Synology NAS

[tkam]

Not really needed as long as the drive is SMART capable and SMART is enabled.  If SMART lists a lot of reallocated sectors on a drive I'll consider replacing it because that's a very good sign that the drive is going to be dead soon.  This is in addition to relying on the raid array to mark dead/dying drives as failed.

[Nebby]

Not really needed as long as the drive is SMART capable and SMART is enabled.  If SMART lists a lot of reallocated sectors on a drive I'll consider replacing it because that's a very good sign that the drive is going to be dead soon.  This is in addition to relying on the raid array to mark dead/dying drives as failed.

 

That's what I use as well and it's really what I meant by diagnostics. I also personally like to proactively run a burn in test on new drives using badblocks (or any program that'll systematically read/write every block on a drive), I've found that prunes out any drives that inevitably end up with an early death.

[tkam]

to proactively run a burn in test on new drives using badblocks

 

That's a very good idea, since in most cases if a drive is going to die it'll happen within the first month of it's use.

[jvlgato]

That's helpful, thank you both!

[morphsci]

Thanks for the feedback guys, it has been helpful. So I finally decided on the 1512+ since it is way more than I need now by itself and when I need to expand in 2 years, I can add a 5 bay expansion unit. I'm definitely going to take my time and make sure I set everything up right. I bought a new gigabit switch that is compliant with the link aggregation capability of the NAS and will switch out all Ethernet cables to and from the switch with Cat6. Also bought a dedicated UPS for the unit. Should be plenty fast enough as my main concern is reliability and constancy of data access. Currently have 2 WD red 3Tb HDDs and have just ordered 4 more. 15 Tb should be a good start.

Oh, and the 2 HDDs came from Newegg and each drive was bubble wrapped, put in its own box and then the two boxes were packed in a larger shipping box. Looked good but I have not tested them yet. Anyone have a MAC or Windows counterpart to badblocks? Not going to mess with Linux.

[Nebby]

Grats on the purchase and it's good to hear that Newegg shipped the hard drives well. A somewhat comparable Windows counterpart would be Barts Stuff Test which I've used before. It looks like they've discontinued the pro version so you're limited to file level , but that should generally be good enough.

[n_maher]

Why'd you get the drives from Newegg? They appear to be cheaper at Amazon.

[morphsci]

I bought them when they had a coupon code and they were under $150 each.

[n_maher]

Nice!

[tkam]

There's no need for Cat6 as long as your existing cables are Cat5e your fine for gigabit.

[morphsci]

Yep, but this is Head-Case after all. Seriously, I had to change the switch anyway and most of the cables were cat5 so it seemed like a good idea to just go cat6 for a little future proofing.

[Nebby]

That's not just a little future proofing, that's h-c level future proofing

[Nebby]

Latest shipment of drives from newegg was significantly worse in packaging:

 

 

The side that was basically resting on the box had a couple of popped bubbles, so we'll see how well these drives fare though a break-in session.

[tkam]

Newegg drive packaging is usually pretty bad - the only way to guarantee good packing is if you get 5 or more at a time, then usually they'll just re-use the original packing from the HD manufacturer.

[The Monkey]

This is good to know about Newegg.

[Nebby]

Newegg drive packaging is usually pretty bad - the only way to guarantee good packing is if you get 5 or more at a time, then usually they'll just re-use the original packing from the HD manufacturer.

 

In this case I ordered 5 and they cut a section of the original packing from the HD manufacturer. Last time around they sent 5 with the full crate and box, which is perfect. This time around they didn't

[Dusty Chalk]

How many are in the manufacturer's packaging?  6?  12?  It'd probably behoove to just get the same number.

 

That said -- good to know.  I'll get my hard drives from MicroCenter from now on.  Not that I am not hard on drives.

[Nebby]

Full Mfg case holds 20

[morphsci]

Latest shipment of drives from newegg was significantly worse in packaging:

 

 

The side that was basically resting on the box had a couple of popped bubbles, so we'll see how well these drives fare though a break-in session.

They must not like you . My drives were packaged about like yours but with a lot more bubble wrap and they were enclosed with paper padding on all sides. So definitely a step down from the previous packaging, but not really bad.

[grawk]

or just buy retail packaged drives

[Nebby]

or just buy retail packaged drives

 

Yeah, I thought of doing that but remembered they packed it well last time...back to the retail drives I go for any future purchases!

[Nebby]

Synology DSM 4.2 is out:

 

http://www.synology.com/support/download.php?lang=us&b=5%20bays&m=DS1512%2B

 

Release notes:

http://www.synology.com/releaseNote_enu/DS1812+.php?lang=us

[VPI]

I am finally ready to put one of these together.  My wifi HD is on its way out so I need to build up a replacement.  If I am looking for between 6-12TB of storage, which box would be my best investment?

[morphsci]

I think the 1512/1513 is the sweet spot in their lineup. With 3Tb drives you get about 12 Tb of usable space.

[tkam]

Agreed - I've been using a 1511 for a couple years now and it's been trouble free and performs well enough to easily max out a single gigabit connection..