Is my NAS configuration plan workable?

[gakaudio]

Thank you Kal for the info.

 

Indeed Barr, it is NTFS. Glad to know it will be compatible.

 

Jtwrace, as I understand, reformatting will erase the data on the drive. I may reformat when I get a new computer in the near future if there is a clear advantage.

 

My plan is to get the NAS, get all of my stuff backed up and then remove some of the data from my computer to see If that fixes its sluggish performance. If not, then I will upgrade to a new computer.

 

I think that most of my questions/issues have been addressed by all of you great people. But if you have some words of wisdom to a novice setting up a NAS for the first time, please lets hear them.

Again, a brief overview of my system/configuration. Windows 7 PC laptop connected to homegroup via wifi. Windows 8 Pro Music-PC running media center 17 connected to router by cat 6 cable. NAS will be inserted into homegroup by connecting to wireless router by Ethernet cable. External Seagate hard drive plugged into NAS or Laptop as needed.

 

Thanks to all, Garth

[gakaudio]

I have purchased the Synology DS214 and expect it to arrive tomorrow. I had planned to buy a WD Red 2 TB drive at bestbuy as I have a couple of gift cards there. Unfortunately, the WD red drives are only available on their "market place" and one can not use gift cards on Market Place items.

 

On the Synology website they list compatible drives. The only "compatible" drive that I can get at bestbuy with my gift cards is: WD - Green 3TB Internal Serial ATA Hard Drive for Desktops Model WD30EZRX. Synology list this as a Desktop drive and not a NAS drive.

 

Does this matter?

Is this a far inferior drive to the Red drive or is it basically equivalent?

 

Thanks, Garth

[Allan F]

I have purchased the Synology DS214 and expect it to arrive tomorrow. I had planned to buy a WD Red 2 TB drive at bestbuy as I have a couple of gift cards there. Unfortunately, the WD red drives are only available on their "market place" and one can not use gift cards on Market Place items.

 

On the Synology website they list compatible drives. The only "compatible" drive that I can get at bestbuy with my gift cards is: WD - Green 3TB Internal Serial ATA Hard Drive for Desktops Model WD30EZRX. Synology list this as a Desktop drive and not a NAS drive.

 

Does this matter?

Is this a far inferior drive to the Red drive or is it basically equivalent?

 

Thanks, Garth

 

I hope that this link may help you decide: Western Digital Red Hard Disk Drives for Network Attached Storage Review - X-bit labs

[baddog]

Allan - Thanks for posting, my read on this is that given he can get the Greens with store credit, he should move forward with those at this point in time.

 

It is clear too that given a pure choice between green and red they lean to the red.

[Allan F]

Allan - Thanks for posting, my read on this is that given he can get the Greens with store credit, he should move forward with those at this point in time.

 

It is clear too that given a pure choice between green and red they lean to the red.

 

I am no expert on HDDs, but there apparently is an issue with WD Green drives which, in their default state, can make them less than ideal for use in a NAS server. To conserve energy, the heads are parked after only 8 seconds of idle time. Rather than attempt to explain how this idle feature might negatively affect a NAS, I suggest referring to the following link. Hacking WD Greens(and Reds) with WDIDLE3.exe | FreeNAS Community As explained in this article, there is a DOS utility that can be used to change the idle time to make a Green drive behave similarly to a WD Red drive.

 

Other articles on this issue can easily be found by doing a Google search on "WD Green idle time". I don't have the knowledge to say how serious this issue may potentially be for a music library NAS. The safer course might be to go with WD Reds, whose firmware is supposed to be optimized for use in a NAS.

[NotRick]

to me the cost is justified for backups..i have had a backup usb sata die on me when it had little to no use...there is much less chance of ssd drive failure than sata drive failure...anyway, it's ssd for my backup now...

