NAS problems - Synology

[Bonky]

Synology DS215J

I have the above NAS with 2 HDs mainly storing my music, photos and documents.

I have a M2 MacMini, an Intel Mac Pro laptop and an older iMac running a previous OS.

I have not used the NAS for some time, but when I tried to access it using DS Assistant/Synology it would not connect with any of the 3 computers.

I have altered ethernet cables, connected (ethernet) directly to the Mac(s), re-booted the NAS, all to no avail; thus I suspect a hardware failure.

I have several questions:

As I have followed all that Synology have suggested on their website, am I justified in thinking it’s a hardware failure?
Any suggestions for a (better and cheaper) replacement?
I now wonder if I need a NAS at all! . All my music, photos and docs are stored on Time Machine + SSD ‘discs’ and iCloud anyway
If that’s the case (and I believe it could be so), what can I do with the two WD HDs in the NAS unit?
Thanks,

Yours,

Richard

[Boyse6748]

I had much the same issue with my WD NAS drive. (4TB Raid drive). It’s quite old (4 years at least) but contains all my CD flac conversions to play via Roon.
Anyway, I powered everything down, and used net-scan app, to obtain the correct address and everything is back up and working.

However, I’ve come to the conclusion, that Nas Drives are now somewhat defunct, with SSD Drives becoming so cheap, other options are available.

So, a bit of an upgrade a 4 TB SSD now installed in my NUC and the NAS Drive is on the self as an ornament. ( all files transferred ) Faster, better and more reliable. ……..

Technology moves on. [emoji106]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Bonky]

My feelings exactly; thanks.
R

[Lawrence001]

I've been thinking about getting a Nas drive for many years to store c. 12Tb of music so I can play it when I want. However it all looked very complicated and the drive costs were high to have back up/Raid options. What's the alternative you speak of to have my music available on demand through an Innuos Zen?

[Bonky]

Double disc caddy arrived so plugged both old NAS WD 3TB drives into it. Neither Mac or Win11 could read them (Synology have their own OS and formatting system), so I wiped both drives and reformatted them. Both seem to work, but only the drive in slot 'A' is recognised. Loading music onto this disc is easy and to clone that disc manually (there's no auto function), one has to insert the other drive into slot 'B' and press button on the back of the caddy. This seems to work OK, but this drive won't be read unless it's in slot 'A'.

All-in-all, a much less expensive way of having a pseudo NAS RAID system, but if I started over again, I doubt that I would beed it given the relative cheapness and ease of use of SSD drives.

Now to get Volumio to read it...

[Lawrence001]

I'm still interested in why the cheapness of SS drives means I don't need a NAS?

I currently have all my (c.12TB) music stored on an external HDD and transfer some of it to my 2Tb Zen occasionally over the network with my laptop.

What is the solution I can use to have all the music available on demand that's not a NAS?

[Bonky]

I'm no expert here...

But for me (with -say- just 2TB of music on disc) a NAS doesn't make much sense, as I could store that on an external drive (SSD or otherwise) and plug that into my Mac or, better still, the RPi4. For me (emphasis) it's a more cost-effective means of storing music and is worth the minor hassle of taking a back-up.

[Lawrence001]

Ah right so it's a solution if you have smaller library of music. I have a 4tb drive plugged into my RPI but the Zen won't accept an external HDD as expansion as far as I know, so it needs something on the network to find the music files.

I just want a simple way to access all my music without setting up a home network/NAS but I don't know of any other option.