It's time to stop buying those standard USB external hard drives. We've found a much better solution.
For the past few years, we have been traveling with a 2-bay Synology NAS (network attached storage) device. This NAS was fairly big, especially when it had to fit in my backpack for three months while we filmed with Elia, but it allowed Patrick and me to edit footage simultaneously, and it gave us peace of mind knowing that the footage was always on two separate drives. Soon after we wrote a post about how clever we thought our solution was, Synology contacted us and informed us that there is a much smaller option, the DS416slim.
The DS416slim is an incredibly small NAS device. It's almost half the size of our previous unit. It holds four laptop-sized hard drives (or SSD drives if your budget permits), and it allows you to use RAID to keep your data redundant and safe. My favorite feature of this little box is that it has two Ethernet ports on the back meaning that we no longer have to travel with a switch if there are only two of us. We simply plug two laptops directly into the DS416slim and we can download footage, or edit footage at the same time.
If we are going to be working on a project with a larger crew, I'll bring along the MikroTik hAP AC wireless router (I showed the wrong one in the video). This little box allows five computers to be connected to the NAS at once via Ethernet and even more users wirelessly.
The only downside to this current setup is that laptop hard drives are maxed out at 2 TB meaning that you can only get 4 TB of storage with redundant RAID 1. This may or may not be enough for you. However, if 4 TB is enough, I'm not sure there is a more convenient option currently on the market.
I was playing with a NAS idea over Xmas time, but still stayed in DAS set up for now. Can this be used as standard DAS set up in RAID 1 before I decide to switch it to NAS once day..? Might be silly question, honestly have never used a NAS device so just brain picking for now. Thanks and happy shooting.
I don't think so but I'm not sure why you'd want to. It works almost exactly the same as a standard external hard drive but we have the option now to connect to it with multiple devices.
If you're interested in the protection of RAID, but not the benefits of NAS, (or any RAID arrangement higher than 1) ...then hunt down the CineRaid device that is only $29. It's a tiny device that only does RAID 1 with two 2.5" drives, but it does it with the major benefit of being BUS-powered, which for DAS and travel is a fantastic thing IMO.
If your workflow doesn't involve needing multiple computers to access the drive at once, nor having the drive be connected to the internet or a wifi router, ...the CineRaid device is great.
Just remember RAID is not a backup. Most causes for people to reach for backups are first user error and second corruption caused by software or OS errors. A NAS with RAID won’t protect you against those errors and neither will RAID protect you when the electronics in your NAS die. The failure of a physical hard drive is fairly rare.
A 4 bay NAS used while travelling may be better configured as a single working drive and a RAID5 of three disks used as backup,
I don't see why Synology can't possibly snapshotting as a feature. The device is a basically a Linux box with a fancy UI on top, and there are snapshot tools on Linux.
FreeBSD also have snapshot support too, so if the Linux version isn't robust enough, there are alternatives.
Then all they'd have to do is to set up a snapshotting scheme, so that you could, for example, look for files as if the system was 1 hour before, 2 hours before, etc...
Synology does support it, plus if you're running Windows you can do it through the back up menu under settings.
I stand corrected. I was scanning their spec sheets, so I didn't do a deep dive into the manual.
Unfortunately at read speeds of 113 MB/s it's not fast enough for about 50% of what I shoot/transcode to. Sure for photographers and most prosumer video cameras the price and performance is great.
It's good stuff to know.. but I guess the definition of the word "portable" has changed.
Ya, no doubt it's significantly larger than a standard USB drive, but for us, the features are well worth the extra size.
I was just excited to know what you guys have to share but was frustrated that it's more of a portable server storage than what I was thinking.
But like I said, it's good stuff to know. Might consider it for my desk though.
Lee Morris you must have heard me cussing over here about all these External HDs in my drawer. This is perfect because I love working off SSD drives and its small (more desk space!). For those who are looking to stay with a standard setup checkout the Yottamaster HDD Case 5 bay Type-C HDD 3.1 USB.
I'll be picking up this fella Lee is talking about too.
