Help me pick a NAS.

[audiophil2]

Due to the limited space on my HDDs I want a NAS that can do the folllowing:
Be the single backup for all my 3 computers( each has 40-80gb HDDS)
Setup in raid 5 preferably.
Ability to do automatic backups of all pc's.
Ability to archive all pc's onto dvd/blueray
Serve as file/video/pic/media/print/server.

Am I asking to much? I just was very safe archival. Price wuold be $600-800 and I would like to build in steps.

[rockdogz]

Check out Qnap. I have been very happy with mine. I found an open box deal at Newegg.

[audiophil2]

Check out Qnap. I have been very happy with mine. I found an open box deal at Newegg.

This one looks promising...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107033&cm_re=qnap-_-22-107-033-_-Product

[audiophil2]

Can this be just asgood as the qnap?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822108039

[sholling]

If you are only backing up dinky drives I'd look at a DLINK DNS-321 with a pair of 1.5TB hard drives in RAID1. If you catch a couple of sales you can do the whole thing for about $300-325.

If you want to move up a step you can find the discontinued Intel/Fujitsu/Siemens SS4200-E for about about $135 shipped. These run an idiot simple (almost too idiot simple) version of EMC software. They are rated for 4 (not 3 - it must be 4 drives with this server) drives in RAID5 with one volume only and a maximum volume of size 4TB. These aren't for the faint of heart because there is zero documentation or support but I'm running one with a 4TB RAID5 volume as a media server. Total investment $550. To avoid conflicts between RAID systems in general and WD Green drives I set the system sleep to 30 minutes. That way they are on the same schedule and the system doesn't get confused by looking for a sleeping drive.

If you want better than these then I'd build a Windows Home Server using a dual core Atom processor and an 8 port RAID5 card, and put the OS on a small SSD.

As for software I hate all backup programs. Most store the backups in propitiatory formats and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't and it's hard to tell (and I'm a professional) if they worked right. I run GoodSync on all of my PCs. Goodsync is scheduled copy the latest files and modified files to my DNS-321 once a week. Just be careful how you set it up because it can be set to delete differences instead of copy changes and differences. Price: $29 for 1 PC and $10 for each additional PC.

[leelaw]

Other alternatives includeDrobo, but they tend to run on the pricey side for my tastes.

I've had good luck with a WD Sharespace

[rct442]

Other alternatives include Drobo, but they tend to run on the pricey side for my tastes.

This is super user friendly, nearly no user input required. I don't have to worry about about configuring the RAID or monitoring the health of the drives.

Best reason is that you can mix & match different size drives. Mine has 3x 750GB & 1x 500GB drives for a total of 1.8TB. I think the max is 16TB or 4x 4TB drives.

I think the unit is around $325, put keep in mind no drives are included.

http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo.php

[visualnewbie]

I don't think there are 4TB hard drives out yet... But anyways, I went with a WHS set-up. I wanted all computers in the house to be connected and backed up via the WHS. Makes life easier. I choose the Acer Aspire Easystore with the 4 bays. Crazy part is, I out grew it...

[rct442]

I don't think there are 4TB hard drives out yet... But anyways, I went with a WHS set-up. I wanted all computers in the house to be connected and backed up via the WHS. Makes life easier. I choose the Acer Aspire Easystore with the 4 bays. Crazy part is, I out grew it...

How's WHS?

I have been meaning to try it out, but the OS is $100 & I don't have a spare PC.

[visualnewbie]

How's WHS?

I have been meaning to try it out, but the OS is $100 & I don't have a spare PC.

I'm satisfied with it and so are a few of my friends that run it. I went this route based on their impressions. I really can't think of anything bad to say about it. It's pretty stable as far as I can see. No troubles at all. And that's the reason I bought the Acer, it came with WHS and a 1TB hard drive. Otherwise, I would of bought something similar to NAS. I got mine from Fry's for $350 and that's a bit more than some NAS products, but worth it considering it comes with WHS software installed. Right now, I have 11TB running and more needed soon on the Acer. Keep in mind, I had to find another enclosure to expand the home server since I out grew the Acer. So far, so good...

