NAS Network attached storage - max £150
 

I use the term NAS, but really it;s a USB hard drive with a network connection.

Anyone any suggestions ?

It's for my Dad. Mainly for backup purposes, rather than streaming huge amounts of data. It Just needs to incrementally backup his documents off his laptop(s) over the wireless without him having to do anything. Max budget £150.

I can find both good and bad reviews on the web for these, so wondering if anyone had any alternative suggestions.

Iomega
Iomega Home Media 1TB Gigabit Ethernet Network Attached Storage (34237) [] External Hard Drives Network Attached Storage (NAS)

WD
Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB Home Network: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Buffalo
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-Driv...6964587&sr=1-1

Cheers

Avi

Avi

I've researched this a lot myself recently and after hours of trawling the web, posting on several forums etc I come to the conclusion there's a lot of cheap tat out there that fail quite regularly, not good if it's your backup solution.

I found that NetGear, although more expensive, are reliable, robust and a lot of their products come with a 5 year warranty.

I've just ordered the 4 bat ReadyNAS NV+, although this was £346 with no disks.

Based on your budget I'd suggest you look at the Netgear MS2110, it's a 1TB solution which will give you a mirrored array with 500GB capacity.

Scan sell it for £156 inc VAT

Scan.co.uk: MS2110-100UKS - 1TB Netgear Stora MS2110 Storage Home Media Network Storage NAS

This product comes with a Netgear 3 year warranty, see details on Netgear website

Stora - MS2110

Obviously this depends on the amount of storage and if 500GB is enough for him.

The advantage of this product with all the ones you listed is redundancy, if the disk fails in the Buffalo, Iomega or the WD then there's potential for data loss.

:)

I have one of these: D-link DNS-323 2-Bay SATA Network Storage Enclosure w/UPnP AV Media Server and it has been very reliable and will also stream video to a PS3 or Xbox.

If all he wants is to back up his documents, have you thought about something like Mozy - Safe, Secure, Affordable Online Backup ? Depending on how much data it may even be free.

Steve

Thanks Hanley - I will definitely look into the NetGear, one i had not come accross before!

Thanks Boxst - I did look intot the DNS323 but i'd need to spend another £100 at least on disks.

He does have an online backup facility (which is full now). The reason for local storage would be shared access to the files easily from either pc/laptop. I estimate he has about 250gb of docs and photos at the minute, so i ruled online out.

I looked into this a while back and bought a Lacie network drive, what a load of sh!te that thing is. It does 'work' but talk about slow. The usb port is also incredibly slow as it isn't a true usb port and it's some network/usb port that doesn't get the speed of a usb2 port.

Their support has been rubbish and will never buy Lacie again. I'll take a look at that Netgear one.

I'm starting to look towards a NAS, one of our DVD-RAM drives has started spitting out coasters (getting expensive now seeing how much RAM discs cost), and with how much Sage has bloated in the size, backups to DVD-RAMs are becomming less viable. I just hate everything being in one box or on one HD. HDs can fail, NAS boxes can short out and destroy arrays, or get stolen or fire/water damaged (our DVD-RAMs are kept in a fire and water proof safe - a NAS won't fit in there ).

From reviews and cheap caddies I have owned, I have found USB is too slow for modern needs. Most only do around 12MB/sec. Thats ok for incremental backup, but no good for complete backups and disk imaging.

So I'm look at something that works over gigabit LAN. Uses a RAID1 array, high data throughput, good automation (power saving, automated backups etc.), and preferably in a case that has some sort of heat/ingress protection.

I'm still investigating solutions, but I have a feeling its going to be very expensive......:(

If it is going to be VERY expensive, feel free to talk to the nice chaps at Network Storage, Data Recovery, Information Management - EMC :)

Steve

Got 2 of them here at work .. better raid the piggy bank! I wangled myself on the trip to EMC in Cork to buy them.

Now that's what i call hospitality :D:D

Nice one Hanley :D this could be the one for me. £149 inc vat at PC World and in stock at my local branch too. :thumb:

Went to PC World today and the Netgear Stora comes with a single 1Tera hard drive installed, so if you want to have mirrored array you would have to spend another £80 or so for another drive which is hot swappable.

This greater storage actually works better for me.

So it holds 2 HDDs but comes with 1 1TB disk installed?

If so that's really good, another 1TB drive is fairly cheap and that gives you a 1TB mirror.

Job done.

:)

I'm off to pc world tomorrow to have a look. I'm a bit concerned about comments i have read regarding access to the filesystem.

Amazon.co.uk: A. Ryman's review of Netgear Stora 1TB Home Media Server - 2 Ba...

