Need help choosing a Readynas for Home

Cmaker3 wrote:
http://www.readynas.com/remote wrote: First, the requirements. You’ll need to be running RAIDiator 4.1.5+ for the ReadyNAS Duo/NV+/1100/600/X6 and RAIDiator x86 4.2.4+ for the ReadyNAS Pro. There's no mention of the Ultra Series. So can I use the ReadyNAS Remote on the Ultra 4 Plus?

When that was written there two x-86 based units, the Pro and the NVX. Today there are 9 x-86 based units in the family that includes three lines, the Ultra, Ultra Plus and Pro.

Cmaker3 wrote:
Just to make sure I understand, if I go with a 2-bay unit, I will only have 1/2 the capacity of storage (or 2TB) if for example I use 2 x 2TB HDD. And since my concern tend to be in favor of having more storage space, the better option for me is to go for the Ultra 4 Plus and just add on additional hdds.

I also prefer the 4 bay units for they can support an array three times the one supported by a two bay unit (with the same size drives). In addition there is the LCD message panel that will tell you what is happening during booting and expanding. It will also display alerts.

Cmaker3 wrote:
But doesn't the ReadyNAS Vault (or other online backup service) solve the issue of having 2 units with 1 used for storage and another for it's backup? And since I have an issue with having a limited budget, a 2-bay unit with 2 x 3TB will be fine since I will have redundancy + ReadyNAS Vault (or another online backup storage service), and my data will be protected.

Various online backup services have various costs associated, and in my opinion, most are really aimed at what I would call the critical/important data backup. In this category would certainly fall the financial data you keep, such I keep in Quicken and bank statements/recons as well as photos, especially of the family. Video is problem child as it takes up so much disk space, backing it up on the cloud could be expensive. Until I stared keeping video on my NAS, my volume was less than 500GB, and is now 2.5TB. My critical financial files occupy less than 2GB!

Two years ago, I finally got myself in a position that I was able to acquire a second ReadyNAS to back up my primary one. (Originally it was an NV+ v1 and an NVX, but after getting a good sale on a second NVX, pending the announcement of the Ultra series, I now have two NVX units and the NV+ was rehomed). However, I still keep a separate offsite backup of my critical/financial data.

Make sure your current 1TB drives are on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).