Looking for NAS help, can't find answers on web

[PBzeer 6]

I know a lot of you, probably most, use a NAS. I finally got a landline, so I could set up a proper network and now I'm looking into setting up a NAS. Either I'm not using the right query, or the info isn't out there for what I'm trying to find out, so I thought maybe someone here might have an answer.

 

Basically, I"m trying to find out if in a 4 bay NAS, I can have two disks as one volume and the other two as a mirror (RAID 1). As in two 3TB to equal 6TB. Or would it be better to just go with a two 6TB unit?

 

I'm unfamiliar (as in know next to nothing) about RAID, so I'm not really sure what's possible.

 

Thanks for any help.

[AdrianW 1052]

With a 4 bay NAS it's best to use RAID 5 which means with four 3TB drives you'll end up with 9TB of usable space.

 

You'll be safe if any one of the four drives dies, just replace the faulty drive and the NAS will rebuild the array.

[Vidman 589]

I've just been reading up on unraid 6, seems like a nice solution for a NAS/server setup... With its raid setup one drive is used for parity and you can mix and match and add drives for storage so long as the parity drive has the largest capacity

BTW personally I have a freenas server setup which seems less flexible from what I've read today

 

 

What you decide depends on you priorities/reasons and budget. ie is it just to serve media ? Or to store more critical info also?

Edited July 4, 2015 by Vidman

[JeremyFr79 228]

With a 4 bay NAS it's best to use RAID 5 which means with four 3TB drives you'll end up with 9TB of usable space.

 

You'll be safe if any one of the four drives dies, just replace the faulty drive and the NAS will rebuild the array.

RAID 5 is the last thing you want to use with drives that large, your chances of another drive dying before it's done rebuilding from 1 failure are extremely high thus leading you to absolute loss of data.

[AdrianW 1052]

RAID 5 is the last thing you want to use with drives that large, your chances of another drive dying before it's done rebuilding from 1 failure are extremely high thus leading you to absolute loss of data.

 

I'd suggest RAID 6 in a six or eight bay - but in a four bay device, RAID 5 is the only sensible choice.

[PBzeer 6]

The main reason I'm looking at a multi-bay NAS is to mirror. I currently have a one disk WD My Cloud 6TB (NAS), that I've moved everything from my current external drives to. So right now, I have two copies (and more of some of it). I can get a 6TB external to back that up manually, much cheaper than I can buy a two or four bay NAS. So I'm basically trying to determine if a larger NAS is worth the cost.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

The main reason I'm looking at a multi-bay NAS is to mirror. I currently have a one disk WD My Cloud 6TB (NAS), that I've moved everything from my current external drives to. So right now, I have two copies (and more of some of it). I can get a 6TB external to back that up manually, much cheaper than I can buy a two or four bay NAS. So I'm basically trying to determine if a larger NAS is worth the cost.

 

If the goal is backup, external drives will be more effective and likely cheaper but a tiny bit of effort to manage.

 

Of you're ripping your own discs then stick to offline forms of backup.  Reripping, especially TV discs, is a hassle and should be avoided.  The slower pace of acquisition means that manual backup isn't any real work at all.  It takes me about two minutes a week to backup half a dozen of my own discs.

 

If you're downloading your movies go with RAID.   If you're downloading the files can come in pretty fast and are easy enough to replace so offline backup would be more work and less valuable.

[JeremyFr79 228]

I'd suggest RAID 6 in a six or eight bay - but in a four bay device, RAID 5 is the only sensible choice.

RAID 5/6 are useless with today's drive sizes for data protection.  RAID 10 would be best with 4 large drives if you're worried about data loss and even that's iffy.