[billt1]

Have BDP2 and about to install the new  IAD card. I currently use a 1TB  usb portable drive and might like to move to NAS. NAS offering greater convenience, RAID ?

Everything I do has Sonics as the first consideration , convenience second.

If I move to NAS will I lose  anything?? If not a NAS suggestion please.

Thanks, Bill

[JimJ]

No difference.

Plus, the NAS is just capable of so many more useful things.

What are you looking to spend? I've had friends who have had good luck with Qnaps running WD Red drives. Greens seem to idle too much in NAS service.

[billt1]

I did not have a budget in mind but maybe under $700? I want RAID and easy to use

[Grit]

Hey Bill,

Can I ask why you want to RAID the drives? You'd not likely need the minimal speed advantage and it increases the failure chances.

- Garrett

[billt1]

Maybe I am using the wrong term? I believe RAID to be a Mirror drive (internal  back up) ?

[JimJ]

RAID 1 = mirroring. Most NASes, like Qnaps or Western Digitals, support it. Some can also run both drives as one, sometimes called RAID 0/JBOD - "just a bunch of disks".

The last time I priced out a decent, prosumer level 2-bay NAS and two WD Red drives, it was somewhere around $400. 4-bay units are pricier, but not needed unless you go to something like RAID 5.

[GentleBender]

I've been using a Synology 413 NAS and have been very happy with it. They have 4-bay models under $500. You can start with two drives for redundancy and add more drives as needed to expand. I'm sure you can do that with the Qnap as well. You can't go over 16TB single volumes on the 4-bay Synology units though, multiple under 16TB are not a problem.

[ttsto]

Recently I moved to QNAP HS-251 with 2x3 TB WD RED drives
It is dead silent and very fast.

[Grit]

For redundancy, you might consider using an online service. I use Amazon AWS but there are several other options. I think QNAP and Synology both have apps available to automate the process.

The up-side is that it's off-site storage. If something other than drive failure causes you to lose your data (fire, theft, flood, electrical, etc), you still have a copy of your data. The monthly fee is based on storage size but relatively inexpensive. It also frees up a drive on your NAS for more local storage.

The down-side is that download speeds are slow. It would take you a few hours to days to download your data again if you've lost it, but tha'ts what allows storage providers to keep costs down.

- Garrett

[unincognito]

I did not have a budget in mind but maybe under $700? I want RAID and easy to use

I think the WDMyCloud, the dual drive version can be configured for a mirror'D array.  Other wise, very easy to use Andy should easily come in under budget.

Also you shouldn't rely on just have the mirrored array as your only "backup".  In the event something happens you should have a second copy stored else where, like another USB hard drive or cloud (Dropbox)

[billt1]

Great, thanks. Now I know enough to proceed with NAS 

[JimJ]

For redundancy, you might consider using an online service. I use Amazon AWS but there are several other options. I think QNAP and Synology both have apps available to automate the process.

The up-side is that it's off-site storage. If something other than drive failure causes you to lose your data (fire, theft, flood, electrical, etc), you still have a copy of your data. The monthly fee is based on storage size but relatively inexpensive. It also frees up a drive on your NAS for more local storage.

The down-side is that download speeds are slow. It would take you a few hours to days to download your data again if you've lost it, but tha'ts what allows storage providers to keep costs down.

- Garrett

Yep, this is worth repeating. A RAID array will only protect you from drive failure - a power spike will still kill your drives. An offline - possibly offsite, if you're that cautious - is the safest bet.