Recommend a good NAS?

N8Nagel

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Hi all,

Have had a WD MyCloud EX2 for a few years now. Bought it and configured it as RAID 1 as the impetus for this was a cascade of HDD failures that took out both my primary storage of FLAC files and its backup; I managed to save about 30% off of various laptop hard drives from when I'd originally ripped the CDs but some had been deleted and had to be re-ripped.

HOWEVER - I've been very disappointed in it, for several reasons.

1) transfer speeds over the network are slow as molasses. Even with the MyCloud and a laptop both plugged into the same gigabit router, speed is abysmal. Making a backup of my music folder takes the better part of a day.

2) Twonky is the built in DLNA server and it has a very annoying bug as described here
https://community.wd.com/t/twonky-s...lename-or-track-number-in-folder-view/94909/5

summary (in case that link ever goes dead): I'm an album centric filer of CD rips, and I have a very rigid folder structure. However, when displaying the contents of a folder on a client, Twonky serves them up in an order that makes no sense - the two logical methods would be in my mind 1) in track number order or 2) in alphabetical order of filename (which giving my naming scheme would be the same, as I prepend the track number to the track name to create the filename) but what Twonky actually does is serve them up in alphabetical order of track name/song title. Really bloody annoying!

So, given this, when upgrade time comes what would you buy? I'd ideally like

1) more reasonable file transfer times
2) a better DLNA server, or the option to use whatever DLNA server program I want
3) possibly the ability to write directly to disc through USB connection or other without having to go over network? not as important if 1) is significantly improved.

This is used primarily for music and also personal file backup.

thanks for any ideas.
 
but what Twonky actually does is serve them up in alphabetical order of track name/song title. Really bloody annoying!

Are you sure that's a server side issue? I'd think that if you have your files named with a leading 01, 02, 03, etc. track number, that they would be presented in that order. But it may depend on what client/app/player you are using.

I'd try a player like Foobar200 pointed at your NAS and see how those same files look.

Also, I'm using a Netgear ReadyNAS. No complaints. The built in DLNA server seems to work fine. Optional DLNA servers can be installed - Logitech MediaServer or Nero MediaHome.
 
I used a 3TB MyCloud for about a year. No matter how I tried to optimize settings, transfer speeds were consistently, annoyingly slow. This was on a lightly-used switched gigabit ethernet network. I finally gave up on the MyCloud and set up a Mac Mini running MacOS Server. Now file transfer performance is excellent and the ethernet gets pushed to its limit.
 
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I just got Seagate's 3TB "Personal Cloud" NAS and have my music running on it now. It seems fast enough to me over the ethernet, but maybe when I go to backing it up it will be slow. However even if it is, its not like I need that to be lightening fast. I can backup overnight. There has been no dropouts on playback with JRiver which would be most intolerable to me. When I go to ripping I will find out if it is impossibly slow or not but haven't had the chance yet. One thing I have been reading about NAS in general is to switch off all the features you wont use. Also other things can cause these to slow down such as Virus protection software. This one also uses this Twonky server as well so it may have issues similar to what you are trying to get away from.
 
Playback isn't a problem, but 3-4 CDs can take a half hour or more to upload sometimes. Pretty intolerable.
 
Playback isn't a problem, but 3-4 CDs can take a half hour or more to upload sometimes. Pretty intolerable.
I'm getting some CD's in from Amazon in a few days and I will see how long it takes to rip them to the NAS. Will let you know..
 
Synology rigs are great. This 416 unit has been most wunderful+. For my needs...she seamlessly handles all the heavy lifting for me; work and pleasure wise. Nice phone apps for remote mgmt. and streaming as well. :thumbsup:

index.php

Here's an overview.
 
Playback isn't a problem, but 3-4 CDs can take a half hour or more to upload sometimes. Pretty intolerable.
This isn't exactly the same but it should be a similar process. Last night I ripped a few LP's to WAV files using Audacity, and then converted the format to flac with JRiver, all done on my Seagate NAS. It took less than 30 seconds to convert it. I am thinking there must be something amiss about your WD drive, perhaps the way it is set up that is slowing things down. When I was researching which NAS to get I read on Amazon reviews about the WD MyCloud that others were getting slow speeds too but seems like some had found solutions to it. I don't recall the specifics but it might be worth a look over on Amazon to see what others did.

One other thing, if you are using ethernet switch, some of those are much faster. The one I am using is 1000 mbps rated whereas some of the ones I see listed are only 100 mbps so that could be a potential bottleneck.
 
I'm not ripping directly to the NAS, I'm ripping to my laptop's HDD then copying the files to the NAS. The act of copying is ludicrously slow.

For a switch I'm using a Mikrotik Routerboard with the NAS plugged into a gigabit port. 10 base T is faster than this (excrement) though.
 
What is the OS on your laptop? I've seen various Windows based systems that are really slow if you copy from inside the GUI, but run nice and fast if you use the command line.

My NAS is an old Seagate Go-Flex Home, it came with a 3 TB drive that died about two years ago. I replaced it with a WD Red 2 TB drive and removed the "Beauty" plate that blocked the vents / killed the original drive. It works well as a DLNA source. I use Microsoft's SyncToy in Windows to push files from and to it with good results.

Mark Gosdin
 
I have a Synology, but I would recommend keeping a version of every file off of the NAS. I have had two discs fail simultaneously. Synology said I could call them and they could see if they could help, but I just deleted everything and started over. It was less time consuming just to start a new copying process than working with them on it.
 
I have a Synology, but I would recommend keeping a version of every file off of the NAS. I have had two discs fail simultaneously. Synology said I could call them and they could see if they could help, but I just deleted everything and started over. It was less time consuming just to start a new copying process than working with them on it.
Aye.... I abide by the 3-2-1 axiom. 3 copies, 2 local, 1 offsite or cloud.:)
 
Synology or Qnap are good NAS's. I've never had good luck with Netgear, DLink, Buffalo or Western Digital. Also remember that RAID is not a backup. You need at least one and better 2 or 3 backups.
 
I also have some advantages. Tech support for me is 20 minutes away from the IX Systems office in Maryville, TN. Also, the KnoxBUG meets monthly at their offices, and some of the developers are based there. I am an active part of KnoxBUG and a member.
 
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