Recommended 1TB Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Network-attached storage (NAS) is data storage or perhaps a data storage device, like a hard disk or RAID array, attached to some type of computer network, supplying data use of different network clients.

NAS systems contain a number of hard drives, frequently arranged into logical, redundant canisters or RAID arrays (redundant arrays of affordable/independent disks). NAS products remove down to file serving using their company servers on the network.

Bestselling 1TB Network Attached Storage (NAS) on Amazon.com:

Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 1TB Network Attached Storage
(MPN: ST310005MNA10G-RK, Price: $199.99, Amazon.com Price: $149.99)

Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 1TB Network Attached StorageReview: “A little slower than I hoped. ~40MBps read and ~22MBps write – Sequential. Since the 1Gb ethernet spec can go up to 125MBps theoretical I was hoping it would be in the 80-100MBps range. Encryption requires a USB drive plugged in the front. Just fine if you have a small, old USB flash. The backup software is not the most reliable in recovery, but you get 5 free licenses and for Windows XP it is better than built-in. Use Windows 7’s built-in back up with drive.”

Iomega Home Media 1TB Network Attached Storage
(MPN: 34337, Price: $126.99, Amazon.com Price: $99.99)

Iomega Home Media 1TB Network Attached Storage Review: “very nice case design, internal fan for hard drive, hooks up to router through network at full speed (1000 mps), very fast, although my comp ethernet card is going at 100 mps, fast enough for now untill i get another eternet card, adjustable light brightness through software.”

Buffalo LinkStation Live 1TB Shared Network Attached Storage
(MPN: LS-CH1.0TL, Price: $129.99, Amazon.com Price: $108.90)

Buffalo LinkStation Live 1TB Shared Network Attached StorageReview: “Super easy setup out of the box. Using with Xbox Media Center with the actual original Xbox’s throughout the house. Kids playroom, living room, office. You can setup access rights so kids can only access Kids folder, etc. Also planning to use with Masscool Media Player.”

NAS provides both storage and file systems. This really is frequently compared with SAN (Storage Space Network) products, which offer only block-based storage leaving filesystem concerns about the “client” side. SAN methods include SCSI, Fibre Funnel, iSCSI, ATA over Ethernet, or HyperSCSI.

NAS Manufactors: Zoysia, Cavalry, D-Link, Hammer Storage, Apple, iomega, LaCie, Linksys, Maxtor, Netgear, QNAP, Thecus, Seagate, Western Digital and Synology.

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Top 20 Most Popular Network Attached Storage on Amazon.com

Network-attached storage (NAS) is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous network clients.

A NAS unit is a computer connected to a network that only provides file-based data storage services to other devices on the network. Although it may technically be possible to run other software on a NAS unit, it is not designed to be a general purpose server. For example, NAS units usually do not have a keyboard or display, and are controlled and configured over the network, often using a browser.

A fully-featured operating system is not needed on a NAS device, so often a stripped-down operating system is used. For example, FreeNAS, an open source NAS solution designed for commodity PC hardware, is implemented as a stripped-down version of FreeBSD.

NAS systems contain one or more hard disks, often arranged into logical, redundant storage containers or RAID arrays (redundant arrays of inexpensive/independent disks). NAS removes the responsibility of file serving from other servers on the network.

NAS uses file-based protocols such as NFS (popular on UNIX systems), SMB/CIFS (Server Message Block/Common Internet File System) (used with MS Windows systems), or AFP (used with Apple Macintosh computers). NAS units rarely limit clients to a single protocol.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage

