External Hard Drive for my NAS

Deleted member 952 · Jul 12, 2022

Hi,

I'm looking to buy an external hard drive for my NAS drive as a backup, I'm using a Synology DS720+ NAS 16TB (BACKUP). Which would you guys recommend I'm in the UK.

Thanks

Berton · Jul 12, 2022

Looks like that Synology DS720+ NAS unit comes without the drives so the choice of what to use is up to you but if only one drive is in it I'd get another drive the same. I have been using 2 x 2TB NAS drives in their own case but one case went bad, the interface in the case died, so am using the drive in a computer now. I have obtained a Buffalo NAS with 2 x 2TB Seagate replaceable drives in it, will be installing this week to replace the remaining single drive I have now. One thing is deciding how to set it up, as RAID mirror or striping or as just single drives.

Download Center - download | Synology Inc.

Centralize data storage and backup, streamline file collaboration, optimize video management, and secure network deployment to facilitate data management.

www.synology.com

Deleted member 952 · Jul 12, 2022

Berton said:
Looks like that Synology DS720+ NAS unit comes without the drives so the choice of what to use is up to you but if only one drive is in it I'd get another drive the same. I have been using 2 x 2TB NAS drives in their own case but one case went bad, the interface in the case died, so am using the drive in a computer now. I have obtained a Buffalo NAS with 2 x 2TB Seagate replaceable drives in it, will be installing this week to replace the remaining single drive I have now. One thing is deciding how to set it up, as RAID mirror or striping or as just single drives.

Download Center - download | Synology Inc.

Centralize data storage and backup, streamline file collaboration, optimize video management, and secure network deployment to facilitate data management.

www.synology.com

Sorry, you miss-understand me, I have the drives inside, purchased separate 2x8TB Seagate Ironwolf's I'm looking for an external drive so I can plug it into the NAS and do a backup so I can take it off site every 30days.

Berton · Jul 12, 2022

I see. I'd think any External USB drive would work as long as it had sufficient capacity. Mine had a USB 3 port on them for adding storage which would be nice being able to connect directly to a computer. My Router also has a USB 3 port for adding a drive. The image on that page, further down, shows a USB 3 port on that case, actually 2, 1 front and 1 back. A question would be whether RAID is involved, using 2 drives could result in the total capacity being on 8TB, not 16TB, least ways that's the way the Buffalo NAS I got can be set that way. With mirroring one drive is an exact copy of the other and stiping is more like spreading the files across both. From what I've read, problems in striping can cause loss of everything on both so a full backup would be wise.

Deleted member 952 · Jul 12, 2022

Berton said:
I see. I'd think any External USB drive would work as long as it had sufficient capacity. Mine had a USB 3 port on them for adding storage which would be nice being able to connect directly to a computer. My Router also has a USB 3 port for adding a drive. The image on that page, further down, shows a USB 3 port on that case, actually 2, 1 front and 1 back. A question would be whether RAID is involved, using 2 drives could result in the total capacity being on 8TB, not 16TB, least ways that's the way the Buffalo NAS I got can be set that way. With mirroring one drive is an exact copy of the other and stiping is more like spreading the files across both. From what I've read, problems in striping can cause loss of everything on both so a full backup would be wise.

Getting this is as a really good deal at the moment : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B093WXS72X/

Berton · Jul 12, 2022

kuyenmotdivad said:
Getting this is as a really good deal at the moment : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B093WXS72X/

That would be about $360USD, not too bad with the economy the way it is.

jimbo45 · Jul 13, 2022

kuyenmotdivad said:
Sorry, you miss-understand me, I have the drives inside, purchased separate 2x8TB Seagate Ironwolf's I'm looking for an external drive so I can plug it into the NAS and do a backup so I can take it off site every 30days.

Hi there

also @Berton :

why not buy those 2 / 4 bay external enclosures (over 20 TB of storage space possible) -- connect to NAS via USB 3 / 3/1 / USBC or even USB2. Can often use built in RAID as well.

I'm using IB-3640 IcyBOX series 4 Bay setup. Brilliant, fan reasonbly OK , Has JBOD (just a Bunch of Disks), RAID0, RAID 1, Raid3, RAIDS 5, RAID 10 options.

In UK 133 GBP (and take 20% VAT off that net price if exporting from UK) . I've got one of these with 4 HDD's giving me 20 TB of storage space.

typically : (but choose options -- because not all have RAID -- JBOD always works well though. With Sterling dropping down "The hole" I've just bought another one of these !!! especially with no VAT to pay here (" used for Educational material" !!!). Customs levy and shipping here in ISL 25 EUR so still a a great bargain.

(Populate your own disks - but JBOD / RAID 0 can be great for using old HDD's efficiently even when they are different sizes as all HDD space is used -- typically RAID etc just aggregate size of smallest volumes. This mechanism uses entire space of unequal size HDD's for RAID 0 / JBOD.