NAS Solution for Personal Use I.e Backing up Photos and Videos

Lwhatswrongwithya on 21/03/2022 - 14:31

It's been 4 hours I am looking into this new tech since my cheapo 4Tb portable WD elements misbehaved last night which has lots of beautiful memories.

I take heaps of photos of my family and videos too with my Fujifilm gear.

I know upgrading is always a possibility so I'll go with 4 Bay ones and I want to backup of my data at all cost so I will at least start with 6 or 8TB x 2 and go on from there if needed. Keeping the system ON 24/7 is not a priority for me and I am happy to switch it off every night and switch it on when needed in case leaving these devices ON impacts its hardware/built in components?

Could you suggest me a setup please?

1) Which NAS (brand/model) = ?
2) RAID 0,1,2 etc = ?
3) Which HDD's = ?
4) To complete this setup what components extra (hardware/software) will I need.

Computing NAS

Comments

  • life is suffering on 21/03/2022 - 14:32

    Also backup ?

    • whatswrongwithya on 23/03/2022 - 09:54

      Yes, I will need backup and for that I might use HDDs.

  • Godbotly on 21/03/2022 - 14:48

    I'm not making direct recommendations on hardware but a broader comment based on my experience.

    1/2) If you just want 1 drives worth of storage (1x 12/18TB) then any NAS with Raid 1 will likely work fine for you. Raid 1 is mirror so data is the same on both drives. Lose 1 drive and you're safe. Dual bay enclosures that support Raid1 are cheap and there's a trillion variations. You say you want 4 drives though which is easy enough, different brand NAS will typically use their own RAID types. Decide on a brand/model and check what their supported RAID types are, usually their default is good for 99% of people.

    3) If you're unsure just stick to NAS drives (ie WD Red). They're designed for 24/7 operation and have a rating for drives per enclosure due to vibration etc.

    4) Nothing, depending on the solution you choose it could just be a RAID drive enclosure, not even a NAS. I've used them for offsite backups for small datasets at work before. Backup at the end of the week, take it offsite to place in a safe until next week. A 24/7 NAS will be entirely self sufficient, wont need to do anything.. just map some drives to your PC/Laptop etc.

    Edit because I forgot to add. Raid is NOT backup. If you wish to keep your data for ever then setup a proper backup. The easiest/most common solution is to the cloud. OneDrive/Dropbox/Google Drive etc.

  • saitaris on 21/03/2022 - 14:57
    +1

    Go Synology, not QNAP. QNAP have had an awful run regarding security flaws lately.

    Don't turn it on/off every night. A NAS is designed to be left on 24/7, as are NAS HDDs.

    I would always recommend buying the biggest model you can afford, eg you may find that a used DS1618+ (6 bays) is around the same price as a brand new DS920+ (4 bays).

    Use SHR1 (Synology Hybrid Raid) which provides redundancy against 1 disk failure, and works like a RAID5 but with flexibility to mix disk sizes.

    Regarding disks, some people buy cheap externals and shuck them. This will get you lower $/TB than buying official NAS branded drives, however typically shorter warranty and you aren't always gauranteed what sort of disk you end up with after shucking, other than capacity. I prefer WD to Seagate purely because of acoustics.

  • spackbace on 21/03/2022 - 15:03
    +1

    No need for a NAS unless you want to access it outside the network etc. Just grab an external HDD enclosure with RAID. Something like this would be fine. Set the drives to RAID 1

    • kiitos on 21/03/2022 - 15:34

      What do you mean? To use it within the network it would need to be attached to the network.

      • spackbace on 21/03/2022 - 15:35

        Yes, but for OP's use-case they don't need to go to that dollar value just for local backup. Imo a NAS is for media playback, and/or the ability to access your files from outside the house.

        For just simply providing a back-up option to files on the PC, a 4-bay $500+ NAS is overkill. Simple USB enclosure, with RAID for backup in case of HDD failure, and then add a cloud backup eg Google Photos for a couple of bucks per month

        • kiitos on 21/03/2022 - 16:02

          Ok yes, I see what you mean, if there's only one device in the house that needs this then locally attached storage would be ok.

          If backups and shared access to files from eg a desktop and a few laptops, then a nas would be the way to go.

        • whatswrongwithya on 21/03/2022 - 16:07

          I think ability to access files (saving and storing) is a great feature I would love to have.

    • Chandler on 23/03/2022 - 10:05
      +1

      Just grab an external HDD enclosure with RAID

      These sorts of products frustrate me. RAID is for availability, not protection.

      RAID:

      • Disk fails? No dramas, RAID array continues to serve data
      • Deleted a file? Well shit, the RAID array deleted the duplicate.

      Backup:

      • Disk fails? All good, I've got this backup copy I can restore. Just give me x minute/s.
      • Deleted a file? It's ok, there's a backup of that file we can restore. Just give me x minute/s.

      In which case, why have RAID on a USB drive, unless it's for you to plug into a router to use as a cheap "NAS".

      https://www.raidisnotabackup.com/

  • Miami Mall Alien on 21/03/2022 - 15:08
    +1

    Synology DS920+.

