Upgrade HDD or get new device

Well, if you get a new device, such as an NV+ v2, Ultra 4 or Ultra 4 Plus, you would still need at least the 1TB drives you mentioned. In that case the bill would be around $800 at least ($395 for the NV+ v2 and $408 for 4xST31000524AS) based upon current Netgear prices.

I personally would recommend that you work toward an Ultra 4 (x86 based units have more flexibility and options, but costs around $145 more) and keep the NV+ in service as a backup device. You can schedule daily automatic backups via rsync that only take minutes. (Initial backup needs to be done via NFS and will take hours). The rsync process synchronizes the files between two units and only the changed sectors are updated, as opposed to the entire changed file in incremental backups.

I finally got to this point two years ago, and would not want to go back. Because the backup target is smaller, certain shares with non critical data (mp3 files that are duplicated elsewhere for example) would not need to be backed up as opposed to personal financial data and photos.

PapaBear has a good point. I would like to add to it that if you get a new ReadyNAS with new drives you would still have a fully functional NV+ that you could use still use for additional storage.

But what I want opinions on is is it worth putting $500 into an old machine like I have, or should I get something newer that'll maybe play nicer with Mac OS X?

I am not sure what "play nicer with MAC OSX" means to you. Is there something you can't do now that you would like to do?

If you are happy with the current speed of your NAS, then yes, it is worthwhile to invest the $500 in it. Upgrading your current NAS is the cheapest way to get more storage. If the NAS fails before the disks, you can reuse the disks in a new machine. This all assumes you have a backup strategy in place.

BTW, I'd buy three 2 TB disks instead of four 1 TB, and leave one slot open for expansion.

For about twice that investment you can get an new Ultra 4 (with $500 worth of disks). You get a much faster NAS, support for 3 TB drives, the ability to use ReadNAS Photos 2, and some other features. The management interface is pretty similar to the UI you are already used to.

If you buy a new NAS, I agree with the posters who think you should keep the existing NV+ in service (possibly backing up critical files on the Ultra). I currently use a Pro-6 as my main NAS, and use an NV+ and a Duo to back it up. The older machines are working well, and I see no reason to replace them.

BTW 2, if you are using 100 mbit ethernet then your speed is limited by the network, not your NV+. So if performance is an issue, you should upgrade to a gigabit network as well. Gigabit switches are inexpensive, and will play nicely with your existing router. You also need to get cat 5e or cat 6 ethernet cables.

I have an Apple AirPort Extreme with gigabit ports. However, all but the desktop access the network via WiFi.

What I mean by playing nicer is that in order for me to use my aperture library, I have to have it local on my desktop machine, then periodically back it up to the NAS. BTW, I have TimeMachine enabled on the NAS so all the computers in the house are constantly backed up to the NAS. The reason I have to use the Aperture library locally has something to do with the file structure of the NAS. I am by no means an expert in all this, just stumbling along the best I can. But from what I understand, the file system on the NAS device needs to be some type of Mac file system and not FAT. I'm sure that there are people that are smarter then me out there that know what I'm talking about.

However, it would be nice to be able to copy the library file to the NAS faster than I do now. Currently, my 100GB library takes hours to copy over.

I'm not too sure about just putting in three disks, maybe it's that I don't understand RAID very well, but will I still be able to swap out a failed drive and the other two have all the data to restore to the new drive? Also, it's taken me five or six years years to fill up my four-500GB drives, so I'm not sure that this is a bad thing in getting four-1TB drives. If I do get three drives, how do I swap those in? I understand how to do four since it's what I have. Just pull out one drive at a time and wait for the NAS to do it's magic with the new drive, then swap the next drive and so on.

If I do get a new NAS, I'd still want to upgrade the current one to the same capacity and use it as my offsite backup. I just wish cloud back up services would get a bit cheaper so I could use that as my offsite backup.

Probably should have this in the Mac forum rather than here

Thanks

The ReadyNAS is a Linux box and yours uses the EXT3 filesystem.

A new NAS would be faster over ethernet. Over WiFi file transfers are going to take about the same length of time due to the speed of WiFi being the bottleneck.

If you remove a disk, the NAS expects it to be replaced (e.g. with a new disk). If you want to reduce the number of disks you'd need to backup your data, power down, remove the old disks, put the new disks in and do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything).

X-RAID on your NV+ (v1) uses RAID-4. With 3 disks (let's call them Disks A, B and C):
Disk A = 1/2 B + 1/2 C
Disk B = 1/2 A + 1/2 C
Disk C = 1/2 A + 1/2 B

and with four disks:
Disk A = 1/3 B + 1/3 C + 1/3 D
and so on...

Regarding Aperture you might want to take a look at this: http://sphardy.com/web/readynas/aperture-workflow-with-readynas/

-Four 1 TB drives gets you 3 TB of available storage, with one drive used for redundancy

-Three 2 TB drives gets you 4 TB of available storage, also with one drive used for redundancy. The cost is about the same, but you get more storage and a better upgrade path.

To install them in the existing ReadyNAS you would need to backup your data, upgrade the firmware to the current release. Then power down and replace old drives with the three new ones. It will then do a factory default procedure, and build a new RAID array. After that completes, copy your data back. (You can also backup up/restore your configuration if you like).

BTW, the file system on the NAS is EXT (linux) not FAT. Though I am not an Mac guy, so hopefully others will chime on the aperture stuff. I have seen a writeup by sphardy here (http://sphardy.com/web/readynas/apertur ... -readynas/)

If you go with a new unit, the 2TB drives would certainly be more cost effective than the 1TB. If you went with 3x2TB Samsung HD204UI drives (on the HCL) then it would be $360 for the three vs the $408 for the 4x1TB drives I mentioned above and would have 1TB more storage space as mentioned. Then you could use the NV+ as a backup, and in a year or so switch it over to 2TB drives as well. Or you could update your current, complete backup (of course you have one) and then do the swap as StephenB mentioned.

Yes, the trusty old NV+ is a bit slow, but unless you are copying large files, it's not that bad. In a backup situation it's not critical.

We can offer suggestions and offer opinions, but you have to make the decision. I know the best decision I ever made from a peace of mind status is when I went to two ReadyNAS units, the second backing up the first every night starting at midnight. There have even been occasions when I have messed up a file and simply pulled the previous version down onto the main NAS from the backup and start over. One rule for security is to never, ever work with a file on the backup unit. If you mess it up too, you are SOL (Straight Outta Luck).

I'm thinking that since I'm in information overload and I don't really understand all the nuances in the different devices especially with iTunes servers and DNLA (what the heck is that?). I'll just stick with what I have and move to 1TB drives. I don't know if I'd be able to see any speed benefits since I'm in a wireless household.

I'm basically a noob that wants a plug-n-play device that I can forget about. I'm also going to get an external HDD to copy all critical files like photos, etc and keeping that at my folks house, updating it every few months or so. Doing incremental backups to DVD for archival is a PITA.

The Firefly (iTunes) server is available on both the NV+ (Sparc) and Ultra/Pro (x86).

UPNP/DLNA is used for streaming to certain media player devices including some TVs, consoles etc.