Newbie Networking Questions! - NAS

[dtos01]

I bought the base MacBook Retina but am afraid to open the box because of 2nd thoughts! Worried that I don't have enough storage space (256GB hard drive). I am converting from PC land. Currently have FiOS and Cisco N EA4500 Router

Last night I was reading about NAS and I didn't realize that I could store all my photos and music on the network drive and still access them from the laptop at will (at home).... (does it work like that?) Could I have my itunes library on the NAS and still play tunes seamlessly on the laptop? (same with photos and iPhoto?) If so then I am not so worried about the small hard drive on the laptop.

As far as which NAS to get.... I think I would need the Airport Extreme and either a USB drive or an ethernet drive attached for storage... Apple also offers the "Time Capsule" which has 2TB of storage and may or may not also have the same functionality as the Airport Extreme... What are the best products to get right now (for home use)?

Please advise! Thank you!

 

[waw74]

time machine is apple's backup software.

time capsule is an airport extreme with a built in hard drive. otherwise they are identical. you can add external drives to both to increase the storage as needed.

yes you can store your photo and music libraries on the time capsule. Accessing over the home network, it should play just fine.

 

[dtos01]

time machine is apple's backup software.

time capsule is an airport extreme with a built in hard drive. otherwise they are identical. you can add external drives to both to increase the storage as needed.

yes you can store your photo and music libraries on the time capsule. Accessing over the home network, it should play just fine.

Thank you! It seems like the Time Capsule and a USB backup to that would be the best bang for the buck for someone (like me) who doesn't aleady have an Airport Extreme (plus I think they just updated the Time Capsule...?)

 

[drsox]

In the long term a NAS is a better investment than any other solution.
It will give you the option of upgrading the size of the drives as well as protect you from a single drive failure.

It also depends on just how much stuff you want to be able to store.
I'm a long time user of the ReadyNAS range but there are other ranges - many Mac users like the Synology range.
I'm also a converter from Windows and I have continued to use the NASs in OS X.
I have my iTunes Library and Music on a NAS as well as Photos, Archives and Current files.
I also have setup Time Machine to back up to the NAS as well as CarbonCopyCloner.

The last set of stuff I put on the NAS is all my Videos so that I can stream them to any of the TVs I have available.

In total I have 9TB or so of NAS files, spread over more than 1 NAS, but I started 5 years or so with 1 NAS and 4 drives.

If you want to start small, then I suggest you look at a 2 drive RAID NAS. This will give you protected storage of 1 drive's size. You might also need a backup as NASs can also fail (bad hardware, software failure etc), but an inexpensive USB drive will be OK for this.

PS - I have a 2011 MBA with 128GB, more than enough for OS and my local files. In my Win days I had small SSDs for years as the sole local drive.

 

[Ifti]

I agree with DrSox - NAS is the best possible investment as its so much more flexible. Use it to store all your multimedia, your backups (including Time Machine etc) and so much more.
I have a Synology and the possibilities with it are almost endless. Lots of vids on my Youtube Channel if you were interested.
I have a 240GB SSD but only use 37GB of it! All my data, my movies, photos, music, data, and other users files etc are all secure on my NAS, which has RAID5, and a separate backup as well.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Also from my side a "go" for a real NAS. I use a QNAP,and quite happy with. I link my iMac via AFP to it so I have iTunes running in Mac but the media files stored in NAS. No problems; though connected via GB-Ethernet. But also when copy files via Wifi to me MBA no issues with speed.

Plus what I like is the capability to attach an external disk on eSata and just use simple UNIX commands like rsync to backup the NAS to an external disk.

A much better experience compared to the two TC I saw dying.

 

[dtos01]

Thanks for all the tips and Recs! I am looking at a 2 bay Synology NAS... Have to buy that and 2 drives (which drives are the best? going to get (2) 2 TB drives).

Also, what RAID do I choose....? not familiar with 0, 5, etc.

Do I need to get an Airport Extreme for the WiFi or will my current Cisco/Linksys E4500 work fine with theis MAC setup?

 

[Weaselboy]

You Cisco will work fine.

 

[drsox]

Good !
You want a RAID that gives you at least one redundant drive. With a 2 drive setup, that means RAID 1 (see : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID). This means that if 1 drive fails your data is preserved but you should replace the failed drive ASAP. Some NAS systems allow you to rebuild the redundant drive in real time - others require you to stop working and wait.
Whatever you do, make sure you use drives that are on the approved list for the NAS and preferably the same make/model drive. For Synology look here : http://www.synology.com/support/hd.php?lang=enu. Otherwise drives can fall out of sync and the RAID no longer works.

Any router that has a LAN connection is usually OK for a NAS connection, but see if you can get a Gigabit LAN NAS and a Gigabit LAN router. Better for future proofing.

 

[drsox]

PS. Unless you want gangbuster data rates then you will be just as well off using 5900rpm (or 5400rpm) drives than 7200rpm versions. The difference is about 10% in performance but can be 30% or so in price.
I have been using 5900rpm Seagate drives for the last 2+ years (2TB ST2000DL003-9VT166). Don't know if these are on the Synology list.

GbLAN rates will limit any extra speed advantage. If you were to use a Thunderbolt NAS directly connected to the Mac, then there would be a definite benefit to using 7200rpm drives. (ditto SSD drives).