Network Storage Recommendations?

[Fairyglass]

I'm looking for a network storage device- something I can plug into our router via ethernet and which can be seen by the three computers on our network. There's lots around, but no independent information- does anyone have any recommendations, or should I close my eyes and pick one at random?
Thanks in advance...

[guccij]

We have a couple of Buffalo NAS, quite old now, which I guess is a good recommendation in itself as they haven't broken!
I know Darren B is well versed in this side of things, maybe wait until he's online before buying!

[Fairyglass]

Thanks Jules,
Buffalo has come up on my radar, so I'll take a look at the range while waiting for Sir Breakalot and others!

[Duncan Rounding]

I've been looking at this one:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...10-100UKS.html
and add another 1Tb for Raid1:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...B/HD103SJ.html
Not bad for a little over £200

[Fairyglass]

That's one of two I got e-mails about yesterday, which prompted the question in the first place. The other one is this:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...10-100UKS.html
which also looks good with 1TB included, but I'm not clued up enough to know if it's actually a good deal or whether they're just trying to shift old stock!

[Duncan Rounding]

That's the same one I posted. It comes with a 1Tb drive but if you want to increased security of data on the drive then you should also add an additional 1Tb drive with will give you Raid1.

It all depends on your motivation for wanting a NAS - security or/and file availability.

[Fairyglass]

sorry, copied link from wrong tab:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/200427
I already have RAID 1, so this is extra security and ease of file access, plus I can remove it when we go away and store it securely.

From what I've been reading today, most of the available models on the market will be perfectly suitable, and it's more luck than anything else which will determine reliability. I guess I'll just take the plunge in the next few days- thanks for your advice so far.

[pinbrook]

my 500gb buffalo nas is also still going strong after a couple of years too.

[Chunkford]

I've been looking in to this for awhile now.
Hopefully this list will help:
http://www.qnap.com/
http://www.synology.com/
http://www.drobo.com/
http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage.aspx
http://www.buffalo-technology.com/home/
http://www.thecus.com/index.php?set_language=english
http://www.iomega.com/nas/index.html
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=14
http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/seu30e.do?LanguageISOCtxParam=en&link=ln374e&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&acond125e=62206&kcond48e.c2att101=62206&sp=page17e&ctx1g.c2att92=123&ctx2.c2att1=17&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=1601712140
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509

You should now be able to make a short list and find reviews easier

I think i'm going to buy the QNAP 219P. It's not the cheapest, but it's got what i want (2 drive bays, eSATA port, good data speeds etc) plus a lot of other geeky stuff that will keep me entertained for dayz LOL

[chris ashdown]

Our Buffalo terabyte with 4 x 250 drives has been first class for a couple of years

One small point, I was informed somewhere along the line that small capacity hard drives are much more reliable than big ones, don't know if it's still true, but important for backup if it is

[NormanRouxel]

That Acer Aspire EasyStore 1TB NAS Box 4x 250GB configured as Raid 5 would give you a high degree of redundancy at a very goos price.

Here, I use an Iomega StorCenter IX2 with 2 x 1Tb drives configured as a mirrored pair. Comes with a 3 year warrnty which is always nice.

I've always invested in backup devices (endured slow tape for many years) but as a result have never lost any data. Oldest file I can find on my system dates from 1983. Must have been on 20 different computers since then but never lost forever because of regular backups.

[Mark H]

Depending on how much data you really need to network, Dropbox might be of interest. We have ditched one of our office NAS devices and are experimenting with Dropbox for a particular set of files.

To cut a long story short, Dropbox creates a folder on each PC it is installed on, and synchronises files between these PCs, which can be anywhere in the world (including next to each other ). It also stores the files on Amazon secure servers so that they can be accessed using a browser, and unlimited revisions are stored in case of file corruption.

Having removed the need to regularly backup, we no longer need Terabyte devices, and are doing an incredible amount with the 100Gb provided by Dropbox which day to day is quite enough storage to be "networked" and backed up by Dropbox.

[Fairyglass]

Thanks Chunk,
Now I'm even more confused than I was when I started

Norman- I'm surprised modern computers can still read files from 1983- that must have been green screen era!

Thanks all, will keep reading- information overload... I'll post back when a purchase is made.

[Darren B]

Who mentioned my name?

Seriously i use these http://www.google.co.uk/products/cat...605&sa=title#p

emails me everyday with a status of the drives, variable configuration they do what is says on the tin. I like the usb connection for taking offsite backups.

If a drive goes down, turn it off and put a new one on, turn it back on and it will rebuild it for you. Sorry no hot swapping but then do you really need it on a back up drive - ermm not in my book. And it comes with a gigabit connection, obviously you need the gigabit router and pc's to have gigabit connection and to make full use of the speed

I configured mine to raid10 basically raid1 mirrored i have no complaints, one bit of advise, stay away from freecom complete crap IMHO

oh and these guys are pretty good to deal with aswell http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/Buffa...urce=sdfroogle