I have one NAS with all my music stored in the house. It is a Netgear Ultra and may be 10 years old. It is getting hard to access it from Chrome etc due to software permissions etc. It is also getting noisy.
If I change the device would you be getting new HDDs too (it has two for mirrored storage) Would you just swap the old drives into an empty NAS device shell?
Is there anything I should look for with a new device? Brands etc. This one is only used for music storage, I’m not sure it has to be too complex in terms of functionality.
I can see Synology devices with 4-6TB for ÂŁ260-ÂŁ320
I’m sure the permissions issue can be resolved but if it’s getting noisy and you want a new one so be it
Personally if the drives are 10 years old I would be tempted to get new ones myself, that’s not to say the existing ones will fail anytime soon but at least you will have some comfort that new ones are good (hopefully) and it can be built while the other one continues to run.
If it’s just for music storage then you don’t need anything with super power or complex setup. Synology and QNAP are the two brands that come up regularly with WD or Seagate drives (look for NAS recommended drives)
Most come with a built in UPnP Server but not the best. You should look for Asset or Minimserver which are both supported on Synology and QNAP
I would suggest a two-drive Synology Box with a brace of Western Digital Red Plus drives (mirrored), which by an amazing coincidence is just what I have done replacing a pair of ten year old WD blues, when one of them became “degraded”.
There is, of course an argument that runs along the lines of “two mirrored HDD in a single NAS is not as secure as two single HDD in separate NAS boxes, with an appropriate backup regime implemented”, because if the NAS unit itself goes “belly up”, then both mirrored drives may be trashed.
There is a further argument that goes along the the lines of your backup should be located not in your domicile, in case it burns down.
I’m actively looking at replacing my 10 year old single bay Qnap NAS. The DS120j was something I was considering, but I’m a little concerned that it’s a 2020 model; it will probably become obsolete 2 years before a 2022 model. I presume the DS118 is a 2018 model, so obsolete 4 years before a 2022 model.
There aren’t any suitable 2022 models on the market yet, but I’ll waiting until there are.
I’ve wondered what the point of having 2 bays is if the second is not really a back up. I have multiple back ups on different external hard drives as it is.
Raid-1 is good for availability; but it totally does not replace taking (multiple) backups. (It „only“ protects against a failed drive, not any other way to loose data.)
It’s essentially the question, if you want to invest into a 2nd drive (and the power to drive it for years) vs. the inconvenience/effort+time for restoring the NAS and a backup of your content, if a single drive dies.
The answer is personal; for a business hours of downtime (while restoring; or even days, if you first need to purchase a new disk to restore to) can be so expensive, running a Raid is total economic sense. For your personal use, it’s matter of taste.
You’ll have to reformat the drives and restore the data; especially on a model from a different vendor. But referring to your backups, I understand you know that.
Otherwise - it’s a good opportunity for new drives, since you’ll get the opportunity to refresh them without „extra effort“. (Effort optimization. You’ll anyway copy the whole data. Apart from the effort for purchase. And you control, when to take the effort without „downtime“.)
After 10 years, you can easily justify this; unlikely he old drives run another 10. Then again, brand new drives have a certain (initial) chance to fails as well, and if it’s Raid, you could run them, until the first one breaks and then replace both. With your backups in place, that should be a save route as well. (Investment optimization.)
That’s what I have and it’s worked without a hitch since I’ve owned it. I also have the QNAP hooked up to a Furman 1000 UPS to keep it running uninterrupted. I still don’t really understand if having 2 bays makes any difference though.