I've come accross the linkstation which looks pretty good. As i'm primarily using it to backup laptops, i'm not so worried about not having it mirrored. It will probably be host to divx movies, but they aren;t critical.

Buffalo LinkStation Live 1TB MultiMedia Network: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Sounds to me that's someone who doesn't know what he's doing.

Reviews of the Netgear sway heavily towards the positive, the Buffalo however, avoid it like the plague mate, I've read some horror reviews about performance and lack of support.

I researched Netgear thoroughly and have just spent £350 on one of their products, once I get home tonight I'll start setting it up.

:)

I know this is reviewing a slightly different Buffalo product but the comment seem fairly similar across the product range

Amazon Reviews

Serious problems with this drive

Yep. Exactly, and if you reserve on-line its £149 from £189
PC World - Stora

I spent a bit of time looking at the Stora section of the Netgear forum and there does seem as if there could be a few issues (as you would expect I suppose).

So I was doing some more searching and found this:

Netgear readynas duo 2000 + 2 x 1T hdd

£281inc + £12 del = £293
Ever dealt with the company (lowpricedhardware in Ireland)?

or here

Same from Amazon

£310 all in.

Does it seem a good buy?
Are the HDD any good (I think they're Samsung? DeskStar T7K1000.B - 2 x 1 TB - 7,200 RPM - 16 MB - SATA II )?


Any thoughts Mr hanley :D I know you've been digging into Netgear NAS stuff ;)

I think you can get the NAS box without drives for £152 and claim a free 500g HDD from ebuyer if 500g is enough.

Thanks

Mick

Scrub some of that :)

Readynas Duo rnd2110 (1T HDD) + free 1T HDD here £260 all in.

Transparent Communications Ltd - Home Page anybody dealt with them?

Looks good, I got the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ which is the 4 bay model.

Cost £356 but didn't come with any disks.

Also come with a 5 year warranty and there appears to be a very good support network / forum etc.

I've got a couple of hard drives which are on the HCL so I'll start setting it up with only 2 disks initially.

I've been in Reading all week and won't get home until around 9pm so I'll probably try and set it up tomorrow.

I'll let you know how it is

:)

Regarding the ReadyNAS Duo 2000, looks great but for a little extra spend (50-80 quid) you can get the 4-bay NV+ model.

:)

1T HDD are about £60 each so + £356 = £476 with 2 HDD

The readynas duo I linked to has 2 x 1T HDD included (I supplied and 1 free from Netgear) for £260 :)

Hmmm will have to read up on this. The Readynas Duo looks great (love the bit torrent client on it!) but far over my budget. The Stora one looks like it would be enough for my needs but I'll have to check on the problems people are having, or just give me time to justify the Readynas Duo to myself ;)

Cheers I'll have a read.

The more I think about it the more I like the idea of the Readynas (at least you don't have to pay for the 'premium' membership to get everything and that bit torrent client is a real advantage. Means I don't have to leave the PC on.

One quick question, would I be able to access the files via the standard windows explorer? i.e. file...open...nagivate to file or is access all through the web interface?

Yeah, thats what put me off, I hate hidden cost extras, and sods law its always something that would be handy :rolleyes:

I have a question :D

I have a Netgear DG834GT super G wireless router sat next to the main incoming phone socket. All pc's/laptops are connected wirelessly.

Would this be ok for either of the NAS options or would I need to upgrade that as well?

Something like the Netgear rangeMax N.

Just looking at this table here

Or am I talking bollox (again) :D

You'd obviously see better performance with an N router.

Thanks.. I've Decided on the Netgear Stora.

£120 now from amazon!!

Netgear Stora 1TB Home Media Server - 2 Bay Network: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Good shout

I've just finished setting up my ReadyNAS NV+ and what a cool product!!

I'm in the process of writing up a brief report on setup etc as I know a few people are interested, will post it up later.

:)

When you guys get it sorted; I have a question which I'd really love if someone could clairify.

The ReadyNas specs says the drive are hot swappable. Cool. But say if I had two drives (mirrored), and wanted to keep one drive in the firesafe overnight, but keep the NAS active. Would it work ok, or would it re-do a complete backup when the drive is put back into the NAS 12hours later? :wonder:

Surely if you break the mirror the single disk will still be written to and when you put the 2nd disk back in the mirror will enable again copying the missing data to the 2nd disk?

That's exactly what will happen.

The disk left in will continue to be accessible and writeable, when you plug the second disk back in the mirror will be re-established and any changes mirrored to disk 2.

I wouldn't recommend this on a nightly basis though.