Conceptric » synology

A smooth resolution to a data nightmare

James Whinfrey — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:55:08 +0000

For the last three years, the majority of our data, including those photographs, have been centralised on a NAS device, a decision I made with a couple of goals in mind:

To allow shared access whilst maintaining a single copy of the files.
To simplify backup to an external drive. I wouldn’t have to try and find important files on different machines.

The problem with regular backups to removable media is how frequent these regular copies need to be. I could loose a huge amount of information between daily backups, and I’d consider such a regime to be extremely rigourous.

So I decided to move to a Synology DS-207 NAS which provides the ability to use RAID drive mirroring… and the external backup too.

The mirroring keeps the contents of two independent 500Gb drives synchronised at all times: two independent copies of my precious data, and until last week it had remained untested. That was when the beeping started.

In my heart I knew what it meant, but I decided to double check the manual before booting my laptop and checking the web interface. There it told me that the RAID volume was broken, tried to repair the faulty drive, and finally pronounced it dead at the scene.

Gutted at the loss of my drive, I took heart from the fact the my data appeared to be safe, and I could still use it even if I was down to a single drive.

Feeling perilously exposed, I quickly ordered a new drive of the same size which, upon arrival, only took about 15 minutes to install. Once the NAS had booted up it verified the new drive was fit for purpose, formatted it and synchronised it with the crash survivor.

I’m not going to claim that RAID is a complete solution to data security; in addition I use external copies, cloned drives and off-site backup, but I’m definitely pleased with my decision, if only because of the continuity of workflow is provides in the face of a crisis.

Not more options

James Whinfrey — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:04:21 +0000

Would you believe it! Just when I think I’ve nearly, I mean just about, sort of made my mind up, Synology bring out a new product line. I’ve noticed that they’ve introduced a two drive NAS, with RAID 1 and iTunes server. It’s called the DS-207 and it’d be compatible with my existing DS-101g+ for local LAN based backup.

So it looks like it’s going to be one of those coupled with a secure online backup service and DVD-R backups of RAW image files, very big and expensive to upload, in the fireproof safe.

Still waiting on the Mac support from online backup providers though.

Managing data

James Whinfrey — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:05:33 +0000

I’m a worried man… I know it’s hard to believe, but I am. What are you worried about I hear you say. My electronic data or course. I’ve recently realised just how much data there is and how important it’s become. I’ve got data relating to work, finance, friends, family, music and images all of which is extremely important to my continuing well being.

I run a small network at home with all of these data on a single drive sitting inside a Synology DS-101g+ NAS. There’s an old 80GB external USB hard drive attached to it, onto which the NAS content is incrementally backed up at night.

The Synology NAS has been great since is replaced a Linux server when the cooling fans failed. However, that incident coupled with a laptop drive crash has got me wondering whether my current approach is good enough. After all, can I afford to lose the data I’ve created between the daily backup and what if the house burned down? On top of this, the last time my server lost a fan I couldn’t access my files and why are these things always a non-standard, hard to get sizes?

So I’m wondering whether to take the following steps:


    Set up a Synology DS-106, the 101g+ has been replaced, as my primary file server.
    Configure the new NAS to backup to the old one each night, providing redundancy.
    Make regular copies of all the files on DVD-R, storing them in a fireproof safe or a remote self storage locker.
    Consider secure online storage for critical files only as it’s not cheap, but could be configured to back them up whenever they change.

The problems are that a failure between backups could lose me a days work and finding an online backup service for a networked Mac is not as easy as it should be. With reference to the former, if I was producing a lot of commercial data I’d install a good RAID system. As for the latter, they’re all promising to have Windows and Mac support soon, honest.

I don’t bother backing up the individual machines, a Mac mini and a Windows laptop, because I enjoy spending a whole day rebuilding them if something goes wrong. A cloned copy of these drives might be a worthwhile exercise, even if it isn’t kept totally up to date.

All this is telling me to spend some money, but will I get away with it??