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Most portable NAS with fault tolerance of a single drive?

fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
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I'm looking for a NAS that I can take with me (possibly in airline carry-on luggage) because I travel a lot and have local and high-capacity storage requirements.

Is the Synology DiskStation DS411slim pretty much the only option for something with RAID 5 that can be both high-capacity and tolerant of a drive failure?
 
Actually, come to think of it, a single 2-bay 3.5" drive NAS might be about the same size as a 4-bay 2.5" NAS and be cheaper to stock with high capacity drives, right?
 
For portability purposes you might also want to consider weight.

To achieve 3 TB (about 2.8 TB of actual storage) requires two 3.5" 3 TB drives in RAID 1. I just weighed some new 3 TB WD drives and they came in at 680 grams each. That's close to 3 lbs for the two drives.

Meanwhile, a 1 TB 2.5" drive weighs between 0.21 and 0.27 lbs each (according to Western Digital), so four of them in RAID 5 to give the same amount of storage will weigh only about 1 lb.

Of course, you also need to consider the weight of the NAS enclosure. My guess is that one without hot-swap trays will be lightest.
 
Also, lets be clear here, do you want a NAS or a DAS? Just going over your previous posts I'm just curious if you truly want something that connects via a Network, or something that connects via USB, Thunderbolt, or something such as that? Do you need a setup that works with multiple machines or Operating Systems? A DAS (direct-attached) can be much smaller than a NAS because most of the logic relies on your connected computer instead of an all-in-one appliance.

You might also consider laying out a data strategy. Basically your process that explains what you need your storage to do, how readily available it needs to be, and what means you need to access it.

We can suggest drives to you, but if you're open to it, we might be able to suggest a better storage methodology, that gives you access to your data when you need it, while better preparing for the inevitability that data in one place in a liability, and destined for problems 🙂
 
I had no idea there was such a thing as a DAS.

Basically, right now I just use a small 2.5" 2TB external. There is ZERO fault tolerance and I've already been bitten in the ass by its failure. I could get two of them and mirror them, but that's an extra manual step and I'd just rather have RAID do it automatically in one enclosed package.

So what I'm looking for is basically a small, lightweight, high-capacity-(3TB)-capable all-in-one enclosure with automatic mirroring or RAID 5.

I'm fine with just using USB 3.0 as the link. Most convenient would be if there could be a WiFi Direct link between the computer and enclosure for simplicity.
 
Mgz said:
http://www.drobo.com/products/professionals/drobo-mini/

Drobo Mini, only 2.2 lb and costs about 330$
Click to expand...

Wow, the Drobo Mini looks really really good. 4 bays, looks like RAID 5 capable too. Definitely a DAS and not a NAS.

So:

Drobo Mini: $330
4 x 1TB 2.5" : $75 each, so $300

Total would be $630 for a fairly fault-tolerant 3TB drive and the total weight would be around 3.2lb (2.2lb + 1lb for the four drives)
 
So here's what I got:

Drobo Mini Setup with four 2.5" 1TB disks:

$330 + ($75 x 4) = $630
3.2 lb total weight
93 cubic inches

Synology DS411slim with four 2.5" 1TB disks:

$300 + ($75 x 4) = $600
2.46 lb total weight
109 cubic inches

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 102 with two 2.5" 3TB disks:

$180 + ($130 x 2) = $440
7.67 lb total weight
192 cubic inches

Yeah, I think I'm going for the Drobo Mini or the Synology. The Synology does NOT have USB 3.0 though, and that kills it for me. It's more of a NAS than a DAS, and I'll honestly be using it more as a DAS, so I need USB 3.0 since ultrabooks don't have an ethernet or e-SATA port.
 
Last edited:
Next question... Which 2.5" drive to use (or avoid) in RAID 5 in the Drobo? Would the 1 TB WD Red (~ +$15 each) be better than the typical laptop drive?
 
Carson Dyle said:
Next question... Which 2.5" drive to use (or avoid) in RAID 5 in the Drobo? Would the 1 TB WD Red (~ +$15 each) be better than the typical laptop drive?
Click to expand...

I was just going to ask this. I don't know.

I'd like to stay within the $75 range since all price increases are essentially quadrupled.

I guess RPM and cache won't be such a big deal - it's just going to be a storage drive anyway - not a working drive. Plus the RAID 5 setup should make it faster than one drive, right? 5400 and 8MB should be ok?

Warranty: I want it. 3 years+ maybe?
 
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