Hey Y’all,
Just thought I’d pass along my experience with a couple of NAS devices for what it’s worth.
I’d been using a WDMyBook 3TB NAS for several years. About 4 weeks ago I could no longer get a good backup, either wouldn’t complete or wouldn’t verify. At first I thought it was the backup drive so I reformatted that, unfortunately that was also a 3TB drive and it took 30 hours to format using a USB3 dock! Well that didn’t solve the problem. So it must be a problem with NAS so I reformatted that, yep another day shot. I finally got it restored using my last good backup, yep that old belt and suspenders habit of having a couple of generations of backup paid off.
However, knowing that this device is suspect I decided to do some research and I decided on a Synology DS220+ and 2 Segate 4Tb Iron Wolf drives to setup a Raid 1 NAS box.
Well I couldn’t be happier. Not only was the DS220+ a snap to install and configure but the speed puts the old MyBook to shame! Every time I’d attempt to access the MyBook for the first time after a reboot/restart of the computer it would take forever to scan the drive with that slow bar creeping across file explorer. Now with the DS220+ the files just snap right on the display.
In the way of full disclosure the MyBook is pretty much plug and play. You only have to set up the shares and user accounts. Where as the DS220+ is an empty box and you have to purchase and install (completely tool less and a snap) the drives yourself. You then connect it to your router and do some configuration to select the RAID level you want, establish a Static IP address (not required but IMHO the way to go), and then setup the shares and user accounts. Also the whole setup set me back approx. $420 USD as compared to a 4Gb MyCloud (replacement for MyBook) at $400 with no Raid and not nearly as much control and only a single Ethernet port vs the 220’s two!
Believe me, you don’t have to be a techno geek to set this thing up it was a snap. That said there is a whole lot more I can be doing with this unit that I’ll explore in the future. For now I have what I was after a fast and reliable network storage device that both my better half and I can access our vast photo library and other shared files quickly and reliably.
HTH 😎