Which NAS to buy

[Enquiries]

Matt H
41 minutes ago
have been watching hours of your videos on NAS this past week and just want to say thank you for the advice and tips.

I am in the process of replacing a QNAP TS-251 2 bay/4GB that died during the pandemic and have learned so much on what to think about. Its setup in my TV room and is mainly a media storage/player for that room. I did use QNAPcloud previously but am going to shy away from it being on the net for the initial stages of use. Its a 1080p room and for the most part use.264 files.

Is there a NAS you would recommend for my purposes if I am wanting to stick with QNAP or Synology? The local computer store is saying that I should stick with QNAP and the data on my previous 10TB drives can be saved as it will not need to be formatted for a new QNAP enclosure. I am not sure that I should just plug those drives into the new enclosure in case there are vulnerabilities or applications that will cause me grief. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I ran the KODI application on my old NAS through the QTS software, but think Plex may be a better option. I will be integrating it into my Control 4 setup for the home theatre as well

[TribalHound]

Qnap has a section called 'Compatibility for NAS Migration' on their website. There's a YouTube video posted by QNAP UK Limited on 3rd Aug 2021 that guides you through the process.

Choosing from the list that's available would mean you don't have to rebuild the entire system from the ground up and then migrate data. Especially as your TS-251 died you might not have access to the drives.

Once you've migrated you can install larger drives one at a time (if required) and let the NAS Raid Builder increase the capacity once the second larger drive is added.

You can also migrate to a 4 bay NAS, which would further increase capacity - if you want to get more involved with the NAS and Applications.

[Matt_RH]

Thanks for the thoughts. Its funny that the two options (TS-230-US and TS-231P3-4G) the shop priced out for me are listed as not compatible with my old TS-251 (with 4G of RAM that i upgraded it too). I have done some quick looking online and my sense is that the two options may not be the best options for me. The TS-231 seems like a better option, but at the price point $530 CAD i think i can get a TS-251 cheaper if i look elsewhere and it is listed as on that QNAP list as directly compatible.

I find this all to overwhelming as O am not an expert on NAS and just want the darn thing setup again in my home theatre room (hopefully retaining the old drives that have 300+ movies on them). I want something that can just go back to the way it was before it crapped out, can handle the demands of a home theatre user and possibly future usage of digital photo storage only. All this info is a lot to take for a NAS rookie haha

[TribalHound]

Maybe the solution (if you have data stuck on the TS-251) is to get your NAS Fixed - buy a whole new one, build it to your exact specs and then migrate the data across using the in built software? If it's just the power brick that's broken, it's an easy replacement.

All data is compatible to any NAS (copy/paste) - it's just recycling the same discs 'as is' that isn't.

I still have a (really old) TS-210 that I bought second hand almost a decade ago - it's not web accessible but it's in an outbuilding and twice a week backs up my crucial data as a 3rd copy. It's probably not compatible with anything now.