TS-119+ and eSata External Drive = Good Redundancy For Backup?

[jmolli]

Having read "Smart SOHOs Don't Do Raid", I am now considering a QNAP TS-119+ and eSata external drive set-up instead of a 2 disk, raid 1 capable, NAS box. I know this will not give me the real-time redundancy of a RAID 1, 2 disk box, but a nightly back-up of the NAS to the external drive is really all I need to be able to sleep at night. I'm basically just looking to back up family photos and videos and important files and take advantage of the server functionality of the NAS, possibly streaming HD video to my TV and using the IP surveillance camera capability for some security cams. It would also be nice to have some NAS based storage accessable from any of the 5+ PC's and laptops we use through our wireless LAN (WNDR3700).

I sort of have this centralized storage capability with the WNDR3700 with attached WD USB external drive, but it is slow. I assume the NAS storage would be much quicker (am I wrong on this?). Also, what is your opinion of the redundancy offered by the single disk NAS with attached external drive vs going with a two disk NAS with RAID 1?

P.S. I just read the TS-119 review and was wondering why the back-up to an NTFS formatted external eSata drive (3.6 MBytes\sec) is so poor vs a FAT32 formatted external drive (45 MBytes\sec). I was going to go with NTFS on my external drive. Is this an issue with the QNAP TS-119 or is it true for all consumer\soho NAS boxes??

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[thiggins]

Yes, NASes will be much faster than using router drive sharing features. You must use Gigabit Ethernet to take full advantage of NAS speed, however.

The TS-119 review is old and before QNAP switched to using Paragon's NTFS drivers which are much faster. These drivers are incorporated into the latest firmware, so will be part of the TS-119+.

You already answered your own question about RAID 1 vs. scheduled backup.