Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ltrip]

I have had the DNS-323 since 2009.  The drives are 750 GB WD Caviar, dated March 2008.  I am running firmware 1.10 dated 4/6/11 (install date?)
At this point the system is running well, but I am out of space.
I have considered buying a new NAS for the upgraded features, but my wife is concerned about the price.
Questions:
- How big is my risk of failure of the DNS-323 (not the drives) if I continue to use it for several more years?
- One new feature I was looking for was the "cloud" feature to access files on the NAS over the internet from wherever we are.  Does the DNS-323 have this capability?  If so, please point me to the information about it.
- Assuming I stay with the DNS-323, I will get 2 2TB WD "red" drives.  Other posts indicate that these work in this NAS.  I believe I have the correct firmware for this.  I have seen the 2 methods:
- - Back up the 750GB NAS to another device; replace both drives; restore from the back up.   I don;t have a device with 750GB to back up to, so I don;t think this will work for me.   Is there a cloud back up service where I can buy 750GB space for a limited time to accomplish this?
- - Remove 1 drive and replace with new drive; allow the NAS to sync; remove the second drive and replace with second new drive; allow NAS to sync.   This seems "easy", although time consuming.  It seems preferable to me.  Am I missing something?  Is there a pitfall I need to avoid?

I think that's it.

Thanks in advance.
Larie

[dosborne]

Option 2 won't work as the new raid size will still be 750.

Option 1 - Install both new drives and configure them as you want. Put one of the old drives into a mount or use a usb conversion cable and the Linux driver to mount the drive on your PC and copy the files to the NAS.
2 - Remove both 750's. Install and format one of the new drives. Insert one of the 750s and copy from old to new. Remove 750 and install second new drive and configure as raid.

Risk of failure? Hard to say. I've been running 3 x DNS323 for a number of years 24/7 and they are still going. I hope to get many more years out of them.

[fordem]

- How big is my risk of failure of the DNS-323 (not the drives) if I continue to use it for several more years?

Your guess is as good as mine - I got roughly seven years before mine failed - you could get more, you could get less.

- One new feature I was looking for was the "cloud" feature to access files on the NAS over the internet from wherever we are.  Does the DNS-323 have this capability?  

The DNS-323 can be accessed from the internet using ftp, I doubt however, that this is what you're thinking of as a "cloud" feature.

- Assuming I stay with the DNS-323, I will get 2 2TB WD "red" drives.  Other posts indicate that these work in this NAS.  I believe I have the correct firmware for this.  I have seen the 2 methods:
 - Back up the 750GB NAS to another device; replace both drives; restore from the back up.   I don;t have a device with 750GB to back up to, so I don;t think this will work for me.   Is there a cloud back up service where I can buy 750GB space for a limited time to accomplish this?

First - you obviously do not have a backup of your data, so it is at risk - RAID1 is not a backup.

Second - you'll have to explore your cloud options yourself, but if I recall correctly there was only one cloud backup service that the DNS-323 can connect to (ctera).  Anything else will have to be done via a PC.  Backing up 750GB is going to be time consuming, backing up 750GB to the cloud, is mindboggling.

- Remove 1 drive and replace with new drive; allow the NAS to sync; remove the second drive and replace with second new drive; allow NAS to sync.   This seems "easy", although time consuming.  It seems preferable to me.  Am I missing something?  Is there a pitfall I need to avoid?

The DNS-323 does not support capacity expansion, so this is not an option, the end result will not be 2TB of redundant storage but 750GB in one volume and most likely 2.5GB in a second.

My advice to you is go out NOW and buy an external USB drive, a 1TB external can be had for around $70 and back up your data, since you are considering upgrading to 2TB storage, I urge you to make that a 2TB external, so that you can continue to keep local backups.

You do NOT want to be swapping drives in/out of this unit without first backing up the data - consider yourself warned.

Your DNS323 is long out of warranty, and  is missing many of the features of the newer NAS, the most critical of which is the ability to back up it's data without going through a PC - before investing in new drives take a look at the newer models, you might want to upgrade to a new unit, and now would be the best time - the newer units have more features and better performance.

[dosborne]

the newer units have more features and better performance.

While your statement is definitely true, the older units do perform the basic NAS functions and that is enough for many users particularly those that have installed FFP to "fix" the small issues and add extra functions (and also remove unused functions). For me, they perform just fine and give me 18TB of storage / backup. (2*2TB internal + 2TB USB * 3 NAS = 18TB) Sure I could replace all that with a single new unit but I'd rather spend my money elsewhere.

I would suspect that if 750GB was enough for the OP that his demands are not that high and he would do well by upgrading the capacity and invest in an external backup as you suggested keeping his costs at a minimum.

[thecreator]

I have had the DNS-323 since 2009.  The drives are 750 GB WD Caviar, dated March 2008.  I am running firmware 1.10 dated 4/6/11 (install date?)
At this point the system is running well, but I am out of space.
I have considered buying a new NAS for the upgraded features, but my wife is concerned about the price.
Questions:
- How big is my risk of failure of the DNS-323 (not the drives) if I continue to use it for several more years?
- One new feature I was looking for was the "cloud" feature to access files on the NAS over the internet from wherever we are.  Does the DNS-323 have this capability?  If so, please point me to the information about it.
- Assuming I stay with the DNS-323, I will get 2 2TB WD "red" drives.  Other posts indicate that these work in this NAS.  I believe I have the correct firmware for this.  I have seen the 2 methods:
- - Back up the 750GB NAS to another device; replace both drives; restore from the back up.   I don;t have a device with 750GB to back up to, so I don;t think this will work for me.   Is there a cloud back up service where I can buy 750GB space for a limited time to accomplish this?
- - Remove 1 drive and replace with new drive; allow the NAS to sync; remove the second drive and replace with second new drive; allow NAS to sync.   This seems "easy", although time consuming.  It seems preferable to me.  Am I missing something?  Is there a pitfall I need to avoid?

I think that's it.

Thanks in advance.
Larie

Hi Lane,

Unless you are running in Raid configuration, why not move all documents you need to keep onto a seperate Hard Drive, that you don't need to access daily and remove that Hard Drive. Replace the Hard Drive with a 2 TB Hard Drive. You can easily swap Hard Drives with the DNS-323 Unit, as oppose to a Computer.

You can buy 2 TB Hard Drives and more than double the space that you have, now. Just note, that the new Hard Drives will have the same Volume Names as your current Hard Drives, regardless of Brand.

[Ltrip]

Thank you all for your ideas.  I have given it more thought based on your comments and suggestions.

Of the 750GB NAS capacity, the majority of space is used by the backup files from our 2 computers.  The backup protocol has me storing several versions of each computer.  The shared files (the purpose of the NAS) is only about 100 GB.

So, here is what I am thinking.  I would appreciate your comments:
- Keep the 750GB NAS; keep in Raid 1 configuration for redundancy
- Buy 2 or 3 TB, single disk NAS (such as Western Digital My Cloud).
- Put the shared files (pictures, music, etc) on the new 2TB NAS for sharing and cloud access.
- Use the 2 TB NAS to hold the computer backup files
- Copy the shared files from the 2TB NAS to the 750GB NAS as backup (or use the back up program)
- Weekly, copy the latest full back up from the computers from the 2 TB NAS to the 750GB NAS

This gives me the capacity I need; provides the cloud access I wanted; provides for back up and redundancy; and is a fairly low cost (~ $180 for 3 TB My Cloud vs. 2 x 2TB hard drives @ ~ $100 each)

Again, thank you for your comments.

Cheers,
Larie

[thecreator]

Thank you all for your ideas.  I have given it more thought based on your comments and suggestions.

Of the 750GB NAS capacity, the majority of space is used by the backup files from our 2 computers.  The backup protocol has me storing several versions of each computer.  The shared files (the purpose of the NAS) is only about 100 GB.

So, here is what I am thinking.  I would appreciate your comments:
- Keep the 750GB NAS; keep in Raid 1 configuration for redundancy
- Buy 2 or 3 TB, single disk NAS (such as Western Digital My Cloud).
- Put the shared files (pictures, music, etc) on the new 2TB NAS for sharing and cloud access.
- Use the 2 TB NAS to hold the computer backup files
- Copy the shared files from the 2TB NAS to the 750GB NAS as backup (or use the back up program)
- Weekly, copy the latest full back up from the computers from the 2 TB NAS to the 750GB NAS

This gives me the capacity I need; provides the cloud access I wanted; provides for back up and redundancy; and is a fairly low cost (~ $180 for 3 TB My Cloud vs. 2 x 2TB hard drives @ ~ $100 each)

Again, thank you for your comments.

Cheers,
Larie

Hi Larie,

I have five Hard Drives for Backup, but only 4 actually installed in the containers. One container is the Storage Central Unit from Netgear and the other is the D-Link DNS-323 Unit that contains to Hard Drives not in Raid configuration. They are mainly to store TV Programs for later watching and deleting.

Anyway, you lose valuable Hard Drive Space for multiple copies. (I'm one to talk!)

If you are not a business, then you don't need to use a Raid configuration.

And once you're dead, what difference does it matter. (Hillary Clinton).

One copy is on your Hard Drive and the other copy is on the NAS Hard Drives.

I use two main Backup Programs. One is SmartSync Pro at http://www.smartsync.com/ and the other being Acronis True Image at http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/pc-backup/

For Acronis, I don't bother with Incrementail Backups, but do a Full Backup every month.

When I download programs from the Web, I always download to My Briefcase Folder, rather than a Download Folder, in order to have fast access to the Download, because it is on the Desktop.

And when I do finish installing the program, I always make a Backup of the Download program, then delete it from the Briefcase Folder, since it is already installed. I made a backup, so the operating system's partition can remain small, to create a smaller Image File. One doesn't need to backup large Downloads in the Image Backup.

Any additional NAS Devices you buy, make sure you can plug it into your Router to have access from all computers.