 for quite a while with WD red drives. No issues whatsoever.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 229DAK,

I ran a raided NAS for decades at home.

I switched to a couple of 8 tb drives.

The advantage of a raided nas in the old days was you a 4 or 6 smaller drives were way less expensive than a large hard drive.

And if you lost a drive you could rebuild the raid.

Now a 20TB drive is just $300 dollars.

I just don't see the advantage of running a NAS today.

QNAP here, using 4x Seagate Ironwolf Pros in RAID 5.

QNAP has apps for remote access, etc. but I have not set them up (not a function I need) but the QNAP apps I do use have been solid.

I'm running TrueNAS on an old Dell Precision workstation.

i-7-7700
32GB ram
256gb ssd for TrueNAS OS
2x WD Gold 14TB drives

Its been working flawlessly. I use it to store all of our family pictures and videos. I don't trust the cloud nor do I want all of our personal stuff on it.

I also host music/movies on there that I access with a laptop in the Living room. Its a dedicated NAS so I don't want to run Plex or plugins on it.

Read where the Synology setup may be requiring their drives and they are chipped in order to run, haven't researched that fully but it's on a lot of posts on the innerweb.

I have 1TB of online backup storage with MS Office 365. However there are some files with sensitive information that I'm not comfortable putting on MSFT's cloud for storage.

Having a NAS would replace the two USB backup drives I use now into a single source system.

Not sure what you are referring to, but I currently use WD Reds in both of my NAS devices. 1 in RAID 5, and the other in RAID 1.

Yes... the new Synology hardware limits the drives you are allowed to use to only Synology branded drives. I had heard recently that they may be changing that as they are losing market share.

Many more companies are making NAS enclosures now with much newer and more powerful hardware. They are also very easy to upgrade with off the shelf parts. Many come with basic NAS software, but will also allow you to run 3rd-party software and not void a warranty (TrueNAS, Open Media Vault, unRaid, etc.)

I used to run a QNAP 2-bay. QNAP and Synology are behind the times on hardware. I would argue that Synology is more of a software company now than a hardware company, at least on the consumer level.

You can roll your own and build a NAS very cheaply, but unRaid and TrueNAS have a learning curve from what I have seen of them.

I would go off with an off the shelf enclosure for your first.

PS - I am not an IT guy by profession. But I have done a lot of work recently on this as I recently purchased my new enclosure and upgraded it. I really like this UGREEN. It is a monster for the price.

I bought a synogy a few years ago. Hated the OS and software, it sits unused with maxed out storage and RAM

I’m waiting for ubiquiti to upgrade their NAS to what most others have available and I’ll try one of them if it’s comparable. I’d like to use it for music storage as I have an enormous amount and majority isn’t digitized

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:
I bought a synogy a few years ago. Hated the OS and software, it sits unused with maxed out storage and RAM

I’m waiting for ubiquiti to upgrade their NAS to what most others have available and I’ll try one of them if it’s comparable. I’d like to use it for music storage as I have an enormous amount and majority isn’t digitized

This is why you are better off building your own machine and running TrueNAS.