Thinking about the synology DS12j

[Soopafly49]

Few questions about this product

Firsty wy is the black one 60 pounds more expensive?

Is it better the use it with its own drives of get something like WD hardrives and does it have its own backup facility within it. Ie if i put 2x2 TB drives in it will it back up the first on the the second incase of failure?

 

[bigboss]

Firsty wy is the black one 60 pounds more expensive?

Simply a case of demand & supply.

Is it better the use it with its own drives of get something like WD hardrives and does it have its own backup facility within it. Ie if i put 2x2 TB drives in it will it back up the first on the the second incase of failure?

You can use any hard drive as long as it's supported by Synology.

You will have to configure it to RAID 1 for automatic back up.

 

[bigboss]

Just looked on Amazon. Are you getting confused with Synology DS212J (white) & DS212 (black)?

DS212 has 2 X USB 3.0 ports, 1 X USB 2.0 port & 1 X SD Card Port (as opposed to 2 X USB 2.0 ports only in DS212J). It also enables you to directly copy music / photos etc. with a single click of a button (on the DS212).

Full comparison here.

 

[Soopafly49]

Just looked on Amazon. Are you getting confused with Synology DS212J (white) & DS212 (black)?

DS212 has 2 X USB 3.0 ports, 1 X USB 2.0 port & 1 X SD Card Port (as opposed to 2 X USB 2.0 ports only in DS212J). It also enables you to directly copy music / photos etc. with a single click of a button (on the DS212).

Full comparison here.

Oh right. Do you know if the DS212j comes in black? When you say directly copy music photos etc from what exactly I thought copying music onto a ns was just simply drag n drop?

 

[Soopafly49]

Firsty wy is the black one 60 pounds more expensive?

Simply a case of demand & supply.

Is it better the use it with its own drives of get something like WD hardrives and does it have its own backup facility within it. Ie if i put 2x2 TB drives in it will it back up the first on the the second incase of failure?

You can use any hard drive as long as it's supported by Synology.

You will have to configure it to RAID 1 for automatic back up.

Not really sure about all this raid stuff, do you have any recommended reading?

 

[bigboss]

Just looked on Amazon. Are you getting confused with Synology DS212J (white) & DS212 (black)?

DS212 has 2 X USB 3.0 ports, 1 X USB 2.0 port & 1 X SD Card Port (as opposed to 2 X USB 2.0 ports only in DS212J). It also enables you to directly copy music / photos etc. with a single click of a button (on the DS212).

Full comparison here.

Oh right. Do you know if the DS212j comes in black? When you say directly copy music photos etc from what exactly I thought copying music onto a ns was just simply drag n drop?

Yes, it is drag & drop. But with the DS212, you don't need to switch on your laptop at all. Simply insert the flash drive / SD card in your NAS drive, & press the"copy" button. Useful if you want to copy photos from your camera's SD card. If you don't think you'll be using it, save yourself some cash & go for the DS212J.

I don't think DS212J comes in black.

 

[bigboss]

Firsty wy is the black one 60 pounds more expensive?

Simply a case of demand & supply.

Is it better the use it with its own drives of get something like WD hardrives and does it have its own backup facility within it. Ie if i put 2x2 TB drives in it will it back up the first on the the second incase of failure?

You can use any hard drive as long as it's supported by Synology.

You will have to configure it to RAID 1 for automatic back up.

Not really sure about all this raid stuff, do you have any recommended reading?

http://tierradatarecovery.co.uk/dummies-guide-to-raid

http://www.synology.com/tutorials/how_to_whats_Synology_Hybrid_RAID.php?lang=us

http://www.synology.com/tutorials/how_to_RAID.php?lang=us

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/Home

 

[professorhat]

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (believe it or not) - it's main purpose is to allow you to turn several small disks into one large partition (generally known as a RAID 0 partition). However, there are different types of RAID which also give redundancy options - RAID 1 is basically where one disk is mirrored on to another one - this happens automatically and the write occurs on both disks at the same time ensuring you always have a complete copy of your information. Other types of RAID exist for systems with more than two hard disks, RAID 5 being the most common which allows for one disk to fail without losing access to your data. Certain RAID types also bring performance benefits as well, but that's not really too crucial for the home market.

