Noob With Basic NAS Questions

[therock]

Hi folks, My First Post Here,

I'm a photographer with 22.5MB DSLR image files piling up fast.
I build my own PC's and work with RAID 1 as an OS boot system and have an external eSATA box with two 750GB drives in a RAID 1 for my images, music, and the usual user input data, email, documents,ect. No system drive images.
I use Giene-Soft 8.0 Pro backup software to automate the jobs.

The above said I am looking for more space for backup and a way to FTP for sharing with clients and such. I have my own humble go daddy hosted domain, and a Trendnet TEW 633GR gigabit router that is very stable. I run Vista x64. My mother board has two onboard 1000 NIC devices available.

I sure would like to consolidate not having to have both a NAS and a backup storage device.

I'm looking at the Thecus N5200 Pro if you guys think it is compatable with WD 750GB RE2 & RE3 drives. They are not on the Thecus list. With the dual LAN and eSATA there is lots of connectivity for me to use.

Available are the two WD750GB RE2 drives in the external eSATA device and two WD750GB RE3 drives in the bags on my desk.

My questions are:

• Never using a NAS do the drives in a NAS appear in the My Computer list?
• Is it common to use a NAS like the Thecus N5200 Pro as a NAS/back-up device.
• Am I barking up the right application?

 

[thiggins]

How do the drives or NAS appear in the My Computer list?

The RAID volume(s) on the Thecus will appear like any other shared folders. You can also map them like other Windows shares.

Is it common to use a NAS like the Thecus N5200 Pro as a back up device in RAID form and a NAS.

Sure. Done all the time.

Am I barking up the right application?

Do you mean are you choosing the "right" NAS? Well, why are you choosing the N5200 Pro and moving from RAID 1 to 5?

 

[therock]

Do you mean are you choosing the "right" NAS? Well, why are you choosing the N5200 Pro and moving from RAID 1 to 5?

Thanks,

I'm not well versed on RAID period (a rookie) but RAID 5 looks like it will be as safe as RAID 1 when it comes to a single drive failure and looses less space as the storage capacity of the array is reduced by one disk.
The 5 disk thing is for more room I guess. Space efficiency for Raid 1 is 47%. Raid 5 is 62%.

What do you guys know about the N5200 and WD750GB drives? I'm hoping just because they are not tested by Thecus does not mean they will not be OK. It seems the WD RE2 & RE3 drives are made for this type of thing.

Any comments on the 5200 PRO would be welcomed. I'm not a busy network and the speed looks like a middle of the road performer and they seem to be well made and reliable.

Thanks Again.

 

[thiggins]

You're spending more money to raise the space efficiency with RAID5. Also, the N5200 Pro isn't cheap and you would be paying for performance and features you're not going to use/need.

But if you want capacity, for less money than the N5200 Pro, you could get the LaCie 5big that I just reviewed. 2.5TB with drives for $729 from ProVantage.

 

[therock]

Thanks, The 5Big is tempting coming with hard drives for near the same cost. The one you shown the price of...does it come with 5 drives? What kind are they?
Your statement about speed and features I will not use or need? I agree. The speed thing is what I need clarification on. Naturally we all want all the speed we can get.

Where the main place I would be concerned is when clients select and FTP download a Gigabyte or so of image files. Around the house I use wired so there is no problem there.

I have a Comcast cable connection that's decent and have never ran a FTP thing before. I do use WS_FTP_Home to upload to my site but never configured for allowing remote access to files. That will be another post.

So......... would the 5big be a bottle neck compared to the N5200 in delivering FTP over Comcast cable? Or are they both faster than Cable?

 

[claykin]

Have you considered a Windows Home Server? It doesn't use RAID per se, but uses a RAID like file redundancy system called Drive Extender. It also incorporates single instance storage and that may be advantageous in some cases. Read up on it. Its improved considerably since MS released Power Pack 1 (early reviews beat up on it because of some serious corruption bugs, HP's immature software, and the minuscule amount of RAM HP included with the original model).

HP is scheduled to release new Home Servers based on Intel hardware (thank the lord) in February. Performance will be better and HP has improved some of the software they include with it. Your WD disks should work fine since its using an Intel SATA II Southbridge.

Read preview here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2008/12/28/review-hp-mediasmart-server-ex48/

Many WHS users use Filezilla, a free FTP server addon.

Its time Tim retests the WHS after HP releases their new hardware.

NOTE: True RAID believers don't like the WHS mostly due to Drive Extender. There are pro's and con's to both. Read up and judge for yourself. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/support.mspx (scroll down and look for the tech brief on Drive Extender)

If the WHS does not suit your needs, I'll recommend you consider a NAS from Netgear, Qnap, Synology before Thecus. Thecus is usually a good value for the $, but their firmware often is quirky, buggy and their US support is close to non existent. Just venture over to the Thecus website and look at their support forums. Its like a ghost town. Netgear, Qnap and Synology have active forums and reasonable support. Last thing, don't use disks that are not on the approved vendors list if buying a Linux based NAS. Its sometimes OK, but often the kiss of death and can be trouble. Just peruse forums and read people's horror stories. Every vendor has stories on their forums!

 

[thiggins]

Drives are HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 500GB (HDP725050GLA360).

Your Internet upload speed is going to be the limiting factor and will be much slower than the LaCie or Thecus (or most any other NAS).