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Looking to ease data needs for home use (NAS?)

D

dennismv

n00b
Joined
Jun 27, 2005
Messages
38
I am looking for NAS that will suit my data needs most.

My goals
(not all relating to NAS necessarily, but more so to my data needs overall, where I am hoping NAS will come in to help):
* store my extensive photo collection where users (me + roommate) can safely go through photos to edit, print, organize, sort, print, etc.
* throw backups and stuff on it, which will be easily found & accessible, as opposed to laying around on various un-attached hard drives around my house
* basically act as my and my roommates backup data house, instead of storing data meant to be archived on our personal machines
* Reuse my existing various hard drives of various sizes (or could by new for NAS)
* have NAS available even when my computer is turned off
* Ability to take backups off-site
* amount of data - I have terabytes and terabytes of data. Say maybe 12 - 16Tb currently laying around the house, some of it is duplicated, on various HDDs that I would like to consolidate
* Budget: $700-ish, can adjust as needed though

I also considered using and old machine to act as NAS, such as setting up a Linux/Windows server with several drives, but don't know if I want a hassle of setting up and maintaining a machine while learning the intricacies of making it available for various NAS tasks. It may be cheaper though as I already have some machines laying around the house as well... I think NAS may be easier overall as it's "that thing that sits in the corner and doesn't require much upkeep". Don't know, I welcome opinions on that regard.

Separate Consideration - safety of data due to my own actions
I don't know what could be done with a NAS, but I imagine it will be just like a storage on disk where I put stuff in, and take stuff out. I will have to exercise my own caution to not disturb any backups or modify/erase any photos. If there any cool thing I can do other than write-protect stuff, or warn the user (me or roommate) if I will do some irreversible stuff, I will be interested in hearing more on that.

More on "I don't know what could be done" -- I pretty much think I need NAS for data. I've heard some NAS do transcoding but I am not really sure what it is for, and hence don't see a need for why I would need or want something like that. So just storing data is fine, unless there is some awesome thing I may need that I don't know about..

Use Case
One option I can see is for me to get NAS and to get new HDDs for NAS, and reuse my existing older HDDs for off-site backups, once I empty old HDDs onto NAS, organize them, and dump organized data back to old HDD and take old HDDs off-site.

What would you recommend?
 
Are you wanting to also do online backup in case a drive dies?

If so, I would just get a separate computer, install Windows 7 or 8/8.1, add the storage you need, share out the drives, and then install either Carbonite or AltDrive (60 vs 45) per year for unlimited backup on a non-server version of Windows. Not sure about Linux.

I actually setup a small file server for a small business like this. It has been solid for the past couple years.
 
Thanks

so just so I get it,
* use a Windows-machine as NAS just as a network share
* use Carbonite/AltDrive in place of RAID-like functionality (in a sense that if a drive dies, I do disaster recovery from online backup)

If so, then yeah, I suppose that'll work and I won't need to spend money on NAS boxes. yuppiee

PS. online backup seems to meet my off-line backup needs while not having to physically carry data offsite myself. I presume it will take a long time, despite my fairly fast connection for say 10-12Tb..
 
I would recommend looking into FreeNAS if you are going to build a computer anyway. I don't currenlty use any of the online backup plugins but quick search shows support for at least Crashplan. This would allow you to have a NAS box without the overhead from Windows and also still have the capacity to backup to the cloud.
 
well I am still thinking about it.

I was not planning on building a computer for NAS, I just have spare parts laying around, and a lower-end computer (circa 2004) that I can use. I've read that FreeNAS requires minimum 8Gb or RAM to function properly, and 16Gb for sweet-spot performance. I don't have that.

Also read that using UFS requires 2Gb however and may be fine, but I have not read up on FreeNAS's relationship on UFS just yet, I assume UFS is part of FreeNAS somehow.

A computer that I may be using for this has maybe ... 2/4Gb max, and maybe that will suffice for UFS. Otherwise, if I do go on building a new computer for FreeNAS, I won't do that, as instead I will likely just go ahead and buy a NAS-ready product enclosure and avoid system-building and getting UFS into operating mode. Not sure if's even worth it, if I can't run FreeNAS anyway.

I think I am leaning more towards an enclosure, just because it may end up being more convenient for me despite the price tags.. Building my own UFS may end up being cheaper, but I think will take more time & manual reading and stuff for me to get it operating, and having a computer box being next to my work area may not look as cool as a cool-looking NAS enclosures out there...

For example, DiskStation DS412+ looks pretty good right now...
 
Crashplan runs on linux or windows. Maybe apple too, never used it on apple.

For the past two years there been excellent deals on black Friday and cyber Monday. As low as 2 buck for entire year unlimited storage!!!
 
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