Which NAS drive?

[Pete.]

I want a HDD that I can plug into my network ((serviced by a virginmedia box as DHCP controller) to use for holding files and photos from my laptop and phone and my wife's ipad and iphone. Don't need it to act as a media server or anything fancy just reliable multi-access file storage on my LAN.

Looking for suggestions. Probably around 2-4TB will last forever I suppose our phones and ipad are all just 128GB and I probably have 100GB on my desktop.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Easy-X]

I've had a few dedicated NAS units over the years (and set up a few for customers) and they usually suffer from "app disease" as in they're great to start with but it gets to the point where the software isn't actively maintained.

Unless you're after something fancy like a hardware-based RAID system I'd recommend a Raspberry Pi + USB3.0 hard drive combo simply because you can load whatever open source NAS software you like (pretty much forever). Upsides: cheaper, more flexible. Downsides: not as neat, slower but then the limiting factor is really your network speed.

If you do want a "real" NAS unit, just check if ppl are loading custom firmware so you have an exit path if the manufacturer loses interest. I kept an old D-Link NAS unit going well past its sell-by date hacking in a replacement O/S.
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Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[MarJay]

I'd recommend a 2 bay Synology with decent Western Digital NAS Specific drives. It's not cheap, but you can mirror the drives and it sends you a health report every month and things like that. It does have media server and tonnes of other features, but even if it's just for the storage only features it's really good and worth the money IMO. There are software updates released every month and it's been a current model for at least 5 years, so I suspect they'll keep up support for quite some time.

The only issue I have with mine is it's running low on space and because it's a 2 bay it's not possible to expand it.

Anything other than a quality NAS could leave you with no data. I also have an ancient LG NAS but LG got out of the NAS business, so it's been out of support for quite a while.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[DaddyStu]

My home server is just a £50 little HP/Compaq SFF PC - The sort you used to have in schools and workplaces. Still do to some extent. i5 Sandy originally now upgraded to i7 Sandy. The socket cant take anymore. Doesn't need it though. Can stream 4k movies to 2 separate locations with no buffering.

I put a 3TB drive in it - holds all my movies and photos etc. with a slot for a further storage upgrade. Currently running Plex so family can access it whenever they want. Plex is getting sketchy though so might go back to Jellyfin. If the apps do fail I just 'Cast to TV'.

It has no graphics card and no dedicated monitor. Just use remote desktop from the main PC.

Old style sure but it works.
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Daddystu
Zontes 125-G1 (part-ex'd). Yamaha Tracer 700.

[panrider_uk]

Another vote for Synology
Loads of features, easy to use and very reliable - I've been running 2 24x7 for 11 and 12 years.
When a disc fails just pop it out and replace with a new one and let it repair the array - no downtime
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Current bikes: Hondas - Forza 750, ST1100A

[CaNsA]

HP microserver N54 can be bought for under 50 quid.
Populate with your own drives.

Don't use the router as a file server, it will be slow as shit.

[Islander]

If you want something that'll run out of the box and needs very little maintenance then Synology NAS devices are a good choice. A 2 bay with mirrored drives is perfect for home use. They aren't cheap but with decent NAS rated disks (Western Digital reds for example), they'll run for years. My current Synology has been running for over 12 years without missing a beat.

I'd recommend adding a further USB drive to back the NAS drives up periodically (depending on your NAS use). Keep this one powered down when it's not in use, and that'll go a long way towards protecting you from malware and ransomware.

[t121anf]

I used one of these before I upgraded to a server

https://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DNS-320-ShareCenter-Network-Enclosure/dp/B004SUO450

was cheap and cheerful at the time, might find one cheap second hand.

[blurredman]

Not had a NAS. Home server/website is an athlon xp 1700 I've had since 2004, and been on the line 24/7 since 2015. Only had to replace capacitors on the geforce 5200 and the Asus A7V8X mainboard.
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CBT: 12/06/10, Theory: 22/09/10, Module 1: 09/11/10, Module 2: 19/01/11
Past: 1991 Honda CG125BR-J, 1992 (1980) Honda XL125S, 1996 Kawasaki GPZ500S, 1979 MZ TS150.
Current: 1973 MZ ES250/2 - 18k, 1979 Suzuki TS185ER - 10k, 1981 Honda CX500B - 91k, 1987 MZ ETZ250 (295cc) - 39k, 1989 MZ ETZ251 - 50k.

[stinkwheel]

[t121anf]

[Pete.]

I want an out of the box plug-in solution. I could build one from an old PC or learn how to do it with raspberry Pi but I don't want to spend the time doing it. Most of what I want to save is already spread across several devices so I'll just use a 2-disk mirror and if a drive fails I'll swap it out.

Thanks for the replies so far it's been very interesting seeing the different approaches adopted.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Robby]

If the intention is just to provide slightly clunky, cheap, long term storage then I prefer cloud. I have an AWS account just for this. Setup was a bit clunky but just a case of following tutorials. I pay about £1.50 a month for 2 TB.

It works out about the same price as buying a NAS, without the risk that a hard drive failure will lose my data. Downside is that upload speeds are slower than moving data across my home network.

[Easy-X]

Good point, wholesale cloud storage is very cheap. Given my upload speed is ~100Mbps, perfectly usable. Thanks for the nudge.

There's also other services worth considering in the cloud. Amazon Prime throws in free photo and video storage. Handy if you're already paying for it but not a sole reason to get Prime. Phone backup example: send the photos and videos to Prime (largest concern for most people) and the rest of the phone to a free Google Drive or iCloud account.

Setting it up right now... thanks, Robby
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Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter