Yesterday, 04:19 PM
2-bay vs 4-bay
I’d recommend going with a 4-bay. Even if you only start with two drives, having the extra bays gives you more flexibility to expand capacity or redundancy later. For example, you could start with 2×4TB in SHR and add more drives down the line as your storage needs grow, without having to replace drives or start from scratch. Performance-wise, a 4-bay can also stripe reads/writes across more drives if you set it up that way, which helps with responsiveness for photo browsing.
A good fit in your budget range would be the DS423+, which is much faster than your DS214play, supports Docker, and has plenty of headroom for years to come.
File system: ext4 vs Btrfs
For home users managing lots of photos and videos, Btrfs is worth it. It gives you snapshots, easier recovery if you make mistakes, and better data integrity checking. DSM makes using Btrfs very easy — you won’t notice much difference day-to-day, but it’s nice insurance to have.
Migrating from ext4 to Btrfs
Unfortunately, you can’t just migrate ext4 to Btrfs in place or by hot-swapping the drives — Synology requires you to create a new volume in Btrfs. The typical process is:
1. Back up your data somewhere else temporarily (USB drive, external HDD, cloud).
2. Install new drives (or wipe your old ones if you’re reusing them) in the new NAS.
3. Create a new SHR volume using Btrfs.
4. Restore your data onto the new volume.
It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s the cleanest way to start fresh on the new file system.
Summary
• Go 4-bay for flexibility.
• DS423+ is a great choice here.
• Use Btrfs for peace of mind and snapshots.
• Plan for a temporary backup to move your data over.
• Optional: Docker on the DS423+ will happily run Adguard and similar small apps.
I’d recommend going with a 4-bay. Even if you only start with two drives, having the extra bays gives you more flexibility to expand capacity or redundancy later. For example, you could start with 2×4TB in SHR and add more drives down the line as your storage needs grow, without having to replace drives or start from scratch. Performance-wise, a 4-bay can also stripe reads/writes across more drives if you set it up that way, which helps with responsiveness for photo browsing.
A good fit in your budget range would be the DS423+, which is much faster than your DS214play, supports Docker, and has plenty of headroom for years to come.
File system: ext4 vs Btrfs
For home users managing lots of photos and videos, Btrfs is worth it. It gives you snapshots, easier recovery if you make mistakes, and better data integrity checking. DSM makes using Btrfs very easy — you won’t notice much difference day-to-day, but it’s nice insurance to have.
Migrating from ext4 to Btrfs
Unfortunately, you can’t just migrate ext4 to Btrfs in place or by hot-swapping the drives — Synology requires you to create a new volume in Btrfs. The typical process is:
1. Back up your data somewhere else temporarily (USB drive, external HDD, cloud).
2. Install new drives (or wipe your old ones if you’re reusing them) in the new NAS.
3. Create a new SHR volume using Btrfs.
4. Restore your data onto the new volume.
It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s the cleanest way to start fresh on the new file system.
Summary
• Go 4-bay for flexibility.
• DS423+ is a great choice here.
• Use Btrfs for peace of mind and snapshots.
• Plan for a temporary backup to move your data over.
• Optional: Docker on the DS423+ will happily run Adguard and similar small apps.