How to create a backup (and restore it) in Windows 10 If your data is currently scattered across a selection of external drives, it’s an easy way to consolidate all your files into one place. There’s also often a connector at the front for one-touch copying: simply plug in a USB hard disk and press the copy button, and the contents of the external drive will be copied onto the NAS. Most NAS appliances offer one or more USB 3 ports, meaning you can hook up an external hard disk and share files over your network. But they’re naturally noisier and more power-hungry – as well as generally quite a bit more expensive. For example, with four 1TB drives, you can store up to 3TB of data, and if any single drive should fail, you can simply drop in a replacement and carry on working.įour-bay NAS appliances also tend to have additional features, such as more ports and LCD displays. In this arrangement, a portion of each disk is reserved for parity data from the other three drives (which makes it possible to rebuild the array in the event of a failure). With four disks, you can set up a RAID5 array, which offers a better balance of capacity and data security. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, a four-bay NAS drive is more versatile. Don’t be tempted to rely solely on JBOD or RAID0 configurations, however: these offer more capacity, but lack fault tolerance – if one drive fails, all your data is lost. That way, if one drive fails, you’ll still have a copy of all your data. NAS drives all come with a different number of drive bays, with consumer models generally coming in one, two, three or four-bay variants.Ī sensible minimum is a two-bay system, using two matching hard disks in a mirrored RAID1 configuration. What type of NAS should I buy? And how many bays do I need? JBOD allows you to take drives of varying sizes and combine them into a single volume.Īll of the NAS drives on this list support JBOD and various RAID levels, from RAID 1 to RAID 10. JBOD: Just a Bunch Of Disks – no, seriously. RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks – a method of storing the exact same data on multiple disks – in case of hardware/software failure – that also benefits performance.Storage manufacturer Seagate describes NAS as "like having a private cloud in the office", and we think that's spot on. NAS: Network-Attached Storage – a storage device that is attached to a local network.READ NEXT: Best cloud storage solutions How to choose the best NAS drive for you What do all the acronyms mean?īefore we begin in earnest, here's a brief index of confusing acronyms and what they mean (for the newcomers out there): We're here to steer you towards the best NAS drives on the market right now, but before we do, here's a guide to unscrambling the acronyms and choosing the best NAS appliance for you. No matter what your needs, a NAS can help. Better still, modern NAS appliances can also run all sorts of useful network applications, from media servers to databases, wikis and security camera management systems. And, if one of your hard drives fails, it’s good to know that a multi-disk RAID array is keeping your data safe. It ensures that you can access your data from wherever you happen to be, even if you’re out on the road, thanks to the easy-to-use remote-access services that come as standard. In most homes today you’ll find a plethora of desktops, laptops and mobile devices – so a central repository for your important files makes sense. But network-attached storage isn't just for big businesses. With a gigabit ethernet connection and dual-core processor, transferring files is blazing fast, Wani added.ĭon’t miss out on ET Prime stories! Get your daily dose of business updates on WhatsApp.If you're a business owner, it makes perfect sense to invest in the best NAS drive you can afford. Once the My Cloud drive is set up, customers can easily connect their computers and mobile devices with WD's free desktop and mobile apps. Our software auto-detects the drive to make setup simple for novice users," he said. "WD's rich web-based user interface allows users to get their personal cloud up and running in minutes. Personal cloud storage is the new standard that allows the user to keep media and files safe at home on their own physical drive and then access them over the Internet with any PC or Mac computer or on tablets and smartphones through mobile apps, he added. The convergence of rapid content and device growth requires a new storage paradigm that gives consumers complete control over their digital lives, Wani said. In line with this growth of digital content is the increase in the number of Internet connected devices in India.
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