    Synology DiskStation Manager (Synology own's proprietary NAS OS) is the Apple equivalent in the NAS space. Idiot-proof/slick UI/"it just works". The DS920+ is versatile and scalable enough to be a lot of things (media servers, PLEX web servers, personal cloud, CCTV server, etc) and provide a lot of storage (with a flexible range of RAID/redundancy configurations).

    Synology DSM is very regularly-updated, well-supported, fairly secure (especially compared to QNAP), has tons of add-on "packages" that can expand its functionality into full-on, microserver territory and has a huge community and knowledge base for all of your troubleshooting and tweaking/advanced configuration purposes.

    Total time from unboxing a Synology NAS to have it up and running is less than 30 minutes (including mounting the HDDs).

    • ToastedBuns on 22/03/2022 - 10:47
      +1

      +1. I have a DS920+ in RAID 1 currently with 2 ironwolf drives, easy to get running and its working well.

      Lots of features, mobile/remote access, great for backing up and accessing photos from multiple sources.

  • p1 ama on 21/03/2022 - 17:06
    +1

    It's been 4 hours I am looking into this new tech since my cheapo 4Tb portable WD elements misbehaved last night which has lots of beautiful memories.

    This is due to not having a backup strategy, which a NAS will not inherently fix. You can get redundancy with RAID, but this will not protect you from data loss which is not a result of straightforward drive failure. Before getting a NAS, you should think about what your backup strategy will be, whether that be just another separate external drive, or a mirror with another NAS in another location, or signing up to a cloud backup service.

    I know upgrading is always a possibility so I'll go with 4 Bay ones and I want to backup of my data at all cost so I will at least start with 6 or 8TB x 2 and go on from there if needed. Keeping the system ON 24/7 is not a priority for me and I am happy to switch it off every night and switch it on when needed in case leaving these devices ON impacts its hardware/built in components?

    As per previous point, having 2 drives is redundancy, not backup. If you just want more safety for your data, what you should do is just use the drives in RAID 1 on your computer instead, and purchase a cloud backup service. There's not much point IMHO of getting a NAS unless you have other specific uses for it (e.g. multiple users sharing data)

  • JimmyF on 21/03/2022 - 17:53

    Synology all the way.

    • whatswrongwithya on 23/03/2022 - 10:24

      latest and greatest or any past discounted model will do?

      • JimmyF on 23/03/2022 - 10:26
        +1

        Something current that is still getting OS updates at least! If you don't plan to use it too heavily for things, then the cheaper 'value' series will be fine for storing/backing up data.

        • whatswrongwithya on 24/03/2022 - 08:32

          Any thing specific you would recommend so I can compare with newer one?

  • coxjon on 22/03/2022 - 13:55

    I have a hard drive plugged into my NAS that performs a backup each week. Expensive initially, but piece of mind!

    • whatswrongwithya on 23/03/2022 - 09:55

      Just a normal portable HD for backups?

      • coxjon on 23/03/2022 - 11:26

        Non-portable because it's 14TB but yep. A smart plug switches it on before the backup is scheduled and then I turn it off when the backup is completed. I've lost data from power loss before :(

        • whatswrongwithya on 23/03/2022 - 12:11

          Lost data on the non-portable 14TB drive because of power loss? Damn!

  • mattesky on 22/03/2022 - 17:56

    You need a backup solution as well. A NAS is great for some of the features but with only that you can still have hardware/user failure that causes a loss of all data.
    I backup my stuff nightly to backblaze B2 which is reasonably affordable and can be automated, I don't have a synology so cant quite tell you if it would work similar. You want a backup solution that is automated otherwise you likely end up not backing it up.
    edit: although if you have 4TB or more of data backblaze is still expensive and you'd be better off with a NAS and a couple large external drives. Backup everything to the external drive once a week/month and then store it at a friends place.

  • whatswrongwithya on 23/03/2022 - 10:02

    when did you start using B2? I don't mind paying but there is no guarantee that these companies will keep the prices steady or change "unlimited" to "limited" storage or just go out of business. I stopped using google photos for there stupid pricing and storage and don't want to upload my data and just let the business decide the future but I will wait for your opinion on this and yes, I don't mind backing up on a separate external HD.

    • mattesky on 23/03/2022 - 18:13

      Not that long, started in July 2021. I've only got about 65GB of photos and files as well so not a large amount, costs me almost nothing. Its $5 USD per 1TB storage a month(pay for what you use), plus access/download costs, if its purely a backup there wont be much of that. If the business changes prices then you are always free to stop using their services. B2 was the cheapest option I could find at the time but admittedly I could have looked further.

      Another way to get a large amount of online storage cheaper could be one of those family office 365 offers. you essentially get 6 x 1TB one drive storage accounts that could be used to backup a lot more data at a lot lower cost than $60USD a month. You'd just have to play around with managing the 6 different accounts.

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