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.
I have been looking at NAS drives. This will complete my computer part of my photography setup. I will use it to work from using 2 or more computers. I will photograph tethered and have the photos automatically copied to the NAS for access to all workstations immediately.
The DS418 would come in really handy as a powerful backup solution for my growing collection of photos and videos - maybe even offsite.
I could really use a backup system for my current desktop NAS setup.
Definitely to make my backups more reliable, and probably double as a server for a few things!
I've been using a synology product for 10+ years. My DS411+ is ~6 years old and i've been thinking about getting a new one. We use it for streaming our stored movies, viewing our pictures on any of our laptops or TVs, serving up our mp3s, and....backing up all of our data (Time Machine and PCs). We use it in SHR mode (1 disk redundancy) and even when HDDs crash, we have time to pop a new drive in. We've expanded our volume several times and now have about 11TB capacity. (Yes, we also use an external HDD to store critical items in the safety deposit box). Synology is very easy to manage and I would highly recommend them to anyone.
Non-RAID solutions have failed me twice in the past. That's three times too many.
Please pick me. I cross my fingers. I will really put it to good use.
The bigger the camera sensors the harder it is for my computer system to keep up. A set up as described above would be an answer to my ongoing problem.
charles murray
You guys are awesome. I'll drive to Charleston to pick it up. Thanks!
OOOO gimme gimme!!
Backup! Backup! Backup! Duplicating USB drives waiting for a random failure... this would be fantastic.
I´m a wedding photographer in Austria and produce over 4TB of wedding images per year. Currently my storage of choice is a Drobo 5D as a DAS but I want to add a NAS to my workflow. The main reason is to be able to work from everywere im my house (LAN, WLAN) and to be able to access the images from all devices in my office/house what is limited with a DAS.
I've been using USB drives to offload some photos and other files, but really want a NAS device for increased storage and safety of my photos as well as a backup device. Various Synology devices have been at or near the top of my wish list for a while.
It could be my backup solution !
Certainly the Caddy' option lol...puts my Thecus to shame...
I was brought up to see the world creatively, but not to become a starving artist. Photography is a passion of mine that allows me to express myself through my lens. I am a full-time middle school teacher and photography is my side hustle to pay for bills, student loans, and necessities. As I take photos on a weekly basis for business or for fun, I have stacks of flash drives and overflow of external hard drives. It would be amazing to have an ultra house like this to store all of my photos in one location.
This is a lovely unit, it's what one could call the "Swiss knife" of NAS devices.
Thanks for the contest!
Let the 4k video storage war begin :D
I would like to use the Synology DS418 NAS Device for home use specifically for storage of music, videos, movies, data, etc, files as a backup solution.
Also, I like to use it as a recording storage medium for my home security CCTV recording devices.
I've been juggling single disk external drives for years, having a NAS would give me a larger storage footprint with some disk-level redundancy
More backup is better backup! Barring something like this I'm inclined to build something similar from spare parts.
I'll be not unusual :) I need the space to keep my data and photos for myself end my family. Of course backup place for each PC in my family is really necessary too.
would love to have a great back up system since I have 10 different hard drives running around here!!!
Because of some mistakes in lightroom i have 100000+ double pictures on my harddrive. so I can use a nas like this.
Time to get rid of the stack of WD portable drives on my desk and in the gear closet - This would be awesome. Been trying to figure out a solution for years.
I want this NAS :)
My friends call me NAS NASTY...weird coincidence
It's perfect for a local backup copy along with backup to the cloud.
If I were to win this NAS, I would give it to my father. He has digitized all the family photos and films, but has them stored on MULTIPLE external hard drives and USB sticks with no organization. The NAS would make for a great solo backup of the family photos and film. Thanks!
I would love to win this. I have a home recording studio and I also a videographer. Would love to have the storage capacity and easy of use with a NAS raid like this. Plus it looks sleek. Cross my fingers.
My 3TB NAS is almost full. Must expand capacity...
The Synology DS418 would improve my backup routine
I'd love a new Synology. My DS212j is now 6 years old, and I love it, but it is due for an upgrade. A DS418 would be perfect!
I could use it because my edited wrk drive just crashed like a month ago and this would be awesome !!!!
I have thousands of photos on various "storage devices" this would finally allow me to keep one source for work and archives.
This would help tremendously to serve as a drive to edit from instead of constantly moving files back and forth to certain drives to work on and then move somewhere else to store.
With a bit of luck, I could win and finally move all my photos from the multitude of USB drives and small hard drives drives to one spot with RAID for security.
My current NAS-system (a Drobo set) is aging and an update/upgrade tot a DS418 would be more than welcome!
I have had many hard drive fails and would love to have a more reliable drive system.
I needs more GBs. Please give me more GBs.
one random commenter... Heheh... Clever a?
As my only computer is a MacBook Pro, this would solve my problem of limited storage.
Sure would be nice! I have more external hard drives than I'd like to admit.
This will be used for a doctoral thesis.
Backup never always seems to be enough for the storage space and things can go wrong with multiple hdd with different unreliable NAS storage. I guess with NAS device like the DS418 which belong to Synology is already proven to be very good and strong backup solution.
Ah man, i've been wanting a proper nas for ages - but just a tad too expensive. This would help! :)
I have hard drives all over the place, would be great to consolidate and use a a RAID system.
I have so many old external hard drives. It would be amazing to consolidate all my files in one place with plenty of storage.
Of course I could use this because I am sick and tired of losing my data on crappy hard drives!!!
I was just searching for a backup solution, so it would be the perfect timing