Question Do I need a NAS, DAS, Server or just a PC?

im_stumped

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Feb 11, 2018
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Hello board - been a while.

I'd like to set up some central data storage on my home network. Nothing fancy. Just file storage that's accessible by other computers on the network. No streaming, or media playing or anything like that. And accessible only locally, not remotely.

I'd like this device to have two hard drives, with either Raid 1 or some form of automatic mirroring, as a first line of data security. I'll add a separate backup solution as well, but I don't want to get into that in this thread.

And I'd like the device to "conform" to my existing devices and knowledge. Which is to say, I have Windows PCs and laptops, running Windows 10, and with their hard drives formatted to NTFS. I don't want to have to learn a new operating system. Nor do I want to store my files in another format. If this storage device fails, I want to be able to just take a hard drive out, plug it into a PC and have my data.

To my mind, I just need another Windows 10 PC left permanently on and connected to the network. But that sounds way too simple - or maybe there are pitfalls that would make it way to complicated.

What do I need here?

Thanks.
 
You could but thats more than you need to spend and more complication that you need. a NAS is really all you need. you can make one, or buy one, it can be as complicated or as simple as you'd like.

For example a middle road between a cheap NAS and a PC would be:

https://smile.amazon.com/TS-231P-US...encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&ie=UTF8

You can RAID 1 drives in there, hot swap them, etc. One of our Mods uses a similar device and loves it. You do need to provide your own drives with that.

Simpler would be something like this:

https://smile.amazon.com/LinkStatio...&sprefix=buffalo+,electronics,269&sr=1-4&th=1

Or even more simple

https://smile.amazon.com/LinkStatio...&sprefix=buffalo+,electronics,269&sr=1-4&th=1
 
I used to use a regular low end PC for this.
Couple years ago, looking to upgrade/rebuild/make new...I also looked into the prebuilt NAS boxes. Qnap or Synology.

The Qnap won hands down over a typical PC. TS-453a, w/ 4x 4TB Seagate Ironwolf drives.
Rock solid 24/7 for 2.5 yrs, low power consumption, low noise, etc, etc.

All the Windows PC's in the house see it as just another mapped drive letter.

All files in normal Windows format.
The OS is 'different' (linux based). But still just point and click, mostly.
 
To accomplished this there are NAS operating systems some of them are free like Openmediavault.
If you do it in windows machine there will be problem in accessing those files because without a keyboards mouse you will not be able to do anything with storage PC
But if you use one of those NAS OS you don't need any I/O plugged in to that machine other than the Network cable. You can also use RAID so no need to worry about data.

Check this : https://www.tecmint.com/install-openmdediavault-nas-storage/
 
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It is as simple as plugging in another win10 pc and clicking share on some folder. I can't remember if you need pro or not.

I'd recommend something energy efficient. intel gen 6 onward is really good. If you're buying something new J4105 is low power and cheap. It's very limited on the number of drives it can use. LGA 1151 with a cheap cpu won't be too much more and have plenty of sata3. The 1 or 2 disk synology are cheap and pull very low power due to using arm chips + you don't have to pay for another windows license.

My J5005 NAS pulls 15-20W but it's also running 5 or so other lite servers for me. If you use an old pc that pulls 100W thats $100/yr in power. Buying new would be less expensive.

This costs about as much as win10 pro and it's fairly easy to use.
https://www.newegg.com/synology-ds2...ynology&cm_re=synology-_-22-108-688-_-Product
 
The Qnap won hands down over a typical PC. TS-453a, w/ 4x 4TB Seagate Ironwolf drives.
Rock solid 24/7 for 2.5 yrs, low power consumption, low noise, etc, etc.

All the Windows PC's in the house see it as just another mapped drive letter.

All files in normal Windows format.
The OS is 'different' (linux based). But still just point and click, mostly.

OK, I'd be totally cool with a commercial NAS that uses NTFS file format on the drives. But I thought they were all either EXT4 or BTRFS?
 
You could but thats more than you need to spend and more complication that you need.
Well, cost wise, I've worked it out and a refurb PC with Win10 pre-loaded ready for two NAS drives is about the same price as a new NAS these days.

Those are great examples, thanks. I suppose with their GUI, I don't need to care about their operating system - but can I have the drives formatted NTFS so if the box itself fails I can just pull a drive and plug into a Windows PC?
 
Well, cost wise, I've worked it out and a refurb PC with Win10 pre-loaded ready for two NAS drives is about the same price as a new NAS these days.

Those are great examples, thanks. I suppose with their GUI, I don't need to care about their operating system - but can I have the drives formatted NTFS so if the box itself fails I can just pull a drive and plug into a Windows PC?

No QNAP drives are formatted as EXT4 as far as I know. Really the only way to have them as NTFS is to build a Win 10 box like you described.

A cheap Win 10 PC is fine, its just that the disadvantages are numerous, size, power consumption, maintenance, remote management. All can be done but the QNAP is way slicker. And TBH I never ever hear of QNAP NAS boxes failing. Old refurb PCs do, but then to your point at least its NTFS. My point is I wouldn't base my buying decision off the possibility of the QNAP failing, the chances are supremely low, and much lower than that of a prebuilt PC.
 
