Daryl Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Having abit of a dilema with what to do with storage for the 2 Macs we have. Mine is starting to flash up messages about start up disk full. Iv put as many photo's on my USB pen drive as I can, but looking for a more long term solution. The 2 options im considering, are a huge USB hardrive, something like not not exclusively http://store.apple.com/uk/product/HB856ZM/A/lacie-4tb-porsche-design-p9233-usb-30-desktop-hard-drive?fnode=c295c24962f3312ae974e62cf4a3be156985dcd5ac838ca802ffbcd7115a6300ba240807d3e525cf30abe4098d9a87e5027b22de929212c8226f9f68d9886c1ca80d6a9fa5194787a43ca4445d1ba1b7736a837258c393377d5415a59ed02eac04fa015cf3a406acd3cae1721fef86c2 The other option, which is what I was my original thought, was the 3TB Time Capule. http://store.apple.com/uk/product/ME182B/A/airport-time-capsule-3tb?fnode=d8cde389112eac1c3694db9c1b43b68d411ed13c2ff3b2845c214aa1799151b59a7542f4a28f676ff4350829ae87ed095bfcc213d08a4a09f0d97c8cc3ae32723890ae4925ebac1d18a186a4645077ce7cbea60217f3a6fb4852ef10db9de268b2f76585c060e52e21f16de40a1a908d The reason I thought initially the Time Capsule, was that the wifi in our house is patchy in some areas, so the extra WIFI boost would really help. You can buy the Airport Extreme for £160, and then a hard drive would cost another £100. So my thoughts were, would it not be good to just have one device to do everything, and I can access the TC from anywhere in the world i believe. Please let me know your thoughts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Synology & PM SMD/Ekona 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhackyWill Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I just subscribed to a bunch of Cloud storage and bung everything I don't immediately need up there, and just sync it all. Cheap enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Just buy yourself a cheap NAS, I have an old Net-gear Stora that takes two 2 terabyte HDDs, stores all I need plus all my movies which I can stream to the TV. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d95gas Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Synology all the way, superb user interface, bags of other apps included which can be very useful. We use the rackmount version at work and I use the DS213 series at home and in our remote sites mirrored dirves and 100% reliability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 What would be handy, is if i could put all my music on said device, and access it to stream it to my Apple TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Synology will do that, SMD has this set up, give him a shout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Thanks, have just sent him a PM. Maybe this is the best thing, and i can get something to help with the WIFI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Wifi repeaters are cheap as chips, but it can be a PITA in some buildings placing them somewhere that has a strong connection to the existing Internet router AND also creates a useful wifi cloud that penetrates into the areas where you want to boost signal - especially if you have old, thick walls or are going up a few floors. What I did was take an old sky router, lay one cat5 cable to the weak wifi area from the main router then use the old sky router to make a wifi cloud in the poor signal area. All it cost was a length of cat5 and a long drill bit. Set the wifi name and password to the same as the main router and your devices should happily automatically flip between the two clouds as you move around the homestead. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Also have a look at UnRAID, it's a bit more flexible than Synology but you need to be a bit more techy with it. That said, if I can do it anyone can! You can mix and match drive sizes, add in media servers like Plex, and there's so much other stuff out there as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangzoom Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 NAS drives all the way for photo/Audio storage. If wifi is a problem just use powerline plugs to creat a Ethernet point (no need to run long network cables). I've been using a synology NAS drive as main storage for my Lightroom and iTune library. Because the Synology is set up as Raid 1.0 i can worry less about hardware failure. I also have cloud storage for the more important photos/documents via FlickR/Drop box. But if you have a Mac, I really recommend having a working TimeMachine back up, be it via a Timecapsule or NAS drive. The system software on my wife's laptop recently got corrupted, which essentially meant I had to reinstall the entire operating system. Normally that a pretty big job, but because we had a uptodate TimeMachine back up, all I had to do was choose 'restore from time machine' option and essentially had the laptop back up and running within a few hours, with no need to install any of the already installed programs. TimeMachine has also saved my bacons few time by allowing me to retrieve important documents/emails that I had accidentally deleted, but only realised 6 months later I wouldn't trust any vital/critical data to be store on just a USB device. I've experinced many USB/hard drive failures over the years, so these days have 2-3 backsups of all my important files!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 You can never have too many backups. I have a backup of a backup for my main storage drive! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 You can never have too many backups. I have a backup of a backup for my main storage drive! I hope it's off site and secured in a fire proof, flood proof location? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 It's next to a clumsy toddler playing with matches whilst balancing a bucket of water on its head. That's okay, right? