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Forum Discussion
Advice before buying my first NAS?
I'm looking to start with 6GB in a NAS but will need to expand within 12-24 months looking at the current consumption of storage space in the family. The content is mixed in type, format and size, inc...
(a) going with a 4-bay gives you more expansion options. Even with 4 TB drive support, it is likely to be cheaper to get more bays and use smaller drives. With 6 TB of storage now, you should also price 6 bay units.
(b)X-RAID2 makes your data more available when disks fail, and also makes it much easier to expand your storage. So it is recommended. Note that with 2 3TB drives you will get only 3TB of storage. A 4-bay unit with 3x3TB drives will get you 6.
(c) RAID arrays and NAS hardware can fail. Personally I would not use a NAS w/o a UPS. A backup strategy is also essential - I have had to rebuild my array from backup.
Having a local backup (buying a duplicate NAS) is the fastest and easiest, but the most expensive. USB backup is possible, but requires more discipline. I went with a duplicate NAS myself. I use Cloud Backup for disaster recovery (fire, etc), I personally wouldn't use it as my primary backup.
(b)X-RAID2 makes your data more available when disks fail, and also makes it much easier to expand your storage. So it is recommended. Note that with 2 3TB drives you will get only 3TB of storage. A 4-bay unit with 3x3TB drives will get you 6.
(c) RAID arrays and NAS hardware can fail. Personally I would not use a NAS w/o a UPS. A backup strategy is also essential - I have had to rebuild my array from backup.
Having a local backup (buying a duplicate NAS) is the fastest and easiest, but the most expensive. USB backup is possible, but requires more discipline. I went with a duplicate NAS myself. I use Cloud Backup for disaster recovery (fire, etc), I personally wouldn't use it as my primary backup.
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