Network Attached Storage - Advice

[et0609]

Hello everyone.

For the past 4 years or so Ive been using 2 Buffalo NAS drives. One has all my music, video and photo files on it, the other is a backup of the first. Over the past year or so, I have neglected to do any up to date backups and sods law, my main drive is now toast.

The HDD inside is knackered and the data is lost. I have a backup of 95% of the lost data so its not too bad.

I am now looking to buy a new NAS drive and was wondering if anyone could suggest a reliable brand. Ive had good luck with Buffalo. The one that has just failed has been running continuously for 4 years solid, so I think its pretty reliable, however, the reviews Im reading of Buffalo drives now are not so good.

My music and photo collection runs to thousands, so can anyone recommend a good quality drive, 1TB in size thats reliable above anything else.

Thanks.
Mark.

 

[LTD]

Can't you simply just replace the HDD inside the NAS unit ?

Any drive can fail at any time but most of the major players have got decent drives at present.

 

[RichardM]

It's more down to the drives inside than the make of the NAS unit itself. As LTD said you should be able to just buy a new drive for your current NAS and most support mirroring so you don't need to remember to copy everything to a separate backup disk.

 

[Rory]

For the past 4 years or so Ive been using 2 Buffalo NAS drives. One has all my music, video and photo files on it, the other is a backup of the first.

How valuable is your data? Bear in mind that copies held in the same physical location are not backups!

 

[LTD]

Bear in mind that copies held in the same physical location are not backups!

For the majority of people, another HDD backup will suffice.

Panic rooms, high temperature theft-proof cabinets and cloud migration are just a wee bit too extreme IMO.

Saying that, I do a weekly backup onto an HDD that is kept with a mate - and he does the same with me.

Time Machine (MAC) caters for the weekly duties until I do a full backup to the spare drive.

 

[Beetnik]

I work on the principle that 'unless your data exists in three separate places, it doesn't exist at all'.

OP's dilemma demonstrates the principle.

By all means replace your NAS drive but backup offsite as well. I've just renewed with diino - £39 a year for unlimited backup.

 

[et0609]

I assume 'mirroring' is copying data to another partition on the same drive? so if the drive fails, the mirrored part is also gone. Thats why I bought 2 separate drives. I will look at replacing the HDD inside - never considered that, although it was 750GB in size and was nearly full, so I was thinking of a larger capacity drive.

 

[RichardM]

No for mirroring you would have say 2 x 1TB drives in the NAS, but only have 1tb available as data is written to both drives in parallel. When reading data it can read from both in parallel so is much quicker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_1

 

[et0609]

No for mirroring you would have say 2 x 1TB drives in the NAS, but only have 1tb available as data is written to both drives in parallel. When reading data it can read from both in parallel so is much quicker.

Standard RAID levels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I see, I will look at that option also.

Thanks for everyones advice.

 

[markjay]

Just a reminder... synchronisation is not backup. Time Machine (Mac lingo) is.

Backup is only backup if you have several sets and can restore to (one of several) previous points in time.

 

[Dryce]

Just a reminder... synchronisation is not backup. Time Machine (Mac lingo) is.

I'd disagree with that statement.

There are loads of ways of managing backups so it's not a one size fits all.

Time Machine has proved to be a bit quirky IME. Very good *when* it works but prone to oddities when working with a non Apple NAS.

Synchronisation OTOH tends to be simple and robust for data - particularly where you are just adding new stuff and don't need different generations such as images and music.

It's also generally independendent of storage quirks and system/hardware independent. And the resulting backup is a sensible copy of your file system which makes it portable and easy to transfer.

 

[c63chris]

To the OP I have been using a Netgear ReadyNas and it has been faultless. It has 2 drives in RAID array so if any one drive fails you take it out and plug in another. Works well for me but it all depends how much security you want eg if the house burns down I will lose my data

 

[colin.dillon]

Go for one with Raid 5, then even if a disk fails it'll carry on working & you won't loose any data

Col

 

[LTD]

Go for one with Raid 5, then even if a disk fails it'll carry on working & you won't loose any data

Col

If the RAID controller board goes then you are usually farked if you haven't got another backup strategy in place.

 

[Colin_b]

Go for one with Raid 5, then even if a disk fails it'll carry on working & you won't loose any data

Col

Sorry, wrong. If you value data. Raid is for availability, not backup!

1. You get used to it working, so don't check the disks. One fails, you don't spot it. 3 months later another fails, data gone.

2. Raid on motherboard, which fails. Only recoverable on same make/model/firmware mobo. Your replacement mobo is not quite the same. Data trashed.

3. PSU fails, spikes voltage and raid is trash (you DO have battery backed read/write cache protection, and the battery is healthy, don't you).

4. malware or 999 other reasons.

Back up to an external disk (preferrably 2 cycle) and keep it at your parents/friends/work. And make sure you can recover the data.

 

[markjay]

I'd disagree with that statement.

There are loads of ways of managing backups so it's not a one size fits all.

Time Machine has proved to be a bit quirky IME. Very good *when* it works but prone to oddities when working with a non Apple NAS.

Synchronisation OTOH tends to be simple and robust for data - particularly where you are just adding new stuff and don't need different generations such as images and music.

It's also generally independendent of storage quirks and system/hardware independent. And the resulting backup is a sensible copy of your file system which makes it portable and easy to transfer.

I suppose you are right, it's probably OK for home users.

I meant 'Time Machine' as a general concept that allows you to go back and restore from older backups, as opposed to the actual Apple product by that name. The issue for businesses is when they discover that someone deleted an important file or folder three weeks ago. Synchronisation will be no good in this situation.

 

[colin.dillon]

Disk fails NAS sends you an email. Motherboard goes, yes replace with same. Doesn't really matter as a copy is being sent to 2nd NAS, usually by a scheduled backup thru software built into box. Backup can also be sent to 2nd unit in another location over a decent broadband connection - initial backup done locally & then incrementals done over Internet, shudn't be a problem just schedule for overnight. High availabilty & a reliable backup. Same applies if spike takes one out - got backup. Spike shouldn't be a problem if surge protector used - only cheap.

 

[spinaltap]

I've been running a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo for over two years, which stores and streams all my movies and music. It's been faultless.

However, given the money to spare, I would like a ReadyNAS Ultra4plus - but at £456 it's currently out of reach (thank goodness).

Why do I say that?...

Because the HP Proliant Microserver, after cashback, is a much better prospect, with vastly better processing power, more memory, more expansion capabilities (including optical disk drive option).

For the price of one ReadyNAS Ultra4plus I could buy three HP Proliant Microservers.

Add Windows Home Server, and iHome Server (for iTunes integration), and you have a great machine.

HP ProLiant Turion II N40L MicroServer - £110.. | Ebuyer.com

 

[John]

Disk fails NAS sends you an email. Motherboard goes, yes replace with same. Doesn't really matter as a copy is being sent to 2nd NAS, usually by a scheduled backup thru software built into box. Backup can also be sent to 2nd unit in another location over a decent broadband connection - initial backup done locally & then incrementals done over Internet, shudn't be a problem just schedule for overnight. High availabilty & a reliable backup. Same applies if spike takes one out - got backup. Spike shouldn't be a problem if surge protector used - only cheap.

This strategy works well for SMB backups.

I know because I replaced tapes with two NAS units containing 4 disk arrays back in 2010 and they have been running ever since.

Luckily for me, I have fibre connecting them together and they are fast - so sync'ing is rapido.

Constantly monitoring, email you if there is a fault, all connected to surge / UPS protection.

Availability of the backups and speed of restoration when required is fantastic - and I can do it remotely effortlessly.