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 It's next to a clumsy toddler playing with matches whilst balancing a bucket of water on its head. That's okay, right? Text book disaster recovery strategy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 (edited) It's next to a clumsy toddler playing with matches whilst balancing a bucket of water on its head. That's okay, right? Text book disaster recovery strategy Sounds like our DR plan too One thing I'd also add is test your backups from time to time. The amount of times I've pulled a tape to restore a database to find I cant is unbelievable. Fortunately it's always been in my lab environment. When I was responsible I'd have a tape randomly selected (when I had a spare few hours) and test. Better know what the problem is before you actually need to restore Edit: I meant to add I know thinks a home solution but it's worth checking you know how to restore a file or email prior to needing to if you know what I mean. NAS is definitely the way to go Edited February 2, 2015 by Fodder 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudman Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I'm using a WDmycloud 2TB with another 2TB drive in the back. Fairly basic but does the job very well. Streams vids/music to ipad/macbook anywhere in the world as long as you have the password. Not bad for £95. Works very well with Sonos at home as well and you can configure as your Apple backup so a kind of time capsule at a third of the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybp Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I'm using a WDmycloud 2TB with another 2TB drive in the back. Fairly basic but does the job very well. Streams vids/music to ipad/macbook anywhere in the world as long as you have the password. Not bad for £95. Works very well with Sonos at home as well and you can configure as your Apple backup so a kind of time capsule at a third of the price. I've got the 4tb version of the western digital My cloud with a 3tb plugged in the back and a dlink dns 343 with 4 2tb drives both been very reliable 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Well I certainly spoke too soon when I mentioned my old net-gear Stora, lost the network connection and Internet connection with it yesterday...tried everything, several resets etc but its not having it, mind you it has been used constantly for the last eight odd years, so I have just ordered a ZyXEL NSA320S 2-Bay Power NAS for £50, looks like it should be a fair bit faster and a little more friendly to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Can I recommend you get hold of the WD Red drives for use in that? They're specifically designed for NAS applications, and so far no-one I know has found anything better for the money. I run 4 of those in 3TB flavour, and they really are very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I have or had triple protection. A 2TB NAS drive, a 2TB USB drive and I backup essentials online to I-Drive (5GB Free). Problem is that the NAS and the USB drives both failed within a week of each other just before Christmas. Some of the photos I backed up were on a couple of vintage Athlon machines that are stored away in the loft, so I still have the originals taken on a digital camera from 1999-2006, several thousand of them. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangzoom Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I have or had triple protection. A 2TB NAS drive, a 2TB USB drive and I backup essentials online to I-Drive (5GB Free). Problem is that the NAS and the USB drives both failed within a week of each other just before Christmas. Some of the photos I backed up were on a couple of vintage Athlon machines that are stored away in the loft, so I still have the originals taken on a digital camera from 1999-2006, several thousand of them. Pete Sorry to hear....Was the NAS an raid set up?? I'm counting on the chance of two hard drive failing at the same time to be pretty remote....Though if the actual NAS unit got stolen I'll be buggered....Recently considered setting up another NAS backup in the garage using powerline plugs. But don't know if that's just over kill interms of backups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I have or had triple protection. A 2TB NAS drive, a 2TB USB drive and I backup essentials online to I-Drive (5GB Free). Problem is that the NAS and the USB drives both failed within a week of each other just before Christmas. Some of the photos I backed up were on a couple of vintage Athlon machines that are stored away in the loft, so I still have the originals taken on a digital camera from 1999-2006, several thousand of them. Pete Sorry to hear....Was the NAS an raid set up?? I'm counting on the chance of two hard drive failing at the same time to be pretty remote....Though if the actual NAS unit got stolen I'll be buggered....Recently considered setting up another NAS backup in the garage using powerline plugs. But don't know if that's just over kill interms of backups. If you're going to the trouble of a second copy then store that offsite, maybe sibling or parents house and vice versa? If the one in the home gets damaged through fire or stolen likelyhood is the one in the garage will be too. I don't really trust third party cloud storage offerings but that's just me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glrnet Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Off site back up is the way to go if you are serious about back up security. I know the chances are slim but flood, fire, burglary etc will knock your back up plans into a cocked hat. The decison is then cloud or elsewhere as Fodder has just mentioned. I can't afford to lose my business data and I'd be heartbroken if I lost my pictures and music so I back up at home and have cloud storage too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSet Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I have or had triple protection. A 2TB NAS drive, a 2TB USB drive and I backup essentials online to I-Drive (5GB Free). Problem is that the NAS and the USB drives both failed within a week of each other just before Christmas. Some of the photos I backed up were on a couple of vintage Athlon machines that are stored away in the loft, so I still have the originals taken on a digital camera from 1999-2006, several thousand of them. Pete Sorry to hear....Was the NAS an raid set up?? I'm counting on the chance of two hard drive failing at the same time to be pretty remote....Though if the actual NAS unit got stolen I'll be buggered....Recently considered setting up another NAS backup in the garage using powerline plugs. But don't know if that's just over kill interms of backups. No, it wasn't a raid just a single drive. I actually thought that the NAS unit was knackered as the drive seemed to be spinning up O.K but after swapping it into a spare USB enclosure realized that the disk itself had broken. The other drive that failed had the click of death It may be possible to get the NAS drive working for long enough to get the data off, there are 4 ways that I know of doing this but I just haven't got around to having a go so to speak. If I attach it to a computer using an internal SATA interface, the computer sees the drive but won't read it. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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