NAS Recommendations for Back up
Again I need to learn from the Epz massive...
After my data loss disaster a few weeks ago I have been looking into back up solutions. My current thoughts are to buy a 4-bay NAS enclosure with two 4 or 6 TB NAS drives. This will be my primary image file store and it will be configured using RAID 1. I want the 2 additional bays for future expansion assuming this will allow me to configure the storage as Bay 1 and Bay 2 (RAID 1), and Bay 3 and Bay 4 (RAID 1) - albeit I not sure if this is possible. I'm also thinking the extra bays will be useful for cloning the drive to keep a HDD clone "off site".
So to my questions:
1. Can I configure a 4 Bay NAS storage in the way described or would I be better buying a 2 bay NAS and adding a second if I need it later? If I did go with the 2 bay option how would I go about cloning a drive to keep off site?
2. Can anyone recommend a 4 bay NAS that is good, but won't break the bank? Currently I am looking at this one. However, the reviews on TechRadar aren't great.
After my data loss disaster a few weeks ago I have been looking into back up solutions. My current thoughts are to buy a 4-bay NAS enclosure with two 4 or 6 TB NAS drives. This will be my primary image file store and it will be configured using RAID 1. I want the 2 additional bays for future expansion assuming this will allow me to configure the storage as Bay 1 and Bay 2 (RAID 1), and Bay 3 and Bay 4 (RAID 1) - albeit I not sure if this is possible. I'm also thinking the extra bays will be useful for cloning the drive to keep a HDD clone "off site".
So to my questions:
1. Can I configure a 4 Bay NAS storage in the way described or would I be better buying a 2 bay NAS and adding a second if I need it later? If I did go with the 2 bay option how would I go about cloning a drive to keep off site?
2. Can anyone recommend a 4 bay NAS that is good, but won't break the bank? Currently I am looking at this one. However, the reviews on TechRadar aren't great.
I have a NAS from Synology which I am very happy with. Used it for about 2 years now. It was best in test or #2 in all reviews I read before committing myself.
I have a 2 bay option, where bay 1 is a back-up of all my photos and bay 2 is a substitute for the Time Machine I had before - in other words, it takes a complete system/harddisk back-up every 4 hours.
The back-up bay 1 is also configured to automatically back-up to my cloud storage any time a change is made, be it adding images, deleting, adding new keywords to an existing image, etc. The app which makes the NAS accessible from where ever you are with wifi access works very well, too.
Not the cheapest on the market, but very reliable so far.
I have a 2 bay option, where bay 1 is a back-up of all my photos and bay 2 is a substitute for the Time Machine I had before - in other words, it takes a complete system/harddisk back-up every 4 hours.
The back-up bay 1 is also configured to automatically back-up to my cloud storage any time a change is made, be it adding images, deleting, adding new keywords to an existing image, etc. The app which makes the NAS accessible from where ever you are with wifi access works very well, too.
Not the cheapest on the market, but very reliable so far.
QNAP
I use the QNAP system and it has been excellent for me.
You will need to cost in for 2 drives that are NAS suitable
NAS Drives
Whilst any similar SATA hard disk will work, it is best to use the stronger drives, which aren't that much more expensive. Remember too that RAID will give you a total disk size that you might not be expecting i.e. 2 x 6GB = 6GB. The RAID system allows for redundancy if one drive fails, you put in a similar one (same size) and RAID will rebuild.
This is definitely the way to go.......and it keeps everything (all of your photographs) under your control
Cloud storage is an option too, but you to keep paying the subscription for their services.
Hope this helps
Pat
Oh, yes the reviews for QNAP are good too
I use the QNAP system and it has been excellent for me.
You will need to cost in for 2 drives that are NAS suitable
NAS Drives
Whilst any similar SATA hard disk will work, it is best to use the stronger drives, which aren't that much more expensive. Remember too that RAID will give you a total disk size that you might not be expecting i.e. 2 x 6GB = 6GB. The RAID system allows for redundancy if one drive fails, you put in a similar one (same size) and RAID will rebuild.
This is definitely the way to go.......and it keeps everything (all of your photographs) under your control
Cloud storage is an option too, but you to keep paying the subscription for their services.
Hope this helps
Pat
Oh, yes the reviews for QNAP are good too
Which models did you purchase?
Malc: do you use the the cloud staorage that came with the drive or pay for a subscription service.
Pat: is the model you have the one linked to. I thought this was an expansion and not a NAS in of itself. They look good, but at over £300 it’s more than i’d like to pay.
Malc: do you use the the cloud staorage that came with the drive or pay for a subscription service.
Pat: is the model you have the one linked to. I thought this was an expansion and not a NAS in of itself. They look good, but at over £300 it’s more than i’d like to pay.
My model is:
DS218J
I use a Norwegian (though available internationally) subscription service called Jottacloud I had that before I had the drive.
DS218J
I use a Norwegian (though available internationally) subscription service called Jottacloud I had that before I had the drive.
I have a Western Digital My Cloud EX4. This has 4 slots but I have a 3T in 3 of them with the 4th for expansion sometime. I use Raid 5 so get 6Tbytes of usable storage and will lose no data if one drive developed a fault. At this time I back up 3 computers on the network. I use Acronis to capture an image of the C: drives on each PC in case of a serious problem but use BullGuard to back up data selectively as required; all of this is automatic so I can just forget it is there. On the odd occasions I have need to revert to a backup, it has been there.
