NASs - The Bear and Badger

Elmlea

I was going to add this to the tech thread or something but figured I may as well start my own thread.

I currently have a single USB2 external 1TB HD plugged into my iMac. Â It's split into a couple of partitions, one for Time Machine backups and the other to dump everything I don't tend to keep on my normal HD, like downloaded movies and TV shows and the suchlike. Â The music and iTunes stuff, photos etc all stays on the main HD so it's caught by the backups.

The MacBook tries its best, but backing up wirelessly to a USB drive on another computer seems a bit prone to random failure, and it's annoying having to leave the iMac on permanently as a media server.

I thought I'd look at getting some sort of NAS. Â A big enough HD for all my random storage, old installers, movies, etc etc, plus the iTunes music and iPhoto photos, and a second HD it big enough to handle backups from that first HD, the iMac, and the MacBook. Â For bonus marks I thought I'd try and get one that has a BitTorrent client built in, but more importantly can act as a DNLA server to push all the media (video/photo/music) to everything else. Â That means I only need the iMac on for Airplay stuff via iTunes.

Can anyone recommend such a thing, plus HDs to go in it?

beano

A NAS can be pretty expensive to set up. Ir do you want to raid? You could consider a pogo clound. Tweet Freethinker, he uses one. But doesn't use it to back up to the cloud just as DNLA AFAIK. You could get a raspberry pi, fat SD card and latest Raspian withÂ TransmissionÂ for torrents powered from your TVs USB. (If it has one.)

Sasukekun

Was talking to a guy at work about these, he got his for Â£133, it currently retails at Â£159.99.
A good idea, but I'd really need some real disposable income to make this even nearly viable.

Elmlea

beano wrote:

A NAS can be pretty expensive to set up. Ir do you want to raid? You could consider a pogo clound. Tweet Freethinker, he uses one. But doesn't use it to back up to the cloud just as DNLA AFAIK. You could get a raspberry pi, fat SD card and latest Raspian withÂ TransmissionÂ for torrents powered from your TVs USB. (If it has one.)

I understood none of that. Â I don't think I want RAID, just media server functionality and a couple of HDs, one for backups.

Might get a Time Capsule for backups, and just a single-drive NAS, as long as it can be backed up by the Time Capsule...?

beano

A NAS enclosure sounds overkill.

Check that pogo plug I linked to and see the features. Top of the range one is going cheapÂ http://www.buy.com/prod/227013327.htmlÂ it'll do everything you want network attached storage for by utilising an existing 2.5" sata drive of your choosing and canÂ accommodateÂ 2 USB drives and an SDcard reader. Accessible via iPoo & DNLA and over the internet.

Presuming you mean time capsule to back up to another drive- then you can do the same here and backup from any of the storage devices attached to the pogo, USB, SATA & SD.

Additionally there is cloud backup functionality for all your data.

g.man

I have no idea what anything in this thread means.

nope

g.man

beano

Try harder man.

RamSteelwood

that pogoplug thing looks pretty cool. Â however can someone explain to me the difference with their 'family backup' option? Â it looks to me exactly the same as buying the standalone box, except that you pay $20 a year (forever i guess) instead of $50 one off for a box....

beano

With the bogo one, which is the only one currently available in the UK you get 5GB of cloud free and have to pay the annual fee for unlimited. With the series 4 you have unlimited cloud with the hardware. IIRC.

edit: wot id made sense.

M0stly harm13ss

Elm, I've got one of these attached to my wireless router. Is this what your looking for?

http://go.iomega.com/en/products/network-storage-desktop/home-network-hard-drives/home-media-cloud/#overviewItem_tabÂ

It has my iTunes library (and another music library on it) which is picked up and used by my Sonos music system (which is brilliant btw) and a photo and movies library which streams to my PS3.

RamSteelwood

beano wrote:

With the bogo one, which is the only one currently available in the UK you get 5GB of cloud free and have to pay the annual fee for unlimited. With the series 4 you have unlimited cloud with the hardware. IIRC. edit: wot id made sense.

i see, ta. Â i read the 'unlimited storage' bit as relating to 'keep adding more storage to your box'...

Elmlea

beano wrote:

A NAS enclosure sounds overkill. Check that pogo plug I linked to and see the features. Top of the range one is going cheapÂ http://www.buy.com/prod/227013327.htmlÂ it'll do everything you want network attached storage for by utilising an existing 2.5" sata drive of your choosing and canÂ accommodateÂ 2 USB drives and an SDcard reader. Accessible via iPoo & DNLA and over the internet. Presuming you mean time capsule to back up to another drive- then you can do the same here and backup from any of the storage devices attached to the pogo, USB, SATA & SD. Additionally there is cloud backup functionality for all your data.

