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.
It's an omen! I was just looking for an additional storage system to backup my files in a remote, safe place.
We've been using G-Technology Raid 16TB Drives, and we end up buying an additional one each year. We would love to have something like the Synology DS418!
I've been reading a lot of good things about Synology. Be great to be able to use it.
To store my wife's photos somewhere else:)
I would love to win this, so I can schedule my backups regularly without having to worry about it. I already got burned by manual backups when my hard drive died before I could update my backup and lost a good portion of my photos.
This NAS would be a perfect addition to my backup workflow. Thx!
I would love this DS418 for backup purpose. It would replace my array of external HD.
Yarrrrrr
I have all sorts of external hard disks lying around from old, but "dear-departed" computers that have given up the ghost or simply been retired. Some of them date back over a decade, but I still need those files. How wonderful it would be to have all of this "stuff" -precious stuff, collected over the years, in ONE easily-accessible device!
Oh that would be a perfect upgrade, my old system is not keeping up any longer - files are spurting out from the digital seams.
This would be a great way to have a central storage point for all of our files!
This would be a great way to have a central storage point for all of our files!
I would definitely love getting this device. Already twice, I had terrific image losses with my current back-up system.
That way, I could finally feel safe and don't loose my images anymore.
Could have all my pics in one place!
I would really love not having to plug/unplug my external drives in order to perform my backups on different drives !
I would use the NAS as a house server to share all data :)
Would love to consolidate/backup my externals. Peace of mind plus reclaiming a few USB ports.
I have a spot for this on my desk, I just cleared a pile of old USB thumb drives away. Thank you for the opportunity to upgrade my digital life.
This would be a great solution to my backups.
I’m gonna use it like a BackUp system but also to work from. I can do a connection with my AC WiFi Router and have my wireless BackUp and “data house” system. And of course I will use to access and stream my movies and photo tutorials I own from anywhere!!! And stream photos, slideshows, work to my clients. Of course the most important thing BackUp my client’s pictures until the delivery to them.
Always running to different computers for pictures, would be great to have them all kn one location and easy to get to.
I have hard drives scattered over four computers. It would be really helpful to consolidate those units.
I'm currently juggling 5 external hard drives of various sizes and ages. This would be ideal for getting me organized.
Been needing a nas for years! Multiple failed laptops with no central storage has led to so much lost data... And this is the exact model I have been drooling over lately!
Oh boy, I could SO use this device. I shoot on average 1x a week, uncompressed RAW files at 80MB. I have terrabytes upon terrabytes of photos, and need a reliable place to back them up.
To have a solid backup solution. Recently another WD Passport 1TB HDD Malfunction as soon as was going to back everything up on that drive. Currently, that HDD is at a Data Recovery Company so I'm praying I can still access that HDD.
I need a backup solution for my photos. Too many seperate hard drives to keep track of.
I've been looking at getting a new Nas. It's down to this one or a Qnap TS-435. Pick me so I don't have to make the decision
Commenting, need a NAS to manage the home data...
A should have for backup everything
I have a lot of family pictures, videos, videos from my YouTube channel, that I wouldn't want to loose, and I don't have any more space on my pc. Really could use a Nas. Thanks for the giveaway.
I volunteer as a photog for a couple charities I work with. They don't have servers and/or can't afford to back up all the photos I deliver them. I would use this as a dedicated backup to store their photos for them. It would make it a lot easier when they request pulls for their social media or fundraising needs.
It'd be a great backup storage for my tupperware full of hard drives.
Love it! would be great to store copies of the work and have it in safe inside my LAN!
I check Fstoppers everyday, sometimes two or three times a day. I may have a problem. Currently, I am drowning in a pool of external hard drives with mismatching chargers, and my data backup plan isn't ideal. This NAS would help me a lot!
Why I need one?
lijn@lijn ~/Pictures$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk2 465Gi 461Gi 3.7Gi 100% 1358400 4293608879 0% /
devfs 182Ki 182Ki 0Bi 100% 628 0 100% /dev
map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net
map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home
As a freelance photojournalist this Ds418N would save my life. No more lost files and top database :) I would build a small wodden safehouse for him !!!
I would use it to replace a 7-month old Drobo 5Dt that is imitating a boat anchor. Drobo doesn't seem too concerned that I'm dead in the water. Issue was reported on Friday. It took them all day Monday to just generate an RMA, which has to go through another dept. to be authorized by someone who apparently doesn't work very long hours. They will *only* do 2-day shipping. (I even offered to pay for next day.) This means I'm into Thanksgiving, etc with no access to my data. Learn from my experience, kiddies.
1126 am Tuesday and I still have no shipping info on the replacement. :-(
Update on the Drobo: To be fair, the support guys at Drobo were very apologetic about the replacement delay and upgraded the shipping to next day, My replacement is running with no data loss. Migration was effortless. The support dept. has to get the "RMA Dept." to authorize a replacement and that's where things bottle-necked. So, I was down for a week. Their CEO should streamline this process and give the support staff authority to support, IMO. However, Drobo does stand behind their products.
I'd still like to win the Synology, though. ;-)
This would be an improvement over my current backup solution... which is none.
Nice, prefect plex hub for me.Hope i win, now my daughter can watch paw patrol anywhere
This would be the perfect backup system for my photos
Pictures,Pictures, Pictures.. never enough storage or backup space......
I am behind getting this stuff set up. 30k photos on various drives, this would be awesome.
I own one now but I could definitely use another!
Need to replace the several standalone external drives.
I’d defentivly use one as I am running out of harddrive space and I hate switching my drives between my differnet systems. I often work of my laptop and very often from my desktop. Atm I just carry my hardrives inbetween but that isn’t amzing really. The ability to just hook up a NAS to my desktop and acces it over wifi from my laptop would be an amazing timesaver and improved security for my drives as I wouldn’t have to move them around as much.
Would be good for my smb
Lets replace all those individual HDs many of us have flying around...
Nice product. I could definitely use this... Right now I’m storing everything on 6 externals!