+1 on the Readynas Duo. Had one for 3/4 years and no problems.

Synology. Any one will do. The web interface is light years ahead of the competition, and makes it easy to access settings and files from a phone/tablet/laptop.

Definitely NOT ReadyNAS. They’ve gone downhill badly in the last few years, and the current ReadyNAS Duo is absolute junk in comparison to the Synology rivals. The high-end Intel Atom ReadyNAS models are ok, but even then I’d steer most people towards Synology or, at a pinch, Qnap.

just revisiting this to ask for recommendations……

not a big user, so id just be after storing my music, few vids and photos on it, and hardly ever adding to it. so im thinking a smaller 1 HD nas, 1Tb maybe, and then also buying a separate external usb drive for about £40.
everything on the one drive, back up to external drive, shove in drawer. every month or so update the back-up, shove back in drawer.

anyone got any recommendations for a smallish, quiet nas thats good value? or external drive too come to think of it….
oh, and must be compatible with squeezebox.

thanks

I have a QNAP which is pretty good. they keep adding features which is great. Some of the newer ones have a HDMI port which allows you to stream directly to an attached TV. You can attach USB TV tuners and turn it into a PVR – might sell it living under the TV.

I recently got a Synology 212j and I’m very happy with it. It’s near silent, works with very little faff, and has great forums and customer support.

+1 but not sure about squeezebox.

Synology do a single bay as well. It is only about 40ukp cheaper and I went for the more expensive with a view to adding a second drive when I could afford. All fairly painless and backed up where necessary onto an intenso usb hard drive. Also a fan of network plugs as a way of networking the house. I use the solwise ones and no issues so far.

as is usual for me, ive been dithering over what to buy as im just not sure whether theyll run with squeezebox software, and also the best way of running a set up. this is still my situation…..

not a big user, so id just be after storing my music, few vids and photos on it, and hardly ever adding to it. so im thinking a smaller 1 HD nas, 1Tb maybe, and then also buying a separate external usb drive for about £40.
everything on the one drive, back up to external drive, shove in drawer. every month or so update the back-up, shove back in drawer.

anyone got any recommendations for a smallish, quiet nas thats good value? or external drive too come to think of it….
oh, and must be compatible with squeezebox.

ive also got a sony bravia tv, and that may be a consideration if anything needs to ‘talk’ to the telly to stream a movie stored on there too?
any recommendations thatll fit the bill these days?

thanks

sadexpunk, check out mede8er 600x3d or 1000x3d they are probably overkill for your requirements but are excellent devices and good value, the 600 is silent but has no internal drive but should work well with a usb device or flash cards.
they are technically not a nas but a media player but can use samba nfs or dlna to share files.

thanks mate, but im thinking i need actual storage? my laptops playing up and im thinking of installing linux to see if it improves, and id like around 200Gb of files to be kept somewhere safe 🙂

Synology. My 211J runs squeezeserver with no problem.

We use one of the four hard drive models in our upstairs bedroom, powered via a back up system so when we gave a power cut it power itself. We then have outside grade network cable running outside and into a wall port next to the TV and into a switch/router that sends it to a small media pc running xbmc. The qnap handles all our downloads and storage and works faultlessly and always has. Only problem is we’re running out of space!

Stupid double post

I recently got a Synology 212j and I’m very happy with it. It’s near silent, works with very little faff, and has great forums and customer support.
+1 but not sure about squeezebox.

Synology do a single bay as well. It is only about 40ukp cheaper and I went for the more expensive with a view to adding a second drive when I could afford. All fairly painless and backed up where necessary onto an intenso usb hard drive. Also a fan of network plugs as a way of networking the house. I use the solwise ones and no issues so far.

Dragging this up from the depths – thinking of doign the same – will the 212J support the single disk with no issues and allow me to add another later if needed?

Thought I’d ask here as there seems to be a lot of axperts rather than try and plough through all the info inline.

Gaz

will the 212J support the single disk with no issues

Yes

and allow me to add another later if needed?

Not sure, haven’t tried yet

Not sure, haven’t tried yet

Yes just plug in, tell it what you want to do with it, eg add as another mount or mirror existing etc.

Ok that’s cool then – cheers gents

Begs the next question – what hard drive would everyone recommend? Unsure as to what’s good bad or indifferent. Is there an obvious candidate? Not too fussed on brand but would like it to have a good reputation. Are they all much the same?

Is this combo as good as any (first link on eBuyer)

Synology DS212j 2-bay (no disks) NAS Enclosure

WD RED 2TB 3.5″ SATA 6GB/s 64MB Hard Drive

Also is eBuyer the best place to source? Anywhere cheaper and/or more local/ethical to buy from?

Sorry for so many questions

Another data point for you:

I got a cheap dlink-320l (The L in important) which was great apart from very loud fan. I replaced this with a Noiseblocker BlackSilentFan XM2 (yes 12v is correct) and now it is great.

For example, the fan and drives spin down when no in use. Under use, with highest fan. It was quieter than the attached 2.5 inch usb drive!!

It sits in a slat doored cupboard in the corridor with next to the bedroom.

The web-setup is a bit of a pain, but Im using it as shared drive, timemachine backup and media server.

The mediaserver isn’t the greatest. I was going to re-flash it with debian, but it’s just too useful. Maybe I’ll get a second to play with.

Cheap as chips on amazon….

Just bought a DS212j – we’ll see how this works out. 🙂

You should look for disks with TLER, e.g. WD Red.

I could tell you why, but you would be asleep before I finished explaining. 🙂

Yep bought a WD Red disk – 3TB should do for a while

Old PC + USB stick + SATA PCI card + drives + NAS4Free.

Oh, and RAID isn’t backup either, it’s for minimising downtime.

I use local rsync between three disks, A B and C.

Backup night 1 = A -> B
Backup night 2 = A -> C
Backup night 3 = A -> B
Backup night 4 = A -> C

As has been said, RAID-based NAS may not prevent data loss in the event of controller failure. If you’re concerned about data loss you need a proper, off-site, backup. If you have the bandwidth or the time then Backblaze is handy. Ongoing online backup with no storage limit. I use it to backup my RAW photo files (and other files) as well as the hourly TimeMachine backup and the weekly off site HDD backup.

NAS? Even nice NASs can be slow for many things except backups and movie/music files for streaming. Having said that, if I had a handy £1000 I’d be interested in the Synology DS413J with 4x4TB disks 🙂