Ok, it's something I'd never heard of, but if it does DNLA and it'll let me back up to one of its drives, that's ideal.

For the backups, I want to be able to have a large drive in the Pogo, and then a second drive containing media plugged into it by USB. Â I want the main drive to be used to back up all the computers, plus the second drive its directly attached to, if you see what I mean.

Only thing I'm worried about is that subsequent drives have to be USB again, rather than being built in to the box. Â Is there a Pogo that takes 2 drives?

Elmlea

M0stly harm13ss wrote:

Elm, I've got one of these attached to my wireless router. Is this what your looking for? http://go.iomega.com/en/products/network-storage-desktop/home-network-hard-drives/home-media-cloud/#overviewItem_tabÂ It has my iTunes library (and another music library on it) which is picked up and used by my Sonos music system (which is brilliant btw) and a photo and movies library which streams to my PS3.

Yes, that's sort of what I imagined; but again, with a second hard drive to do network backups. Â As well as backing up the iMac and MacBook, if I move my music and photos onto a networked drive like that, I want a way to back them up to another drive too, just in case.

My idea solution is iMac/MacBook/media server all able to talk to each other, and a separate 3TB drive backing up all of them. Â I had presumed I'd need a proper NAS so I could have 2 drives in it, one to fulfil the media server side of things and the other to be the backup destination.

I don't know if I can do it by having an actual Apple Time Capsule plugged into the network and acting as my router, with the Pogo/Iomega thing plugged into it?

Escape

g.man wrote:

I have no idea what anything in this thread means.

Autistic rapping boxers.

beano

Not that I have seen ELm- just the one with the single 2.5 sata connector.

M0stly harm13ss

Elm, yes you can chain the Time Capsule and a single drive NAS by the looks of it. A twin drive NAS wouldn't operate the way you describe, the two drives would be mirrored in a RAID config.

Escape

You can chain the Time Capsule, G!

RLLMUK's our Biff.

M0stly harm13ss

Actually, question: Why do you want to use it as you describe (i.e. oneÂ drive for backups, one drive for media)? That doesn't really make sense.

Elmlea

M0stly harm13ss wrote:

Actually, question: Why do you want to use it as you describe (i.e. oneÂ drive for backups, one drive for media)? That doesn't really make sense.

I want a drive to hold media on that isn't tied to a computer, so I can serve up iTunes stuff/photos/videos to wherever I like. Â And I'd like to be able to continue backing up wirelessly without needing one of the computers to be on.

I'd like the media drive backed up as well so I don't lose my photos.

M0stly harm13ss

Elmlea wrote:

I want a drive to hold media on that isn't tied to a computer, so I can serve up iTunes stuff/photos/videos to wherever I like. Â And I'd like to be able to continue backing up wirelessly without needing one of the computers to be on. I'd like the media drive backed up as well so I don't lose my photos.

Ah OK, you've now gone past my limited experience!

For 1) You need a NAS or an external hard drive with DNLA and bittorrent capabilities.
For 2) To back up the iPad and iPhones, etc wirelessly without using the Macs, you need a time capsule
For 3) Errrr, I don't think the Time Capsule backs up NAS'....you're back to needing a RAID NAS system.

beano

Indeed. However the RAID will back up everything and lose vital capacity for backing up things Elm doesn't want persisting for eternity I suspect. Back to; NAS is overkill. You could get a wireless NAS but if you didn't raid it you'd have to get another drive which you schedule or manually plan backups to.

In a perfect world you'd have a 5TB RAID and not worry about space and what you back up as it would seem like you hardly had any.

Elmlea

I guess that'd work nicely.

beano

See anything you like?

Elmlea

beano wrote:

See anything you like?

Yikes! Â I think I might reign in that idea.

beano

Nicer

Sleeker, not much more $

Robust

RamSteelwood

not sure if it has been specifically mentioned or dismissed, but have you considered getting a separate 'media' device for in the home for sharing stuff, and then an 'online cloud' backup solution for your devices? Â you could then set the 'media device' to backup back to your pc when it's on, but exclude that data from the online backup (since it's likely to be huge and thus expensive).

no doubt it's a more expensive solution long term cos of the 'cloud' rental, but if it's a modest monthly fee then it might be palatable.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories