UKC

I'm planning to get an NAS store, mainly for photos and GoPro videos but maybe also some music too.  I'm thinking a couple of drives to provide mutual backup, maybe 1 TB to 2 TB.  The store will be connected by Ethernet to my router so I can access it wireless from various laptops, and possibly later by Ethernet connection to a HiFi streamer There seem to be a lot of options out there with wide price ranges.  Can anyone recommend a manufacturer, supplier and price point?

Thanks

The two best options are Synology and Qnap.

The hard part is choosing how much storage you need. My advice would be pick a size you think is good and then multiply by 3.

I am a fan of Synology. I had a two Bay box for years and have just bought a 4 Bay box for extra space. I went from 8Tb of storage to 23Tb of storage with redundency of one damaged drive.

Check your router; some have a USB socket which can network share an external hard drive.  If so you just need a 2 TB portable disk which is about £50.

First, check your router; it may have a usb port that can convert a usb HDD into a file and media server.

The other issue with redundant drives is whether you really need them; they're really intended for storage with a lot of dynamic data. If it's just music, and photos from a phone or camera, you are likely to have the original on the phone/camera if the HDD fails. Redundancy won't protect from fire, theft, etc. A remote backup copy will.

Other than that, Synology or qnap as above. Don't get a WD my cloud home; not really a NAS...

thanks all

Synology would be my recommendation.

The ‘J’ range are fine for basic storage and streaming to a modern device/TV that can play the file types directly (H264/H265 from the GoPro). Current 2 bay model is DS220J £150+drive(s)

The ‘+’ range have faster processors and can transcode video files to different formats in the fly.

1-2TB is tiny for a NAS. 1TB is only 9hrs of GoPro 4K footage. Get a big fat drive if you plan on using it a lot. 

also research how to setup the drives. You can set it with redundancy so the 2nd drive is a mirror of the first. If you just start with one drive, fill it up and then add a second bigger drive it won’t add any additional space if you’re operating in the SHR (hybrid raid) mode. You can add the second drive as an extension to the first volume, but then you’re in a position where you cannot take the first drive out and replace it with a larger one later.

hence, I’d say get 2-bay with a big drive to start OR get a 4-bay (££) and have more flexibility to use smaller drives and shuffle data around.

Is t cloud storage the thing these days. Access you music and movies from anywhere and don't worry yourself about backups. My QNAP nas was fine for a while but a pain in the backside to network and pretty soon crashed totalling my data. I was using some form of stripped redundancy over 5drives but it didn't save me and that might have been the problem.

I have a Synology DS218j, a two-drive NAS device with a pair of WD red drives in; I forget what size.  It is linked to the Virgin internet router and is primarily (not exclusively, it does do other things as well) used to store FLAC music files.  A flat 10m cable runs under the carpet to connect my hifi to the router and then the Synology NAS.

I like it.  Sure, I'm not the most demanding user but it has done what it does without issue since I've had it, it's quiet enough to live behind the sofa without intrusive noise and I find the web interface straightforward for what I want to do with it.  I believe the device I have has been replaced by a new model but if it's like the one I have, I'd happily recommend it.

T.

If the main use is GoPro videos, you get unlimited storage (with 100% quality) with their subscription service which is around £50 a year. It has other benefits as well such as discounts on cameras, accessories and their Quick app.

Not strictly a back up but OneDrive gives you 1TB of storage and if you have a M365 Family you get 6 of these so effectively 6TB of storage or you could just go for M365 Personal to give you 1TB which will hopefully cover your music requirements.

Another vote for synology. Use mine for music, photo storage and back up of stuff on the pc. Ripped all the dvd's we had to it so they can play on the tv - no need for a dvd player.

Another good use is as a calendar server for a shared calendar that syncs with whoever's phone calendar you need to keep up to date with. Got a 2 bay one with 2tb mirrored on both drives. About a third full after a good few years use. Still get regular updates - support and the synology forums are good.

I was mad keen on Synology, but have recently gone off them a bit.

Mine works fine and I've had it for 6+years, I like their Cloudstation, which is like any cloud system, but in the house.

I can synch, loads of files between many devices and any changes are copied to every device. Great for me because I do work away from home on a laptop and it's automatically updates when I get back home. I can also copy useful stuff to my phone and have that update too.

Unfortunately, on Android, with them updating their "permission" strategy, it needs Synology to change their software to allow access to the SD card. They haven't done this so I now have to save everything to  the phones memory. This has been brought up time and time again on the Syno web site, but they don't seem to care.

Other than this very annoying thing, for me at least, the hardware seems pretty good.

Thanks everybody. I've ordered a Synology DiskStation DS220J with 2 x 3TB drives