[rct442]

I'm satisfied with it and so are a few of my friends that run it. I went this route based on their impressions. I really can't think of anything bad to say about it. It's pretty stable as far as I can see. No troubles at all. And that's the reason I bought the Acer, it came with WHS and a 1TB hard drive. Otherwise, I would of bought something similar to NAS. I got mine from Fry's for $350 and that's a bit more than some NAS products, but worth it considering it comes with WHS software installed. Right now, I have 11TB running and more needed soon on the Acer. Keep in mind, I had to find another enclosure to expand the home server since I out grew the Acer. So far, so good...

11TB!

How many drives & what kind of RAID setup you running?

[visualnewbie]

11TB!

How many drives & what kind of RAID setup you running?

My understanding is that it doesn't offer support for RAID. Which is unfortunate. But it uses WHS's folder duplication feature as backup, basically a RAID-like drive pool system. At least that's how I understand it. I could be wrong...

Five 2TB hard drives and 1TB hard drive that came with the unit and that's where the WHS software in installed...

[rct442]

My understanding is that it doesn't offer support for RAID. Which is unfortunate. But it uses WHS's folder duplication feature as backup, basically a RAID-like drive pool system. At least that's how I understand it. I could be wrong...

Five 2TB hard drives and 1TB hard drive that came with the unit and that's where the WHS software in installed...

What kind of enclosure you running there? How do you control heat build up?

[visualnewbie]

What kind of enclosure you running there? How do you control heat build up?

That's a Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M-B with 8 bays to two eSATA port multiplier interfaces. I know you can set this up for RAID if you need to since it supports it. Currently, I'm using just the two bottom bays. I also got this from frys, since they were cheaper than online places. As far as heat, it has a pretty large fan in the back that keeps it pretty cool. Plus it has perforated holes on the whole front and sides. The only downside, it's pretty loud. Louder than my PC and can only imagine how loud it'll get with it full of hard drives. It also doesn't help that I'm using Hitachi hard drives as I think they're one of the noisest on the market...

Here are some additional photos I took of the unit that did for my blog...

http://www.communicatingideas.com/2010/02/sans-digital-towerraid-tr8m-b-for-acer.html

And some of the Acer unit...

http://www.communicatingideas.com/2010/01/acer-aspire-easystore-h340-home-server.html

[TonyM]

That's a Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M-B with 8 bays to two eSATA port multiplier interfaces. I know you can set this up for RAID if you need to since it supports it. Currently, I'm using just the two bottom bays. I also got this from frys, since they were cheaper than online places. As far as heat, it has a pretty large fan in the back that keeps it pretty cool. Plus it has perforated holes on the whole front and sides. The only downside, it's pretty loud. Louder than my PC and can only imagine how loud it'll get with it full of hard drives. It also doesn't help that I'm using Hitachi hard drives as I think they're one of the noisest on the market...

Here are some additional photos I took of the unit that did for my blog...

http://www.communicatingideas.com/2010/02/sans-digital-towerraid-tr8m-b-for-acer.html

And some of the Acer unit...

http://www.communicatingideas.com/20...me-server.html

I just bought the Sans enclosure for 8 2TB drives. I'll be adding it to my existing linux box which already has a RAID5 array of 6 1.5TB drives.

I've migrated my windows machines including my HTPCs over to Win7 and the backup program in Win7 is actually pretty good. I just have it do an incremental data backup every 2 days on each machine to the linux box, and a complete image of each machine on Sunday nights.

Works well, and cheap with almost endless uses since it's just an older Core2duo PC with ubuntu on it, not an ATOM, or other lower horsepower CPU.

I hear you on the noise and the heat. One thing that really helped was setting up the power management. In Linux I setup hdparm to spin down the drives after 20 minutes of inactivity. You may want to setup PM with yours as well... I'm sitting in my office right now and it's 81F in here!