NAS Recomendation

kalimai

I have a 500gb seagate which is now full so I'm purchasing a 1.5TB samsung. I would like to buy a NAS enclosure which I can plug both drives in and access and use both drives. I've been researching on the web, but the Netgear appears to use the 2nd drive as a back up and I'm not sure if this is the case for all NAS enclosures.

Can anyone recommend a NAS for home use that I can plug into my wireless router and access either hard drive on any of the laptops round the house? I want something simple to use, very much just plug in and go. I have no idea what a RAID is, what I'd do with it, or any of the other technical terms thrown about in the reviews I've read. Naturally I'm also not looking to spend a fortune, I have about £180 saved up for this, but would appreciate not spending it all if I don't have to!

gaming_guy

RAID 1 (which can be found on most NAS drives) basically duplicates the contents on one disk to another ('mirroring') and provides a safeguard against disk failure and data loss.

I can't help much more apart from that i'm looking at getting a netgear nas for my network

kalimai

Thanks for explaining the RAID, that is exactly what I don't want to do! I want to be able to use both drives for external storage and to access them both at once.

I've been looking at the Synology DS-109, the Thecus N2200 and the QNAP TS-210 but if a dual drive is just an additonal back up then there is no point in any of them. :undecided

diable

Buffalo...

busenbust

Take a look at the Iomega NAS appliances too

John_Gray

The whole point of NAS is (some) data security because the data is held redundantly.

RAID-1 uses two identical drives, and the data is mirrored between them, so the capacity is only that of one drive.

RAID-5 uses between 3 to n identical drives in a complicated way, and the capacity is n-1 drives-worth of data. (Unless you include a hot spare).

It looks like all you want is a couple of USB external drive enclosures in which to put the drives you already have.

But do think about backup....

busenbust

busenbust wrote: »

Take a look at the Iomega NAS appliances too

Backup - failure to back up.

BikerEd

This 1TB Iomega drive is a nice piece of kit and it costs just £69.99. It has a USB port so you can connect an additional USB drive for additional storage if you want to. Be sure to install the latest firmware as an updgrade has been released recently.

http://www.misco.co.uk/content/EMAILARCHIVE/BC20100227.HTM?bp=1

busenbust

Some external drive recommendations here, with inter-related threads

BikerEd

busenbust wrote: »

Some external drive recommendations here, with inter-related threads

But those aren't NAS drives.

busenbust

BikerEd wrote: »

But those aren't NAS drives.

I didn't say they were