Well, cost wise, I've worked it out and a refurb PC with Win10 pre-loaded ready for two NAS drives is about the same price as a new NAS these days.

Those are great examples, thanks. I suppose with their GUI, I don't need to care about their operating system - but can I have the drives formatted NTFS so if the box itself fails I can just pull a drive and plug into a Windows PC?
The stability and power consumption beats a Windows box.

As far as pulling a drive out and having it readable by a Windows box? Unknown, never tried it.
But why would you?

On mine, it is a RAID 5.
But the entirety of the NAS is also backed up to a USB connected 8TB drive. And that IS readable by any standard Windows box. Yes, I tested this.
 
OK, I'd be totally cool with a commercial NAS that uses NTFS file format on the drives. But I thought they were all either EXT4 or BTRFS?

Data recovery is normally done through backups. EXT4 is easily readable on any linux system and you can use a usb live OS. You might be able to read it on windows with the right tool.

I'd recommend using 1 disk in your NAS and the other on your desktop. You can backup to the desktop weekly and have the NAS on 24/7.
 
My procedure:

PC's back up to the NAS nightly, via Macrium Reflect.
The NAS backs itself up to a large external drive weekly.

 
Well everyone got me thinking, so I went and checked, and here, on the specs tab:

https://www.buffalotech.com/products/linkstation-200-series

Buffalo says: " The HDD default format is NTFS "

This is getting interesting.

Yes I have used Buffalo before (I suggested two of them above). A little less fancy than the QNAP but basically does the same thing and yes does NTFS. Buffalo IIRC you can't hot swap the drives, not sure if thats important to you (I mean you're not a business environment so you don't really need that), but otherwise it should totally serve your purpose.
 
Yes I have used Buffalo before (I suggested two of them above). A little less fancy than the QNAP but basically does the same thing and yes does NTFS. Buffalo IIRC you can't hot swap the drives, not sure if thats important to you (I mean you're not a business environment so you don't really need that), but otherwise it should totally serve your purpose.

Yes, it was those suggestions that got me looking further afield, thanks. Not fancy is what I'm looking for. And don't care about hot swapping. So this is pretty good.

Can't tell from their website whose drives they use, though. I was hoping to buy bare and use WD Reds.

Checked - QNAP is EXT4 only, as far as I can tell.
 
Yes, it was those suggestions that got me looking further afield, thanks. Not fancy is what I'm looking for. And don't care about hot swapping. So this is pretty good.

Can't tell from their website whose drives they use, though. I was hoping to buy bare and use WD Reds.

Checked - QNAP is EXT4 only, as far as I can tell.

If you really want to, look into Synology, I've never used them but they may have NTFS and you bring your own drives.

As for the drives in Buffalo, they are likely standard drives made by Seagate or WD to spec for buffalo, but considering the price compared to a QNAP and putting enterprise class drives, they are probably somewhat lower quality. That said I have used them before and have had nothing but good luck, so I wouldn't worry about the quality either.
 
But it really makes no difference. The Windows boxes see it as just another (mapped) drive letter. Files flow back and forth seamlessly.

Well, except when they don't - like the NAS itself fails. Reading says that doesn't happen often, but it happens. And if it does, I don't want to have to get into spinning up virtual Linux machines or depending on third party ext4-to-ntfs reading utilities. I want to be able to just pull the drive, put it in a clamshell, and usb to a PC and go. So Buffalo is top of the list right now.

Time to check WD's boxes.
 
There are plenty of people practically giving away old boat-anchor servers. I’ve been using a 2006 era Dell server for 6 years now. The backplane holds up to 8 SATA or SAS drives, I filled it with SAS in RAID 6. It runs UbuntuMATE 24/7 and has never had a failure. Has dual gigabit NICs, I have only use one and the server easily saturates my gigabit wired network.
 
Well, except when they don't - like the NAS itself fails. Reading says that doesn't happen often, but it happens. And if it does, I don't want to have to get into spinning up virtual Linux machines or depending on third party ext4-to-ntfs reading utilities. I want to be able to just pull the drive, put it in a clamshell, and usb to a PC and go. So Buffalo is top of the list right now.

Time to check WD's boxes.
I use Synology, never had any issues, then use Glacier to back it up off site to AWS. If you are worried about anything failing at least take an off site backup, you only really pay to download your data after a failure anyway. I wouldn't get stuck in the mud over file system, certainly wouldn't be my prime concern for choosing one solution over another.
 
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There are plenty of people practically giving away old boat-anchor servers. I’ve been using a 2006 era Dell server for 6 years now. The backplane holds up to 8 SATA or SAS drives, I filled it with SAS in RAID 6. It runs UbuntuMATE 24/7 and has never had a failure. Has dual gigabit NICs, I have only use one and the server easily saturates my gigabit wired network.

While this seems like a good solution, most of these take down a significant amount of power, and on top of that if you don't have a closet to bury it in, sound like you're living with an F-16 in your room.