Help with new NAS purchase

[mosley]

I would like to purchase a NAS for my home. I currently have three PCs and one Mac. It will be used for storing my documents as well as my music, pictures and movies. I eventually plan on buying a media streamer (popbox). I also have an external drive for backups and would like to server my printer from the NAS.

Based on reading the forums and reviews, and am thinking of buying the following: Synology DS210j and two WD Caviar Black 1TB HDDs (WD1001FALS).

Am I on the right track here? Am I missing anything? Any suggestions?

 

[BostonDan]

Right Track

I purchased the DS210j last month for my inlaws for storing pictures/music and backing up two computers. In a similar manner, the DS210j has two samsung 1TB drives and an external WD 1TB drive backing up the DS210j.

I'm using Oops backup to backup data on two computers to the NAS and planning to use PartedMagic(part of Ultimate Boot CD) to take images of their computers every so often. I never played with the Synology PC backup software as the description did not meet my requirements.
So far, it's been working great. Hope this helps.

 

[mosley]

Synology DS210j - HDD Manufacturer?

One more question...

Why would one go with WD HDD or Seagate or Samsung? I was going to purchase WD, because that is what I have always used. Would someone recommend one manufaturer over another with the Synology DS210j?

 

[BostonDan]

Hard Drives

Hi Mosley - historically for me, WD has always been the most reliable and I've had horrible luck with Seagate. Until now, I've never purchased Samsung. The reason I tried Samsung was because of reviews on Newegg and posts of others using the Samsung HD103SJ with the Synology DS210j. Whatever you do, make sure the drives purchased are listed as tested for the DS210j. For my own home system, I have a Synology DS209 with the same Samsung HD103SJ hard drives. You might want to check out the thread on differences between WD desktop and server HDDs for 210j. (Sorry, I don't know how to insert the link). It provides some good information from Western Digital as to how error handling is performed. It makes me rethink whether I should have purchased server HDD's instead of desktop HDDs. Best of luck!

 

[mosley]

I found this thread, but i am still not clear on which type of drive I should use.

any significant difference between WD desktop and server HDDs for 210j?

This NAS is not for any heavy duty use, only for my home personal use, which will probably be minimal. I did check the Synology manufacturer site, and the WD Caviar Black 1TB HDDs (WD1001FALS) are listed as compatible with the DS210j. And I was considering using RAID1.

Does anyone think there will be any issues with these drives in this type of enviornment?