No argument that QNAP, Synology, etc don’t always offer the best value if you only take actual hardware into account... but the support they offer may make up for the slightly expensive hardware.
Just what I've been looking for, thanks for the tip!
Posted this on YT but figured I would also post it here.
Some video ideas:
1. Do you need “pro” lenses for video (1080/4K)? Does the detail even show up in video?
Pro lenses being 2.8 zooms, 1.4 primes, Fuji red badge, Canon L, Sony GM, etc...
2. Fstoppers original paid tutorial all about video recording and post processing for photographers. This would also heavily touch on vlogging since it’s fairly popular right now. Can also include a segment about hybrid shooting for weddings.
3. Side by side test of the best color accurate monitors on the market with value per dollar ratings. Do you need 10bit monitors? Do you need a monitor with a LUT? What GPU do you need to take advantage of 10bit/LUT monitors?
4. EGPU for video editing on the road, worth it?
5. Digital medium format vs high MP FF (similar to your old D810 vs 5dsr turtle shoot video)
6. Fun videos where Lee and Patrick take a paid tutorial and put its contents to use. Lee does architectural photography or Patrick does Landscape photography.
7. Compare architectural/landscape/cityscape using m4/3 sensors to apsc to FF to medium format, is their a difference once you put the camera on a tripod and shoot as base iso?
Love the ideas. Some of these we already plan to do
my vote for the 6th !!! :D
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Laptop-2-5-Inch-Internal-ST4000LM016/dp/B...
Looks like you can get 16gb/8gb redundant out of this. Although the specs on synology are slightly confusing considering it says you can get 16raw, but if you mirror you can only use 2tb HD's?
One reason why you may want to spring for the SSD despite the cost is the that they're far more resilient against physical shock.
You're probably on 4 drives with some kind of RAID setup to help guard against a drive failure, but if that device receives the right shock at the wrong time, you're still going to crash the heads in them.
I'm not sure which RAID level you've set on there, but maybe RAID 10 might be your thing if you want a bit more throughput by sacrificing some space - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nested_RAID_levels#RAID_10_(RAID_1+0)
You're absolutely on target in regard to physical shock being an issue with standard mechanical hard drives, especially if you plan on using a portable NAS such as this unit while traveling. SSD would be, by far, a better choice based on that reality alone. However, it may not be in everyone's budget, so I can understand why people would rather replace a standard drive as needed in a raid array for a cost-conscious solution.
The important thing is that the photographer has the choice, period. Many solutions are one-size-fits-all. But if you can at least afford the enclosure, a photographer will enjoy the benefits of a system like this with dirt-cheap drives for a while, and then they can get SSDs or "server class" HDD's in the long run, depending on their capacity needs.
Only about10 years late to the party. NAS is hardly new technology.
But how many 2.5" drive NAS solutions are out there? I don't think there are very many.
Maybe even more portable ... QNAP will sell you a 4 bay M.2 NAS enclosure.
Why drag a 1.5LB NAS in order to get some redundancy? Better off with two Samsung T5 2TB drives and use software RAID 1 directly from your Mac.
Smaller, lighter, more efficient and more resilient to bumps...
My $0.02
Can 5 people work off that drive at once?
Yes, they can. Share the T5 RAID on the network. As you already using 5 port switch this might be preferable and faster way of using your data. Saying this, you do need 2 USB ports on your Mac to create RAID. You can also use any external 2.5 inch drives for the RAID share. Not as fast as T5 but way faster than Synology. You can still use your DS416j as a backup for the RAID or if you want to save some money, remove HDDs and use them for the RAID.
This is NOT a good solution.. for backup?.. maybe.. but to work off of? you are crippling your workflow with a solution like this.
