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I thought my hard drive on my PC had given up the ghost this week, but it turned out to be the PSU.
I thought I had lost all the photos that Id taken since I last backed up (about 4 months)
This got me thinking about a better way to back up and also allow me to get remote access to my hard drive.
A bit of googling has brought up NAS drives (network atatched storage) which seems to do what I want. The question is how do I fit one to my network.
I have a desktop PC hardwired to a BT router (also wireless). My printer (Lexmark Interpret S405) is capable of wireless and network printing. I also have a laptop and a netbook which connect wirelessly.
Is it a simple job of connecting the NAS to my router?
I have also found that there are quite a few types on the market with a vast aray of features. I think I need about 1-2 TB on a RAID 0 setup (data shared of 2 drives - 100% redundancy) with remote access (upload and download). Is there anything else I need to consider?
A NAS unit can do everything you want and can be connected directly to your router. Then every device that can access the router, can access the NAS.
I use a NAS unit to keep our files on and even take it with us in the MH. I have got a Synology Diskstation DS210 which has two 1tb drives. I like Synology because the built in software allows you to do so much.
You can set up a Raid Array, have different volumes and restrict access as you need. The Synology can act as a media centre streaming video and music.
You can set up a VPN to access your files over the internet as well. The firmware in the NAS drive is easily downloaded and updated. QNAP NAS drives are also good but I think the Synology has better software, but as basic storage drives either of them is fine.
NAS storage for home networks are very simple to setup, it depends on the device as to what interface there is and how you configure it, but it will be very simple, trust me.
The important bit; if you want redundancy you need RAID 1, not RAID 0!
RAID zero is striping which improves performance but doesn't protect the data at all, if one drive fails, all data is lost. on the other hand; RAID 0 mirrors the data to both drives, therefore if one drive fails, the data can be restored from the second.
I have a Synology Diskstation DS209+ and have been very pleased with it. It has 2 x 2TB disks set up for RAID 1 and I also back it up weekly to an external drive via its USB connection. NAS drives simply connect to one of the ethernet ports on your router and you then let your PC operating system discover and connect to them. Synology provides software to assist in the process but it's not difficult. I can access my NAS remotely which I quite often do either from my laptop or my android phone. Synology includes quite a large number of applications in its supplied software so worth having a look on their website I would suggest.
You may find it useful to choose a NAS with USB as well as Cat5 connection as that enables you to take the drive with your laptop, use it as a standalone pair and then return it with any changed/added data to your network later.
The extra cost is minimal. PC World do a drive from Lacie, for example http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lacie-301516ek-space-2-network-hard-drive-2tb-10725210-pdt.html is a 2TB at £140.
Patrick
I have a portable disk drive connected to my computer, which is accessible by all other computers at home and use a programme called 'Allway Sync' to sync all data files from my C drive to the portable, when I go away with my laptop I just take the portable drive with me and all data is up to date.
The syncing process is automatic and confirms Sync on closedown, fantastic system
I am so pleased
______________________________________________________________ John the Bowler
Ive got a Western Digital World Book NAS drive. It's a bit slow via the router, but connected directly to my imac via ethernet cable its not too bad. Im looking to replace it soon with something more modern and faster!
Many thanks for the advice. Ive seen this one on Ebay, It seems to meet my requirments, just not sure if it can be used for remote access via the net, more reading required.
Can not comment on any others,I have a netgear one. Like mentioned earlier it is slower using wifi but more convenient. If I was that bothered I could use the cable.
Handy having the two drives so copies it all twice.
And was easy to set up using instructions on the web as opposed to those supplied.
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