 

I recently had two disks in the same raid 10 die, one on the main, one on the mirror - and one of the backup disks died In The Same DAY - being a paranoid sob I keep more than one backup. I never did figure out what killed them, although I don't use that Raid box anymore. The backup drive was a hot swap in the 5 drive array, and only got powered up when it was doing a backup - it was one of three that had that job. Bad things can, and do happen. Granted, that was the worst I've ever been hit, and I'm still trying to figure out what sort of Horrible Things I must have done in a previous life to have that happen...

 

I keep no less than two full backups done after every major change, and I count on the mirror for the in-between stuff. I very occasionally lose something to a file overwrite that wasn't backed up, although not since I added a 2T NAS for TimeMachine. One backup set is onsite, one in the safety deposit box at the bank. I've got four copies of my photoshop work since I really don't want to have to redo any of that.

 

I kind of wish I could do my backups on SSD but nobody makes a 3T SSD (and I don't think I could afford it even if they did).

 

Audio is relatively easy to recover, 1000's of hours of photoshop work on hundreds of 400Mb - 2Gb files - not so easy. My writing is backed up to the Raid, two portables, and three flash drives - yes I'm that paranoid, but then I've been doing this since 1973 and experience is a merciless and sometimes painful teacher.

[gakaudio]

Thanks Allan for the link. It seems that Red is better but Green didn’t embarrass itself. One of the things that give me pause about the green is that on the synology compatibility list it is listed as a desktop drive and not a NAS drive. Should this be a concern? I was leaning toward just getting a red drive but on newegg, the 3 TB drives get very mixed reviews as being DOA. On BandH photo and amazon however, it gets good reviews.

Thanks, Garth

 

[appledave]

 

On the Synology website they list compatible drives. The only "compatible" drive that I can get at bestbuy with my gift cards is: WD - Green 3TB Internal Serial ATA Hard Drive for Desktops Model WD30EZRX. Synology list this as a Desktop drive and not a NAS drive.

 

Does this matter?

Is this a far inferior drive to the Red drive or is it basically equivalent?

 

Thanks, Garth

 

I've been running a used Synology DS211j for about a month now. It came with a pre-installed 1 TB Green from the previous owner and I have filled the other slot with a new 3 TB Red. They are both running as Basic volumes with no RAID; I will eventually pair the 3 TB Red with a matching RAID drive but for now the 1 TB Green is acting a scratch drive/storage bin (for a bunch of videos that I really don't care about).

 

I can assure you that they both work equally as well. I did notice the Green runs slightly hotter than the Red, but this is likely due to the Bay-2 slot next to the circuit board dealing with extra heat (which is normal in these devices) rather than the difference in the drives themselves.

 

Yes, Red is better for extended use, but there are no issues running a current WD Green drive in a Synology NAS (even though they do not list them explicitly).

 

 

Dave.

[baddog]

FWIW I have been running six WD 3 Terabyte Reds for well over a year now with nary a hiccup (knock on wood). And yes I back them up regularly.

[gakaudio]

Thanks guys, bought a 2 TB red drive on amazon and should be here sunday or Tuesday. I may have a lot more questions after I get things up and running.

 

Cheers, Garth

[Allan F]

Thanks guys, bought a 2 TB red drive on amazon and should be here sunday or Tuesday. I may have a lot more questions after I get things up and running.

 

Cheers, Garth

 

Good move, Garth. The reason that Synology doesn't include the Green drives in their compatibility list for the NAS is probably on the advice of WD because of the firmware issues described in the link. Unless the idle time was modified, the life expectancy of Green drives could potentially be significantly impacted if used in a NAS.

[gakaudio]

Ok, I received the DS214 and the WD 2TB Red drive. I placed the hard drive into slot one, buttoned it up, turned it on and got about two steps into the install process and got the following message from Synology Web Assistant: No Hard Disk Found on DS214. There is a button that says reconnect again. I click this and receive the no hard disk found again, etc…

I have read that one can check the disk for errors but I don’t know how to do that. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks, Garth

[baddog]

I would suggest powering down the unit, remove the Hard drive, and then check to make sure you put the brackets on HD correctly and then reinsert into the DS214 and power on. And see if it still reports an issue.

