IMO, NAS don't last long even for branded ones.

I have a Drobo 1st Gen and within 2 years, unit decided to kaput and destroyed all my data. Can't even recover them. So, I did the best thing. Wipe all drives clean and start over. Luckily, my old Buffalo NAS still have some old data so I don't have to start from scratch.

Since then, I bought a cheap PC, 2 pieces of USB 3.0 PCI-E cards (total 4 ports) and some external USB 3.0 cases. I have 4 USB 3.0 hard drive cases each with 2TB. I used 4TB for data and another 4TB for software mirroring from Windows 7.

Drobo 1st Gen used proprietary RAID system. Because of that, u can mix and match any hard drive make, capacity or spec to gain extra storage. I guess it doesn't have any redundancy.

My current set-up consists of 5 units of Synology old models for media consumption.

DS1010+ @ TV Series (1080P)
DS410J @ ANIME & CARTOON (720P below)
DS411J @ TV Series (720P below)
DS213J @ P0rn
DS411J @ TV Series (720P below)

Total for all? 40TB capacity.

All the above were bought used or given away by friends. If I have at least 20K cash then can really upgrade to a better Synology with at least 100TB or higher.

2 units had their HDD replaced b4.

The good thing about Synology is that the unit will warn u first. Then u go out and buy another 2TB drive and replace the faulty one. From there, the system will rebuild the array and u can sleep peacefully.

However, if 2 drives died at the same time, then you're out of luck.

So, a RAID array is NOT a backup. Important files, I usually back up on an external drive and kept it far away.

Only if u can access the unit. Plus, I disabled SMB so only my Mac can access it.

I've 6 Synology servers at home. Each running mostly for file storage.

Oldest is the DS-410J and newest is the DS-215J. Most powerful is the DS-1010+. All bought used online. 5 are online 24*7. My average electricity bills is RM 400 monthly with 2 fridges and 2 aircons daily.

Very soon, will offline the DS-410J because 3 of the drives already hit 50000 hours.

The replacement will be the DS-215J with 6TB x 2. Once it is online, will backup the DS-410J and shut it down for cold storage.

I'm currently running the following NAS at home. All are located on an IKEA Hejne rack.

DS-410J X 2 units
DS-411J
DS-213J
DS-216J
DS-1010+

Each with 2TB drives. Why? Because 2TB was cheap and plenty in the used market especially for Enterprise or Black drives. I usually buy those with less than 40000 hours.

About a week ago, I found a DS-2411+ for cheap and decided to get it. It was old but perfect for my home office and a chance to consolidate and retire the old J units.

I loaded 10 drives of 2TB as 1 storage pool and another 2 more 2TB drives as Hot Spare. No need to worry about pool degradation as the unit will recover itself automatically.

Today, I'm retiring the following.

DS-213J X 1 unit
DS-216J X 1 unit
DS-410J X 2 units

The DS-411J will continue to serve as my temporary storage during the migration period and the DS-1010+ will remain as my TV series storage.

Once all is done, I will put these up for sale at Carousell.

This post has been edited by acbc: Apr 3 2024, 10:38 AM

DS-1010+ with fan mod.

Stupid server fans cost a bomb. I opted for regular PC fans and grounded the yellow cable to the chassis. No more pesky warnings.

Had a shocker last week on the DS-2411+.

Out of a total of 12 drives, 1 drive went missing. As a result, the unit had to do a parity check which took 2 days with 10 drives. The missing drive got replaced by a hot spare automatically.

Once done, fucking TNB decided to cut the power and once back after 3 hours, the missing drive came back.

I replaced the drive immediately and now seems ok. It will remain as a hot spare.

The fan mod on the DS-1010+ failed. The CPU fan cannot be modded. The 2 case fans no problem. Haih. Gonna retire this unit once I find another 5 or 8 or 12 bay. Fed up with the email warnings and constant beeping.

UPS died too. Need to change the batteries.