recommend me a good NAS drive

[Berin]

My Buffalo 1tb Terastation is no longer big enough! It works fine (with a few workarounds as Windows 7 doesn't play nicely with NAS drives) but isn't big enough. I reckon a 5tb is the way forward, that will work in a mixed Mac/Windows environment, and preferably without the fiddly stuff to make it work with Win 7.

Any recommendations?

 

[Batfink]

Qnap has to be the best I reckon, TS419P Turbo NAS with 4 available HDD slots, so 12TB available if you load up with 3 TB drives.

Plus it has a load of software packages that can be installed to do file downloading, iTunes media server, media station etc etc.

Cheers

Batfink

 

[inazone242]

I have a QNap TS410 fitted with 4 1TB drives i use it mainly as a video server it also a very capable bit torrent client, it was a bit pricey if i remember im chuffed with its performance and reliability.

 

[Berin]

Thanks Batfink. Is it easy enough to set up in Raid 5?

 

[Batfink]

Very simple to set up, multiple Raid options available, got mine raid 5. Was even fairly simple when I added a new drive after a year of running on just three and extended the raid 5 across all four drives. Lots of info on Google and QNAP support are very good as well in case you ever have issues, right down to phoning you up and tempting into it to fix for you (obviously once you've opened your firewall and set passwords back to default etc for them)

Not very cheap but there's a reason for that. Lots of firmware and software updates unlike other manufacturers that sell devices then forget about them because they have moved on to the next model.

 

[Batfink]

That was meant to say remoting into it (predictive txt strikes again)

 

[Pukmeister]

Also worth having a look at a Synology NAS, they are very good. I currently run a DS209j 1TB disk station and like yourself, I could do with upgrading to something larger in the near future.

It is mostly in use as an unattended download station and for wireless streaming video and iTunes server across my home network, also Airport backup for my Macs. I might fit some wireless ip security cameras to the network and use it for video surveillance storage in the near future.

The DS-212j can accept up to 2x 4TB HDD (8TB should be more than enough for home use)

http://www.synology.com/

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/networking/networkattachedstorage/ds212j.html

 

[er-minio]

Another vote for Qnap here.

 

[GSTourer]

What are you lot talking about ???????????????????

 

[Tomcat]

Also worth having a look at a Synology NAS, they are very good. I currently run a DS209j 1TB disk station and like yourself, I could do with upgrading to something larger in the near future.

It is mostly in use as an unattended download station and for wireless streaming video and iTunes server across my home network, also Airport backup for my Macs. I might fit some wireless ip security cameras to the network and use it for video surveillance storage in the near future.

The DS-212j can accept up to 2x 4TB HDD (8TB should be more than enough for home use)

http://www.synology.com/

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/networking/networkattachedstorage/ds212j.html

Another vote for the DS-212j. Very simple to set up, and there are lots of apps in the operating software. With the latest version for example you can create your own version of Dropbox, with the synched files sitting on the DS-212. I've got it linked to Win 7 and XP PCs, with remote file access over the internet. I'm not especially techie, so it must have been easy to set up!

 

[Blackal]

Netgear STORA Netstor is cheap, and takes a 2TB drive (primary) and 2TB mirror drive.

Good enough for me

Al

 

[Walowiz]

Netgear ReadyNAS

I've had a Netgear ReadyNas for a couple of years now after looking at Synology, QNAP and best IT purchasing decision I've made in a while.

I bought the diskless Duo, stuck two 2Tb disks in and it hasn't missed a beat in 24/7 operation for approx 30 months now. Works with Mac and Windows. It is quiet in operation, small footprint and reasonably fast.

There is also a ReadyNas community which is damn helpful, here: http://www.readynas.com/

Check out here for all the NAS info you could possibly want: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas

 

[Berin]

Can you include these drives in Windows 7 libraries? On the Terastation, I had to map a network drive on the shared drive and then include this in the library, as trying to include the terstation directly fell foul of Windows 7 indexing issues. It's a real pain, as soon as you change the location of a library the "location" tab disappears from Windows, so I don't want top go through all that faff again.

 

[Walowiz]

W7 Libraries

I'm not a 100% sure about the current situation, but I don't think that the ReadyNas Duo plays nicely with W7 libraries. Maybe the larger prosumer models do.

IIRC aren't W7 libraries, just a shortcut of sorts ? I'm not sure I'd consider it an essential requirement for a NAS purchase, unless you are relying on them heavily.

W7 libraries do seem to polarise windows users, either a love it, or hate it thing.

 

[The Foolish Fellow]

Replaced my maxtor last year with a buffallo 4tb. Wouldn't recommend it or them. Poor support and a bugger to get it set up ( drives had to be re-formatted ) media server drops out occasionally. New uploads don't show up automatically as they should. Good features but in general very disappointed.

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

Why not use a wdtv with a 4tb external disk ?

This is viewable across all networked computers.

This is how i do it to store home media

 

[Dansin]

Another Netgear Stora here with 2x 2Tb drives. Linux based so completely customisable, DLNA, torrents, itunes library and alternative firmwares etc.

 

[Tim Cullis]

I have a Netgear ReadyNas Duo with 2 x 1TB drives which I bought so we could dispose of the old Windows Server 2003 setup.

I'm sure that underneath it's a reasonable set of hardware but my IT son-in-law and I spent a huge amount of time when we had problems with one of the disks, mainly down to lack of documentation. Can't recommend it.

 

[walrus]

I have a readynas 2x1tb. Fine until w7 now it's a pain. Maybe newer ones are better but I won't buy another.

I'm not telling you how I sent this so p**$ off!