What Should I Replace Aging Linkstation With?

[nheather]

I have an elderly Buffalo Linkstation. It is a LS-CHL V1 many years old and just 500GB.

Only use it as a central document store for the family.

It gave me quite a fright today. Was in EM Mode and everything suggested that I was going to lose everything. To my relieve using the firmware updater recovered it but I no longer trust it, it is very old and rather low capacity.

I'm only thinking 1 or 2 GB.

What I would really like though is something that does an independent backup in the background.

Not really interested in using it to stream media nor am I too worried about the speed.

What would be nice is one where the disk is readable by a PC should the NAS fail and I need to recover data.

So what would you recommend?

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[stevech]

Synology or QNAP. 2-bay. Try their on-line demos. They are very equivalent vendors.

The features you list are in most all NASes.

 

[nheather]

What I'm rarely skilled off is losing data - I had quite a fright today.

Is mirroring a good idea - I read that perhaps it isn't because a crash could equally impact both drives.

What about setting a dual enclosure as two independent drives. So one is used as the central store and the other is used as the target location for backup. Different to mirroring because it is two independent drives.

And do any NASs allow the disk once removed to be read by a PC. So if the NAS hardware/firmware were toasted I could at least try to get the data of the disks.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[L&LD]

Or consider the same QNAP or Synology lines but with 2, single bay devices that backup to each other.

The TS-131 (or two) is what I would be looking at myself in your situation. Along with a 3 or 4TB RED (or two) you will have a viable backup system for your data.

One NAS is backing up the devices on a timely schedule. Then, again on a set schedule, this NAS is backing itself up to the second NAS.

Yes, the price of the total kit jumps up fast. But any single NAS (single drive or dual drive or more) will not give you better peace of mind for important (enough) data.

Edit: If the PC can read Linux file systems, you should be okay. Most can't (by default).

 

[nheather]

Still unclear. If I have a dual enclosure, can I set it up as two independent drives.

So have one as my working drive and the other used as a backup.

Or is that not sensible.

As for reading a Linux drive I assume that I could just start my PC up with a usb flashdrive linux install.

I just got the impression that the Linkstation drive is unreadable because it uses a peculiar Buffalo format.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[L&LD]

Still unclear. If I have a dual enclosure, can I set it up as two independent drives.

So have one as my working drive and the other used as a backup.

Or is that not sensible.

As for reading a Linux drive I assume that I could just start my PC up with a usb flashdrive linux install.

I just got the impression that the Linkstation drive is unreadable because it uses a peculiar Buffalo format.

Cheers,

Nigel

Yes, you can setup any proper multi-bay NAS as independent drives. It is a sensible solution, but only if you backup this backup to an external drive too (in case of surges, theft, etc.).

Booting up with a USB drive with a Linux OS will allow you to read the drive if it's still working.

I don't know if Buffalo has their own format (but a file system is not something you just whip up), but simply getting to the drive is a whole affair. I would guess it is some version of Linux too.

http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Disassemble_the_LS_Pro_v1/LS_Live_v1

But again, it is not always so simple as getting the drive hooked up to another computer. It depends if it can still spin and if the heads can still search the disk, accurately.

 

[stevech]

2 bay, non-RAID, two volumes. Two file systems = more protection.
Same as two 1 bay but less expensive.

And always, USB3 or eSATA backup.

 

[System Error Message]

You could go with 2 NAS and have them sync with each other.
For a PC based NAS you could do a lot more but it also requires more effort.

 

[stevech]

You could go with 2 NAS and have them sync with each other.
For a PC based NAS you could do a lot more but it also requires more effort.

and the PC based NAS will lack the depth of functionality and UI as in Synology and QNAP.
2 NASes - overkill for home/SOHO.

 

[thiggins]

Your needs are very basic. Consider WD MyClouds. Comes with backup software that can handle backups to external drive, network store and cloud. QNAP and Synology are fine, but you are paying a premium for features you don't need.

MyClouds can't do the drive-to-drive backup, though, that Stevech is so fond of. I'm not a fan of that method because it violates the rule of never trusting a single device for backup.

 

[nheather]

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice. As you say, my needs are very simple, central file store with backup.

I appreciate that NAS solutions offer lots of extra but I never used them on my LinkStation so can't see me using them on its successor.

So backup to a USB. I really want something to be being done in the background. I assume that most NAS solutions can handle that. And I assume that it will be a big job for the first time but after that it will be just the little that has changed that day.

Couple of questions about external USB drives

Q1 - Are they reliable enough to be left on all the time - I envisage it being permanently connected to the NAS.

Q2 - Can the USB drive be FAT or NTFS or does it have to be a Linux format like the NAS drives.

Also what advantage does a Synology give me over another LinkStation - given my needs are so basic and prices are like this

LinkStation 210 2TB - £75
Synology DS115j 2TB - £150

I don't mind spending the extra if it is worth it. I don't mind get a two bay and just putting one disk in for now. But is it worth the extra spend?

Cheers,

Nigel