Don't make the mistake of thinking of RAID as a backup - it's not. It's fault tolerance. In a RAID 1 with two disks, one of those disks can fail and you won't lose access to your data. As long as you replace the faulty disk, the RAID will then automatically rebuild itself and once done, you're protected again. The reason this isn't a backup is because it literally only protects from hardware failure. If you delete a file accidentally, it's deleted on both disks immediately - there's no way of getting the file back (without resorting to recovery tools etc.). Same goes for corruption - a corrupted file is corrupted on both disks immediately.

For that reason, you should use RAID to protect your data from hardware failure, but you should still keep a regular backup to protect from other mishaps.

BTW - I can recommend the Synology NAS devices - I've had one for a few weeks now and am very taken with it

 

[bigboss]

BTW - I can recommend the Synology NAS devices - I've had one for a few weeks now and am very taken with it

Is there any need to upgrade to a DS212 or DS212+, instead of a DS212J? I've currently got a Western Digital My Book World Edition NAS Drive. Apart from RAID, is there any other reason for me to upgrade to Synology?

 

[Soopafly49]

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (believe it or not) - it's main purpose is to allow you to turn several small disks into one large partition (generally known as a RAID 0 partition). However, there are different types of RAID which also give redundancy options - RAID 1 is basically where one disk is mirrored on to another one - this happens automatically and the write occurs on both disks at the same time ensuring you always have a complete copy of your information. Other types of RAID exist for systems with more than two hard disks, RAID 5 being the most common which allows for one disk to fail without losing access to your data. Certain RAID types also bring performance benefits as well, but that's not really too crucial for the home market.

Don't make the mistake of thinking of RAID as a backup - it's not. It's fault tolerance. In a RAID 1 with two disks, one of those disks can fail and you won't lose access to your data. As long as you replace the faulty disk, the RAID will then automatically rebuild itself and once done, you're protected again. The reason this isn't a backup is because it literally only protects from hardware failure. If you delete a file accidentally, it's deleted on both disks immediately - there's no way of getting the file back (without resorting to recovery tools etc.). Same goes for corruption - a corrupted file is corrupted on both disks immediately.

For that reason, you should use RAID to protect your data from hardware failure, but you should still keep a regular backup to protect from other mishaps.

BTW - I can recommend the Synology NAS devices - I've had one for a few weeks now and am very taken with it

thanks prof hat very good explanation and you 2 bigboss.

So for a raid one setup i would jus need 2x 2TB hard drives and a 2TB external for backup. and also the usb type example 2.0 or 3.0 is that the transfer rate?

 

[bigboss]

USB 3.0 is a revision of the Universal Serial Bus connectivity standard, from 2.0. Theoretically, it can achieve 10 times the data transfer speeds of USB 2.0. It is compatible with 2.0, but then will operate at 2.0 speeds.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/usb-3-0-vs-usb-2-0-much-204216261.html

 

[professorhat]

BTW - I can recommend the Synology NAS devices - I've had one for a few weeks now and am very taken with it

Is there any need to upgrade to a DS212 or DS212+, instead of a DS212J? I've currently got a Western Digital My Book World Edition NAS Drive. Apart from RAID, is there any other reason for me to upgrade to Synology?

In terms of Synology themselves, it's all about the DSM software - it offers so much functionality i.e. things like Cloud Station which syncs local documents to your NAS and vice versa (like Offline Files in Windows, but better IMO), ensuring you always have a good backup of local files - this is really useful for laptops and something I use extensively. There's also Music Station and Photo Station which allow me to pick up all my music and photos on the move on my iPhone i.e. it provides me with a "private cloud" so all my stuff is available from the internet.

Then there's other things it will do, like run a web server, email server, surveillance etc. Plus it will present iSCSI LUNs which will be useful for me to run test environments to learn new stuff for work (but that's probably not something many people will be interested in!).

As far as individual models are concerned, they all run the same software (as far as I'm aware), so it's just really a question of comparing the hardware specs and the performance this gives and determining whether this is okay for your needs. I would have thought the 212J would provide more than enough for most home users' needs given there's likely only going to be 2 or 3 people at most connecting at once and you're probably not going to be running all the features i.e. web server, email server, surveillance station etc. etc.

Of course, if you are thinking of doing those things, you might want to look at the higher end models.

 

[Soopafly49]

USB 3.0 is a revision of the Universal Serial Bus connectivity standard, from 2.0. Theoretically, it can achieve 10 times the data transfer speeds of USB 2.0. It is compatible with 2.0, but then will operate at 2.0 speeds.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/usb-3-0-vs-usb-2-0-much-204216261.html

thanks again