Best home storage option

jbuckler

I currently have an old Mac Pro that I am going to replace with a mac mini for our home. I currently have about 3 TB of data (music, movies, photos) that I want to have available on a home server to be able to access. I would also like to have backup of the data as well. Could someone help me figure out what the best storage solution would be? I have looked at various NAS options but looking for specific recommendations. thanks

JS_MC

Here's our selection of NAS's : https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294945770
This will vary from store to store, but I can give some recommendations based on brand and features. 
If you're looking for a very simple solution, the Buffalo Linkstation includes a 4TB hard drive, however, this is not expandable and what you see is what you get. 
https://www.microcenter.com/product/432794/buffalo-linkstation-210-4-tb-nas-personal-cloud-storage-with-hard-drives-included-(ls210d0401)
For a more advanced option with room for potential expansion, I'd recommend either the WD EX2 https://www.microcenter.com/product/460105/wd-my-cloud-ex2-ultra-2-bay-diskless-network-attached-storage-(nas)
or a 4 slot option that's a bit more robust. 
https://www.microcenter.com/product/463226/wd-my-cloud-pro-series-pr4100
Mind you, these two recommendations are diskless, meaning you would also need to purchase hard drives to install into these NAS devices.  I would strongly recommend NAS hard drives as they are created for that purpose. 
Hope this helps. 

Lazer

Do you mean additional storage to add on or what

jbuckler

Yes, basically. I am fairly certain what I am looking for is a NAS that I can set up at home and need recommendations on brand. I am figuring that I need a 4 bay device, likely 8-16 TB. this is just for home use. thanks

lex_guy

If you don't plan on using it as a server for stuff like plex and whatnot, I'd just go with a external drive.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/626624/seagate-expansion-desktop-12tb-external-hard-drive-hdd---usb-31-gen-1-for-pc-laptop

Synology makes a good product if you want an actual nas.

I personally just use my last gen PC as a server with a SATA expansion card + Drivepool. You could probably piece together an AMD computer cheaper than a Synology and it would give you more freedom, but it would also require a lot more complicated setup and consideration for RAID and whether to run Windows or Unraid or Linux with ZFS, while a Synology or other dedicated NAS device is pretty user friendly and comes preconfigured.

https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/ is a good place to do some research.

jbuckler

Thanks for the info. Quick follow up questions, someone else recommended the QNAP. Any thoughts on that vs the WD in terms of ease of set up and user interface. Also, once these are set up, can they read and write from both Mac and PC on the same network or is it only one or the other (we have both in the house). Thanks

lex_guy

QNAP is a full on NAS so it is more comparable to the Synology. I'd guess they are pretty similar as far as useability. Google "QNAP vs Synology" and you'll probably find some good info on the differences. I think Buffalo is another brand out there that sells these kind of home use NAS devices.

The Seagate is just a drive in an enclosure, it connects via USB. Think of it like a really big USB Flash drive. Plug it in and it shows up as a drive, no setup really needed. A lot of routers nowadays actually have the ability to plug in a USB External drive to make it accessible across your network, but by itself, no it won't have that capability, it just connects to one computer at a time. You can "share" it on the network so the other computer can access it though.

The biggest thing is the price. A QNAP 2-bay device will probably cost you the same as the external drive, but the QNAP doesn't come with drives. So you pay the ~$200/$300 to get the QNAP and you still gotta dish out money for the drives themselves. It can get pricey fast.

JS_MC

From my experience, the WD setup is a bit more user friendly, but it's still not the easiest thing in the world. They do have great setup support on their website and we can help here too! @lex_guy is correct about these devices as well. The individual drive would only be able to connect to one drive at a time, while the network devices can be accessed by multiple devices on the network. The additional feature set of a more robust NAS does come at a cost.

Each of the items that I recommended is both Windows and Mac OS compatible.

jbuckler

Just to clarify, once the NAS is set up, can I access the files from any computer, Mac or PC l, or will I only be able to access the files from the OS that was used to set it up. Thanks. 

JS_MC

You'd be able to access the NAS from either OS. Even after setup. 😊