  • Iomega Home Media 1 TB Network Attached Storage
    (Price: $188.99 Price on Amazon.com: $137.67)
  • Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage (White)
    (Price: $229.99 Price on Amazon.com: $227.99)
  • Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 1 TB Network Attached Storage (Black)
    (Price: $231.99 Price on Amazon.com: $223.35)
  • Synology DiskStation 5-Bay (Diskless) Scalable Network Attached Storage (Black)
    (Price: $999.99 Price on Amazon.com: $998.55)
  • Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 2-Bay 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage
    (Price: $449.99 Price on Amazon.com: $444.02)
  • Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 1 TB Network Attached Storage
    (Price: $162.99 Price on Amazon.com: $149.00)
  • Synology DiskStation 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage (White)
    (Price: $390.99 Price on Amazon.com: $373.29)
  • Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 4-Bay 4 TB (4 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage
    (Price: $835.99 Price on Amazon.com: $699.99)
  • Buffalo Technology DriveStation Combo 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Desktop External Hard Drive (Black)
    (Price: $131.99 Price on Amazon.com: $115.99)
  • Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 4-Bay 8 TB (4 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage
    (Price: $1,597.99 Price on Amazon.com: $1,299.99)
  • Buffalo Technology LinkStation Quad 4 TB (4 X 1 TB) Network Attached Storage LS-Q4.0TL/R5(Black)
    (Price: $557.99 Price on Amazon.com: $545.67)
  • Buffalo Technology LinkStation Quad 2 TB (4 X 500 GB) Network Attached Storage LS-Q2.0TL/R5 (Black)
    (Price: $457.99 Price on Amazon.com: $392.99)
  • Seagate BlackArmor NAS 420 4- Bay 2 TB (2 x 1 TB and 2 Empty Bays) Network Attached Storage
    (Price: $591.99 Price on Amazon.com: $499.99)
  • Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Scalable Network Attached Storage (Black)
    (Price: $579.99 Price on Amazon.com: $529.99)
  • LaCie 301431U 3TB 2big Quadra 2-Disk RAID Hard Drive
    (Price: $469.99 Price on Amazon.com: $426.80)
  • Synology Disk Station 1-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage DS109 1100 (White)
    (Price: $407.99 Price on Amazon.com: $397.99)
  • Synology Disk Station 4-Bay 4 TB (4 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage DS409 4100 (Black)
    (Price: $1054.99 Price on Amazon.com: $950.89)
  • Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336
    (Price: $159.99 Price on Amazon.com: $133.81)
  • TRENDnet 1-Bay Diskless USB 2.0 IDE Network Attached Storage Enclosure TS-I300 (Blue)
    (Price: $159.99 Price on Amazon.com: $108.34)
  • Buffalo Technology LinkStation Quad 1 TB (4 X 250 GB) Network Attached Storage LS-Q1TL/R5 (Black)
    (Price: $382.99 Price on Amazon.com: $355.45)
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System Recovery Procedures for NAS 4100

NAS 4100 Recovery Overview: The NAS 4100 comes with 4 separate hard drives. In the event of a hard drive failure you will be notified via an Email alert and/or Web UI. RAID regeneration can take up to 30 minutes depending on which drive has failed.

To check status of your NAS 4100 drives use Logical Disk Manager. To access the Disk Management utility:

    1. Open “MaxNeighborhood” and double-click on the NAS 4100 that you want to create the folder on.
    2. Login to NAS 4100 with the appropriate Administrator (or Administrator equivalent) username and password.
    3. Click on “Administer this server appliance”. Upon doing this, the NAS 4100 Home Page will appear in the Browser.NAS 4100 Recovery
    4. From the Home Page, click on the “Disks and Volumes”Link. At this point, the Disks and Volumes page will be displayed in the Browser.NAS 4100 Recovery

      NOTE: You may click on the Graphical Link OR the Java Text Link…either will suffice.

    5. Click on the “Disks and Volumes”link.NAS 4100 Recovery

      NOTE: You may click on the Graphical Link OR the Java Text Link…either will suffice.

    6. Click the “Yes”button in the VBScript: Disk Configuration Window.NAS 4100 Recovery
    7. The Windows 2000 Management Snap-In will be displayed in your browser.NAS 4100 Recovery

      The NAS 4100 hard drives are configured as; Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 2 and Disk 3. Each one of these hard drives, if lost, exhibits slightly different behavior.

Disk Failure | Recovery Time

Disk 0 | 30 Minutes

Disk 1 | 06 Minutes

Disk 2 | 30 Minutes

Disk 3 | 15 Minutes

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The ever-changing storage system technology

Today’s storage technology encompasses all sorts of storage media. These could include WORM systems, tape library systems and virtual tape library systems. Over the past few years, NAS and SAN systems have provided excellent reliability. What is the difference between the two?

• NAS (Network Attached Storage) units are self-contained units that have their own operating system, file system, and manage their attached hard drives. These units come in all sorts of different sizes to fit most needs and operate as file servers.

• SAN (Storage Area Network) units can be massive cabinets – some with 240 hard drives in them! These large 50+ Terabyte storage systems are doing more than just powering up hundreds of drives. These systems are incredibly powerful data warehouses that have versatile software utilities behind them to manage multiple arrays, various storage architecture configurations, and provide constant system monitoring.

For some time, large-scale storage has been out reach of the small business. Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive-based SAN systems are becoming a cost-effective way of providing large amounts of storage space. These array units are also becoming main stream for virtual tape backup systems – literally RAID arrays that are presented as tape machines; thereby removing the tape media element completely.

Other storage technologies such as iSCSI, DAS (Direct Attached Storage), Near-Line Storage (data that is attached to removable media), and CAS (Content Attached Storage) are all methods for providing data availability. Storage architects know that just having a ‘backup’ is not enough. In today’s high information environments, a normal nightly incremental or weekly full backup is obsolete in hours or even minutes after creation. In large data warehouse environments, backing up data that constantly changes is not even an option. The only method for those massive systems is to have storage system mirrors – literally identical servers with the exact same storage space.

How does one decide which system is best? Careful analysis of the operation environment is required. Most would say that having no failures at all is the best environment – that is true for users and administrators alike! The harsh truth is that data disasters happen every day despite the implementation of risk mitigation policies and plans.

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