 

The disk will need to be formatted by DSM once it is found.

 

Also though I have not watched it all the way through perhaps this YouTube video on how to setup a DS214 might be of value?

 

[baddog]

So these are the steps you followed?

 

1 Power on DiskStation and have it connected to the Internet. 


2 Depending on your network environment, there are two ways to start DSM installation on your computer’s web browser:


With Internet access: Go to find.synology.com

Without Internet access: Go to diskstation:5000 


3 Web Assistant will be launched on your web browser. It will search and find your DiskStation within LAN, and the status of your DiskStation should be Not Installed. 


4 Click Connect to start the setup process. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the setup process. 


 

 

 

[gakaudio]

So these are the steps you followed?

 

1 Power on DiskStation and have it connected to the Internet. 


2 Depending on your network environment, there are two ways to start DSM installation on your computer’s web browser:


With Internet access: Go to find.synology.com

Without Internet access: Go to diskstation:5000 


3 Web Assistant will be launched on your web browser. It will search and find your DiskStation within LAN, and the status of your DiskStation should be Not Installed. 


4 Click Connect to start the setup process. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the setup process. 


 

 

 

bplexico, Thanks for the link. I watch some of it. I stopped watching when it progressed far beyond where I was able to get in my set up process. Yes, I followed the steps you quote above. Using Web Assistant, the DS214 was not detected but using Synology Assistant my DS214 was recognized. I highlighted my DS214 and clicked connect which sent me back to Web Assistant where the image of a hard drive is shown with a green Plus sign over it. The text read, No Hard Disk Found on DS214, and a “Connect Again” button is available. Also, there is no light next to either Disk 1 or Disk 2 on the DS214. So it appears that I may have gotten a bad disk. I intent to take it to work tomorrow and see if IT can analyze it for me.

There is nothing I have to do to the hard drive before I put it into the DS is there? When I started the DS214 I could hear it cycling over and over again, each cycle taking ~4-5 sec. Finally after ~5-7 min the cycling stopped, the status light illuminated, and the DS214 showed up in Synology Assistant.

 

Thanks, Garth

[baddog]

Garth - Nothing you need to do to the hard drive before putting it in one of the bays on the DS214. It does sound like you may have gotten a bad drive, that is unfortunate and frustrating I am sure.

 

I assume you do not have any spare USB HD enclosures at home you could plug it into, do you?

 

Barr

[gakaudio]

IT checked it out for me today, the drive is dead, fun. Now for a really dumb question, is it recommended to return it to amazon where I bought it, or Western Digital? I've not had to return something to an internet retailer before.

 

Thanks, Garth

[baddog]

IT checked it out for me today, the drive is dead, fun. Now for a really dumb question, is it recommended to return it to amazon where I bought it, or Western Digital? I've not had to return something to an internet retailer before.

 

Thanks, Garth

 

Return it to Amazon, they are great - they usually put a replacement in the mail right away and ask that you return the old one within 30 days or you will be billed for the second unit. They will also pay for the return shipping an issue you an RMA.

 

You can do it online with Amazon fairly quickly. No questions, no hassles.

 

Barr

[gakaudio]

Again, thanks to all for your help. Filed bad drive with Amazon and already have the new drive. Installed it and worked like a charm. I am in the process of adding files/apps to it now. First is "download Station". What are considered the must have apps or is there no such thing? I am having trouble right now adding the DiskStation to my homegroup but maybe it is not supposed to be in a homegroup, don't know. Is it possibly because I am using Norton to manage my firewall?

 

Garth

[jabbr]

If you have a spare computer hanging around it will do fine as a NAS -- particularly if you only need 4 bays.

 

You want to Mirror your NAS and then use rsync to backup to another drive.

[baddog]

Hello Garth - glad to hear the new drive arrived and is working for you. Refresh my memory as it has been a couple of days - what were the key things you wanted to do?