Dave.
Dave.
Quote:
Cloud storage is an option too, but you to keep paying the subscription for their services.
BT & Lightroom offer a few TB of free storage as part of the subscription.
A weakness of cloud is the significant time it takes to upload or download a TB of data.
QNAP TS-431P
This is the model that I chose some 3 years ago. As mentioned in my earlier post you need to add Disk Drives. Yes this way does end up being a bit on the expensive side, but everything is then under your control. The other option to upload to the cloud would take a long time. Upload speeds are always slow
My own pictures folder totals 2.96TB and some 90k images. (Not all good, but I try not to delete!)
Another option for you needs a little more of a strict procedure from you.
By that I mean, buy two large portable hard drives each big enough to cater for your images for now and the foreseeable future.
Process: Put all of your images onto one of the drives. This drive will be the one pointing to Adobe Bridge, or your Lightroom catalogue or what ever workflow you use. This will change as you add images, but also on a regular basis if you allow the use of XMP files.
Then on regular basis to suit you use a program such as Second Copy to copy the contents to the second hard drive. You will then have two drives in identical configuration. A program such as Second Copy will calculate what changes have occurred and bring both disks into balance.
Decisions have to be evaluated on what is within budget and the way you work, but hopefully the above will give you some choice to mull over.
Pat
This is the model that I chose some 3 years ago. As mentioned in my earlier post you need to add Disk Drives. Yes this way does end up being a bit on the expensive side, but everything is then under your control. The other option to upload to the cloud would take a long time. Upload speeds are always slow
My own pictures folder totals 2.96TB and some 90k images. (Not all good, but I try not to delete!)
Another option for you needs a little more of a strict procedure from you.
By that I mean, buy two large portable hard drives each big enough to cater for your images for now and the foreseeable future.
Process: Put all of your images onto one of the drives. This drive will be the one pointing to Adobe Bridge, or your Lightroom catalogue or what ever workflow you use. This will change as you add images, but also on a regular basis if you allow the use of XMP files.
Then on regular basis to suit you use a program such as Second Copy to copy the contents to the second hard drive. You will then have two drives in identical configuration. A program such as Second Copy will calculate what changes have occurred and bring both disks into balance.
Decisions have to be evaluated on what is within budget and the way you work, but hopefully the above will give you some choice to mull over.
Pat
We are currently looking at NAS drives to store my photos and documents. Can anyone direct me to any good articles about which to buy and using them? I'm not very tech savvy and finding it a bit overwhelming! I would like automatic back up so i can just forget its there.https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085QJH5PR?tag=track-ect5-uk-53371-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&ascsubtag=ecSEP1yhyrofukxrnb8ra
This is the one we are looking at.
Erica
This is the one we are looking at.
Erica
Quote:We are currently looking at NAS drives to store my photos and documents. Can anyone direct me to any good articles about which to buy and using them? I'm not very tech savvy and finding it a bit overwhelming! I would like automatic back up so i can just forget its there.https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085QJH5PR?tag=track-ect5-uk-53371-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&ascsubtag=ecSEP1yhyrofukxrnb8ra
This is the one we are looking at.
Erica
I've been using a Synology ds220j for the past 2-3 years - hac never missed a beat and has been very reliable and easy to set up and use.
Thank you is the automatic backup easy to set up?
Quote:Thank you is the automatic backup easy to set up?
As far as I remember, it was very simple (it is a while since I set it up, but if I can do it....
)
Thank you so much!!
I had an external HDD crash about 3 years ago - irretrievably.
Luckily most of what was on there was backed up to my personal (and paid for) cloud space as well. However...... I did lose RAW images and original video clips. What was on the cloud was JPEGs and the finished videos. The latter being on personal (free) YouTube channels.
When something like this happens it forces you to think in terms of what actually does matter?
Some images, mainly of people rather than things or scenes, may be worthy of multiple back up, eg an SSD, cloud and locked memory cards. Don't rely on any one thing,or device whatever it may be. Spread it around.
Luckily most of what was on there was backed up to my personal (and paid for) cloud space as well. However...... I did lose RAW images and original video clips. What was on the cloud was JPEGs and the finished videos. The latter being on personal (free) YouTube channels.
When something like this happens it forces you to think in terms of what actually does matter?
Some images, mainly of people rather than things or scenes, may be worthy of multiple back up, eg an SSD, cloud and locked memory cards. Don't rely on any one thing,or device whatever it may be. Spread it around.
Quote:I had an external HDD crash about 3 years ago - irretrievably.
Luckily most of what was on there was backed up to my personal (and paid for) cloud space as well. However...... I did lose RAW images and original video clips. What was on the cloud was JPEGs and the finished videos. The latter being on personal (free) YouTube channels.
When something like this happens it forces you to think in terms of what actually does matter?
Some images, mainly of people rather than things or scenes, may be worthy of multiple back up, eg an SSD, cloud and locked memory cards. Don't rely on any one thing,or device whatever it may be. Spread it around.
I tend to print important (normally family) images out and put into an album, I have also started creatin photobooks for events (weddings, holidays etc.)
