RAID NAS for home use

[hairyhippy]

We have too much stuff. Pictures, music, films etc.

I would like to set up a NAS with a couple of discs to store all of this in duplicate, so that we can all share.

The kit that is available is daunting. Does anyone have any personal recommendations for this?

It would be nice if we could stream to our dumb tv, but it's not a deal breaker.

TIA.

[Sea of vapours]

The two disk Synology NAS devices are, in my experience, reliable, easy to set up and not especially expensive.

[sizbut]

  Thumbs up for Synology too. Reliable and have a whole range of features other than just simple file storage.

The Photo Manager app is great, basically your own personal Flickr.

RAID is a 'must have' regardless of your choice. I have had a disk fail - with accompanying panic. Few days later, plugged in the replacement and it was all no fuss - everything on the surviving disk simply replicated to the new disk.

[freeflow]

If you have a spare/older PC lying around take a look at Nas4Free (No cost apart from any additional bits you need and a couple of hours for installation and setup.)


Raid in a NAS makes for more robust access to data BUT it is not a replacement for a proper backup.


Commercial NAS intended for home use can be disappointing slow and difficult to add features to.

[Morat]

Another vote for Synology here. I use some of their 5 bay jobs at work. I had some Buffalo ones but I now officially won't buy any more after dealing with their "support" creatures.

[Afasoas]

Again I vote for Synology, but don't forget you need regular off-line backups.

Buffalo/Netgear NAS IME aren't very good.