cheap (TRENDnet TN-200T1 vs. IX2-dl) vs. no NAS?

[captain.ralph]

Hi,

My father's win 8 computer has issued a few imminent disk failue warnings for his main internal data storage drive. I need to get him something to replace it and the options are just another drive (internal or external), or move to a raid device (attached or NAS).

I like the idea of getting him into a simple RAID 1 setup. I realize it isn't a backup strategy, but it's as close as he'll get with zero acctive input.

I also like the advanatages of of a NAS, allowing streaming media through DLNA and enabling my mother to access it as well. The emailed device event notifications are a bonus too.

The big limiting factor here is price. It has to be CHEAP. I've found two potential NAS devices that meet that requirement, the TRENDnet TH-200T1 w/ 1TB drive included for $90 and the Lenovo-iomega ix2 diskless for $70. A couple of 1TB WD Red drive would be $65 each - so either $155 or 200 for them filled.

Both devices seem to have similar features, specs and performance as reviewed by SNB. I'm just wondering (A) if these low end NASes are worth it and (B) how they compare in real world usage?

I'm trying to balance simplicity, usefulness, and reliability on the head of price pin here. A permanently failed drive is bad, but theoretically featureful devices that perform poorly in practice are just less bad over an extended peiod of time.

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

For all practical purposes, you can't replace an internal system drive with an external drive. Find a respectable replacement ... one with good reviews at your price point ... and buy one a little larger than what you think you now can use. It's surprising how easy it is to find out you need to manage available space. You probably don't need the biggest drive available.

If you just need backups, a portable usb drive (preferably usb 3.0) is a good idea. Lots of good free bare metal backup software is available on the internet.

If you want network available storage, a usb drive plugged into a router can provide DLNA services. So can a stand-alone network drive. The later option has myriad choices available. The best thing to do is start reading reviews to decide which are not good fits, then try to decide which of the remaining might work.

 

[thiggins]

As the OP noted, you will need to replace the internal drive anyway, since that is where the OS lives.

Low end NASes are fine for basic file storage and sharing. Also consider the diskful WD My Cloud and Buffalo NASes. They are usually priced cheaper than buying a diskless NAS and adding drives.

 

[stevech]

Better make a copy of VIP file right away!
He needs a USB backup for the long term.

A friend of ours' wife just lost 15 years of family photos. She is sad. She had an external USB drive (Seagate box) plugged into her Mac. A year old. Heads crashed. She didn't realize that the external drive needed a backup. She mistakenly thought that the external drive was the backup. Too complicated this computer stuff. Geeks would know to put the photos on the internal hard drive and use the USB drive for backup. Not so, laypersons.

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Still some thinks Raid set up is fail proof back up..., Sigh! If desk top internal drive, heat
is enemy. like keeping inside clean and making sure box is located at well vented spot
not a dust collecting floor under the desk..., LOL!

 

[htismaqe]

As the OP noted, you will need to replace the internal drive anyway, since that is where the OS lives.

Low end NASes are fine for basic file storage and sharing. Also consider the diskful WD My Cloud and Buffalo NASes. They are usually priced cheaper than buying a diskless NAS and adding drives.

I just replaced a 4-year old Buffalo Linkstation LS-VL with a ZyXEL NSA310 and I'm pretty happy.

My biggest beef with the Buffalo was that your formatting options for USB attached backup was either EXT3 or XFS, neither of which are very recovery friendly (and of course Buffalo's FW provides data backup but not data RESTORE). Combine that with the fact that there's no way to copy files from the backup drive to the internal drive without using an intermediary PC and I just gave up and got a new NAS.

I have an external eSATA drive attached to the NSA310 and although it does allow the drive to be put into a RAID1 mirror with the internal drive, I opted to format it NTFS and do daily differential backups. That way if the NAS itself crashes, I can connect the drive to a PC and retrieve my files if need be.

All told, I paid $179 for the Buffalo 4 years ago. Counting the separate HDD I bought, I have $110 in the NSA310 and it's a far more flexible and powerful NAS, IMO.

 

[stevech]

I just replaced a 4-year old Buffalo Linkstation LS-VL with a ZyXEL NSA310 and I'm pretty happy.

My biggest beef with the Buffalo was that your formatting options for USB attached backup was either EXT3 or XFS, neither of which are very recovery friendly (and of course Buffalo's FW provides data backup but not data RESTORE). Combine that with the fact that there's no way to copy files from the backup drive to the internal drive without using an intermediary PC and I just gave up and got a new NAS.

I have an external eSATA drive attached to the NSA310 and although it does allow the drive to be put into a RAID1 mirror with the internal drive, I opted to format it NTFS and do daily differential backups. That way if the NAS itself crashes, I can connect the drive to a PC and retrieve my files if need be.

All told, I paid $179 for the Buffalo 4 years ago. Counting the separate HDD I bought, I have $110 in the NSA310 and it's a far more flexible and powerful NAS, IMO.

Buffalo, ZyXel for NAS... caveat emptor!

 

[htismaqe]

Buffalo, ZyXel for NAS... caveat emptor!

I used the Buffalo for 4 years and it worked just fine. I don't have a need to pay well over $200 for a bunch of software I'll never use...

 

[captain.ralph]

Sorry, I suppose I was not clear. I failed to adequately convey that this is not his OS drive. It is one of three internal drives, the others are used for the OS and audio editing work. This is data storage - media, archived documents, backups.

They have a ISP supplied wifi-router which is surprisingly capable but does not have usb support. A new router + an external hard drive would put the price at least in the neighborhood of the $90 Trendnet I think. Are you saying that price being equal, a usb drive plugged into a router is a better option then these particular NASes (for reasons or reliability or simplicity or similar)?

Personally, I use external drives for both storage and backup and do diff rsync backups of my internal system. But I've been down that road with my father before, it about 5 feet and before falling off a cliff. He uses an array uf thumb drives to store fairly critical files. I set him up with a fairly simple backup program to do diff backups of his thumb drives to the hard drive and spend a day teaching him the fairly simple tasks to keep up with it. I leave, I come back a 6months/a year later and the last backup was the one I showed him how to do. backup has to involve no action on his part.

I have concerns about using an external USB drive for backup even, as he's liable to turn it off or unplug it for some reason and then forget to plug it back in for a year - and then ignore/turn off warnings of scheduled backup failures.

My acutal backup plan for him should the NAS route be taken is to backup non-media documents of value from an existing internal drive to the NAS and let the media stand alone on the NAS. The same would be true for my mother's laptop. beyond that, in the future I could see my mother taking advantage of the one-touch USB backup these NASes offer to plug in a usb drive every so often and backup designated directories. I read that they both support FAT32 and NTSF, either of which is fine for their uses. My worry is that products in this price range aren't capable, in practice, of their advertised claims and I'll end up spending their money and then needing to find a new solution because they didn't live up to expectations. I also worry that my worries are unfounded.

I've looked at the WD Mycloud single drive NAS and it's lowest priced 2TB model goes for $150, $99 factory recertified but with a scary short warranty. The trendnet costs the same after populating the second bay.

I think these NASes format ext4 (or some ext# anyway) and likely use an LVM setup. I am half presuming that as long as both drives don't die simultaneously, should the case and one drive die, I could recover the contents of the remaining drive (I'd run it in RAID 1). I run Debian on a crypted LVM scheme on my personal computer so I'm familiar.


Thank you for your input.

 

[captain.ralph]

bump.

I would still like any insight into these low-end NASes.

 

[stevech]

cheap?

Buy a 1 bay Synology or QNAP.
And a like-sized USB drive for backup.