Win A Synology DS418 NAS Device

Win A Synology DS418 NAS Device

Are you still buying external hard drives? It's time you consolidated all of your data on a NAS device and today, you can win a Synology DS418 NAS.  

What is a NAS?

Think of "network attached storage" as the ultimate external hard drive. Your data shouldn't be spread out across unnamed internal and external hard drives. Instead, all of your pictures and important files should be housed on a single device. You can then install multiple hard drives into your NAS depending on the amount of storage you need. These hard drives are redundant using RAID to protect your files from a hardware failure locally and, using Synology's software, you can automatically back everything up offsite as well. Lastly, having your data all in one place allows multiple computers to access the same files locally, in your home or office, or remotely via the web. You'll never have to worry about losing a photograph again. 

What can I win?

The Synology DS418 is perfect for individual photographers. It has four hard drive bays which can be filled with 12TB drives. It has a quad-core 1.4GHz processor, 2GB of memory, and dual Ethernet ports on the back that are capable of sending data at over 226 MB/s. Many photographers may choose to use this strictly as an external hard drive, but here at Fstoppers we actually use ours to work from, meaning that we never house any data on our computer's internal drives. Some users may enjoy taking these a step further by using the NAS as a surveillance station, or a 4k multimedia server. 

How do I enter? 

Entering this contest couldn't be easier. Simply comment below or on this Facebook post, and let us know why you could use a NAS device like the DS418. On Friday, November 24th we will choose one random commenter as the winner. 

AND THE WINNER IS...

Congratulations Lucas Fendley! Your comment was randomly chosen as the winner of the DS418. 

Would love to win! I'm a broke artist that is in need of an upgraded storage system. Then I can duplicate last two years of external hard drives into one system to work off of and keep the external HD's as a secondary backup. :)

Synology will be mailing you the unit soon. We hope it will change your workflow for the better. 

Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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Previous comments

Take One for the greater good. Love Synology boxes over other cloud services

I could use a NAS like this, beacause my current 1-bay NAS is full and at the moment I'm backing up my pictures manually with 2 external hard drives which is a pain in the butt. A 4-bay NAS would let me have all my drives in the same place AND finally have an automated, redundant backup. I would set it up as a RAID 5.

For the glory of P0rn of course.

Need a new NAS for my 8TB+ pictures and videos!

More storage for stuff. How can I say 'No'.

Would really love to consolidate my files in one place instead of turning on individual hard disks whenever I have to transfer between my working files and archives. Ready to move into RAID storage!

I would love to add this to our workflow and provide our clients with an extra layer of protection with a NAS system.

I currently have a Drobo 5D, which is tied to one computer, and I would love to have a NAS, which I can access from multiple computers!

Would be handsome to have a central storage for my pictures. At present sometimes swapping drives ...

Why could I use one? Because I'm in desperate need of an upgrade to my backup system... Good luck all and happy holidays!

I've been juggling with so many hard drives for years that I sometimes can't remember where each project is. This is exactly what I'm looking for! I was waiting for Black Friday to buy one but hey, if there's a chance to win one for free, I'm in! :D Best of luck to everyone!

Hi Hi.Save me from my wife's back up M A N I A !!!!

Definitely to backup my files!

I'm not a paranoid back-upper - I have one working copy and one backup in the cloud. That's it. Some say it's not enough, so if I would win this NAS I would definitely have a second backup copy. ;)

Nearly lost a wedding a few weeks back but was lucky to recover it, need this beauty to sleep well at night

I need more backup space...

I was just browsing for one lol :D

Im running out of storage, so i really could use the Synology DS418 NAS.

Synology makes great NAS units / microservers. They’re great and easy to use. They work like a charm for a safe, backed up storage.

My daughter is 1 year old today ! It will be a nice present for her :D Good day from France !

Great for creating a Raid 10 for my family photo archive. Nice model!

Going from a Sony A99 to A99ii I need storage fast. 24 --> 42MP is killing my internal drive space. This will do nicely.

I'm an idiot with thousands of photos on small hard drives with no backups. A NAS would be perfect for safety and redundancy.

My old Synology is getting rusty :)

Perfect timing! I'm considering to get one of those for my growing backup needs. The old ones don't do their job any longer. Thanks! ;-)

Definitely need more back-up storage :-)

I'm just a keen hobbyist but I would love to have this as a backup.

Well using a NAS instead of single harddrives would be an upgrade. Maybe working on the NAS and making backups would be the way to go in the future. Going for a tripple backup.

I need it!

Due to my work I have access to a 100Mpix camera, 200mb a pop take up some space... But I have no storage at the moment so I have my images on different small discs and need to clean upp rejects before I can import a new project. Also I have NO redundancy. I am in dire need for storage!

I could use a NAS device as the DS418 to centralize the different external hard drives I am working with. Would be a big change.

Because here in Australia we lag behind in internet speed and everything is up-side-down causing all sorts of bits and bytes moving in the wrong direction if you want to store in the cloud. A NAS will keep everything nice "at home".

This would be awesome for me, I'd be able to store all my images in my own private cloud, and wouldn't need to remember to bring my external hard drive with me when i want to show people my work!
I could also save multimedia stuff to it, so the other half can watch Vampire Diaries to her heart's content! *Brownie Points*

Backup, backup and backup

Need one for my backup!! :)

thanks for picking me up, can't wait for it to come!!! comprehensive review coming soon...!!!

I must find an alternative way to the many and many external HD connecting via a 'superslow' usb 2.0!

Every year storing and backing up my images tbecomes a festival of redesigning my workflow. I am a tired old man, help me resolve this dilemma on Nov 24fh and pick me please!

My wife works from home, and this would be a great backup destination for her work laptop. Also, it would be awesome to back up all of our pictures and videos of our near 2 yr old, so that they're not scattered between multiple laptops, phones, and tablets. Also, since this could double as an NVR, I could finally bite the bullet and get some IP surveillance cameras for around the house.

I loose more brain cells every year trying to balance my image backup workflow. I am tired of annually deleting, flattening or backing up my files that are not sacrificed in this annual event. Make my day be nov 24!

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
last year in july i lost all my budding photography work worth 5 years in a house robbery were 5 people stormed into my house and held us at knife points with my family of 7.i was delivering a turn of age photo shoot, https://www.instagram.com/p/BHgw2VZh4a4/?taken-by=irisphotomw please i would love this chris hemsworth of a backup thorian machine to keep safe not just my work as well as my photo memories of my kids and almost 2 year old sonny boy (who now i dont have his new born photo shoot pics)
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE </END ME>
@irisphotomw

Because when you get to have a dozen external HDDs it becomes a hell of a mess to make sure everything is backed up properly :D

Cambridge Dictionary: "Better safe than sorry" [said when you think it is best not to take risks even when it seems boring or difficult to be careful]. Having a NAS System in place means you understand the value of your business and understand how important the first line of this comment is ;-).

well, to store things mainly...

This much be a much easier solution than my freenas! I converted an old workstation but it is power hungry and very large. It does keep my closet nice and toasty though! The DS418's OS also looks very easy to manage and is capable of allowing remote access so I could upload images for safe keeping while traveling. Hope to win this great little machine! Thanks

Always wanted to compare this to my Linux box with an internal raid setup

I have a lot of individual disks - be awesome to have a NAS.

That would make a great addition to my setup. Pick me ;->

I would love to have it! I have all HDD's spreading across my room...

I think this would be better than my janky HDD dock I'm currently using.

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