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NAS Start Setup - Enquiries - 09-16-2025
Hi NAS Compares Team
I was trying to figure out how I will start with my first nass im dpi g photography and graphic design at the moment I only have 2Tb of data but it’s growing fast I was thinking of future proof mx business and get a 8 Bay
ds1825+ But I wasn’t sure with how many drives to start is it better to start with 4x16tb drives in SHR2 this ist mostly for archiving and maybe for editing photos not sure yet. But I wasn’t sure if it’s better to start with a SHR1 or SHR2 for the start also not sure if it’s a good idea to fill all bays at the start or only scale as I use up more space as I think filling all bays and not using the actual space will just wear down drives I’m mostly not even using. It really be great to hear your guys feedback on this topic and what you recommend. Not sure if I should go save with SHR2 where I can have two drive failures. I also will backup my archive to Backblaze.
Thanks guys looking forward to your response.
RE: NAS Start Setup - ed - 09-16-2025
For starting configuration, 4 × 16TB drives in SHR2 is a very safe balance. That setup will give you around 32TB usable, with protection against two drive failures. Since your data is business-critical and you’re planning to back up to Backblaze as well, SHR2 is a smart choice. It’s always easier to relax protection later than to wish you had more redundancy after a failure.
As for whether to fill all the bays, you don’t need to do that up front. Drives do wear over time even if they aren’t fully used, and there’s no benefit in having empty capacity just sitting in RAID. Starting with 4 drives is perfectly fine. Synology lets you expand the pool later by adding more drives, and SHR makes that process flexible. You’ll only rebuild when you add, so it’s straightforward to scale as your storage needs grow.
If you wanted to maximize space efficiency early on, SHR1 would give you around 48TB usable from the same 4 × 16TB drives. But given the cost of your projects and the importance of avoiding downtime, SHR2 is the safer call. The fact you’ll also have cloud backup means you’ll have three layers: live NAS, redundancy with SHR2, and off-site with Backblaze. That’s a strong long-term plan.
So I’d recommend: start with 4 × 16TB in SHR2, scale by adding more drives only as you need them, and keep your Backblaze backup active. That will give you a reliable, future-proof setup without burning through drives unnecessarily.