Need help picking a "home cloud" NAS solution.

[slugg]

Hi guys. So I've been looking at the WD My Cloud 4TB Personal Cloud Storage. I like it a lot, except for two major annoyances:

1. You can't set a quota for a user. So basically, if you use this for automatic backups (Windows Backup, Time Machine), it'll eventually fill up the whole drive!
2. The Windows and OS X "cloud clients" don't behave like Dropbox. Basically, they aren't a folder that's monitored for changes; instead, they have their own software, rather than using the operating system's native file manager.

Are there any other solutions in a similar price point that would solve these two problems, but still perform well? Ease of use is nice, but I'd be willing to sacrifice ease for functionality.

Thanks!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

1) Can you partition the drive?

2) WD My Cloud supports DropBox integration.

http://www.wd.com/en/company/pressroom/releases/?release=b9ec1db0-f4ca-4921-86a0-40bb7c30aaab

 

[slugg]

1) Can you partition the drive?

2) WD My Cloud supports DropBox integration.

http://www.wd.com/en/company/pressroom/releases/?release=b9ec1db0-f4ca-4921-86a0-40bb7c30aaab

1. No
2. That doesn't help. Dropbox integration just means that he device will have a folder synced with Dropbox, all 2.5 gb of it. The entire purpose of getting my own cloud solution is to have practically limitless storage...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

That's horrifying. I've never seen a NAS that didn't let you partition your drives before.

But, if the WD Home Cloud software doesn't let you do what you want, there are options.

The problem is that most of them run on, like, actual servers, so the price would be a bit in excess of the ~$200 price of the typical network-enabled 4TB HDD.

The upshot is that they're expandable.

If you're okay with not having redundant drives, then an Atom-based nettop (buying used would save you a few bucks), a copy of FreeNAS and an external 4TB HD would come in between $250 and $300, depending on the exact system config.

I use FreeNAS at home, and what I do is create ZFS volumes within my pool that have a hard capacity limit. Each computer is set up to back up to a specific volume - then user quotas don't have to be a thing.

There are various ways to get your own external DNS name, but one way or the other, you set up port forwarding and enable FTP on the FreeNAS box. Then you can use rsync on a cron job from your laptop/desktop to do the sync of your DIY-Dropbox solution. (A sync every five minutes or so should do the trick, right?)

There are also more expensive NAS units (I hear good things about Drobo and Netgear) that have similar features.