[SOLVED] NAS with a non-proprietary file system

[Mixsim]

Can anybody recommend a NAS with a non-proprietary file system? Other parameters are almost irrelevant.
Trying to convince me to use anything with a proprietary file system is like asking a victim of violent crime to walk down a dark alley.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[kanewolf]

Do you consider EXT4, and BTRFS proprietary? Those two file systems are supported by most commercial NAS units.
Once you add RAID of some kind, it is a much more murky discussion.

 

[Mixsim]

EXT4 (I have not come across BTRFS) along with Microsoft systems should be O.K., but which commercial NAS units support them?
I was bitten in the past by a NAS which lost all of my data and a lot of money. At the moment I back up to CDs every few days - All I need is something better without relying on hardware.
My wish is to have a single bay NAS for backups, clones of main disks on my PCs and perhaps a little cloud storage (and my old CDs)

Mike

 

[kanewolf]

Synology, QNAP, Thecus, Asustor all allow internal disks to be EXT4. Commercial NAS will almost always be a Linux file system. USB drives can be NTFS formatted. But a single copy of any important data is a formula for disaster. Three copies, one of which is off-line and/or off-site is the recommendation for important data.

 

[fzabkar]

I was bitten in the past by a NAS which lost all of my data and a lot of money.

Which one was that?

 

[Mixsim]

Thanks kanewolf. I will try first with a second hand Synology DS110j that I have acquired. I understand that it does support EXT4. Once I am happy that I have begun to understand what I am doing I will see whether to use a RAID setup for redundancy or some other method - including occasional CD backups.

@fzabkar The NAS that failed was a Netgear (SC101?) Despite a lot of looking I never did find any info on how to get the files off the HDs.

Mike

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks kanewolf. I will try first with a second hand Synology DS110j that I have acquired. I understand that it does support EXT4. Once I am happy that I have begun to understand what I am doing I will see whether to use a RAID setup for redundancy or some other method - including occasional CD backups.

@fzabkar The NAS that failed was a Netgear (SC101?) Despite a lot of looking I never did find any info on how to get the files off the HDs.

Mike

A DS110j doesn't support RAID since it is a single disk unit. You would have to get a DS2xx or DS4xx, etc to get RAID.

 

[Mixsim]

I realise that, but I am starting with about stone-cold zero knowledge of backing up my data beyond what I have been doing - using a vast number of CDs. I will invest in something - possibly a 4 or 5 bay RAID array but only when I know what will fit with my way of working and give acceptable security against data loss.

Mike

 

[fzabkar]

@fzabkar The NAS that failed was a Netgear (SC101?) Despite a lot of looking I never did find any info on how to get the files off the HDs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-SAN

This patent has a data recovery solution (yikes):

https://patents.google.com/patent/CN104156283A/en

 

[Mixsim]

Taking a quick search on Google, I find that my experience was not unique. Fortunately, that was quite a few years ago and I can now look back with just the occasional shudder.

The trauma left me with the realisation that, even if 99.9% of all of my data was of no further interest, the remainder was life, death, breakfast and folding money.

 

[kanewolf]

The trauma left me with the realisation that, even if 99.9% of all of my data was of no further interest, the remainder was life, death, breakfast and folding money.

That data needs three copies, one of which is off-site to protect against fire/flood/theft.
A DS110j is pretty old (the last two digits identify the year that model was released -- that is a 2010 model). Unfortunately Synology stops updating the firmaware after 5 to 7 years. So all the applications you see on the Synology website for cloud storage sync may not be available to you.