These days storage SSD's can easily get transfer-rates of 1500mb/sec.. some of the fancier ones can get 3000mb/sec. Traditional HDD's can get 200-300mb/sec.. a NAS solution like this maxes out (best case scenario) at 110mb/sec. You are crippling your work flow working directly off of one of these.
a DAS solution (directly attached storage) will give you far better transfer rates via usb 3.0, usb-c, or thunderbolt. These kinds of connections can match or almost match the transfer rates of the drives themselves. All the major drive manufacturers have RAID solutions along with niche companies like QNAP, and Drobo. QNAP has a product that is both a NAS and a DAS in one (its expensive), Drobo's are expandable over time.. WD, seagate, Gtech all have good fast raid solutions.
Everyones needs are different, do your research.. find what best suits you.. but the solution in this article doesnt seem ideal..
There is a difference between working off a drive, and incessantly transferring files back and forth to a drive. I suspect that the speed offered by an ethernet cable is more than enough to do work *ON* a drive, as in, referencing the files on the drive.
If you've got 2-5 people who all need to access the files from the same project, DAS is not gonna work.
And then you mention Drobo, and I lose all interest. :-P
YAAAAY!!! Considering that they're starting to make 2-4 TB 2.5" drives these days, I'm super excited that this type of device is becoming more common.
For now, I've been using a $29 device called a CineRaid. I don't even know if they still make it. It's a simple RAID1 device that only takes two 2.5" drives, but it's so compact and it does NOT require external power, which makes it very unique as far as RAID solutions go. Just one (hefty and proprietary) USB 3 cable, and boom! Love it.
Anyways, thanks or sharing this info! I still keep sets of 2.5" external drives for my long-term archives, because I can carry the last 5 years worth of work in a very small padded case and never have to worry about external power bricks for it. Seagate and WD are now up to 4TB externals for about $100. Unless you're shooting 4K video or 50+ weddings a yaer, 4TB is enough to get the "average" photographer through an entire year...
You can get 4TB 2.5" drives and in a 4-bay NAS that supports RAID 5 (like this one does) you can get 12TB of usable space with fault tolerance. Far more than the 4TB suggested in the article.
If money is no object, you can get huge SSD drives (15TB+) so you could get 45TB of fault tolerant storage if you want to donate a few organs.
The larger drives are 15mm. The Synology in the article only support 12mm drives, which I believe are limited to 2 TB
Nothing a little force couldn't fix :)
You'd be dealing with excess heat then and the drives would fail prematurely.
Not a risk I'd be willing to take...
Why not DS218 + 2 4Tb Red drives?
It's way bigger
The only problem with the Nas is when you are working with a mac. On windows it is really fast but if you have a directory full of file (photographers usually have) the time needed for finder to show them is so annoying...this is a well known issue with mac os and SMB protocol that apple still don't want to fix. So for now my nas is only for backup as I cannot work on it at all on mac os (but I can on my surface pro)
bummer. Never heard of this.
Then don't use SMB on the Mac, use AFP or better still NFS.
Killer info. Thanks for the share!
Backblaze puts out har drive reliability reports. They use a lot different drives in their facilities and they monitor and report on them quarterly:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q3-2017/
As to a NAS, you want a system where you can have a two drive redundancy. Just remember that even on a one drive redundant system, if there are 3 or 4 other drives it can take days to rebuild the data when a replacement drive is put in.
If you are taking a RAID with you, go with an SSD solution. As careful as you may think you are, one drop is all it takes to lose everything.
Also, if you are travelling and have access to the internet, backup your files to the cloud or setup a server at home that you can connect to using something like RESILIO:
https://www.resilio.com/
That way, if something does happen to your road backup, you'll have a copy to fall back up.
I used to have a Synology unit but I found it too slow. They've released faster systems since then but I built my own NAS using FreeNas as the OS. While the instructions on the FreeNas site call for some strict hardware requirements, you can build a system that functions quite well without following all of the rules. I have one system at home and another at a relatives. My data is backed up on their system and their data on mine.
The biggest problem with dual disk redundancy is it is becoming obsolete due to the size of the drives.
A large RAID 6 array with 8 TB, 10 TB or worse 12 TB drives could take weeks to rebuild, not days and therefore the risk of another Unrecoverable Error (URE) puts all your data at risk.
For this reason, my new NAS is a QNAP with 8x 8 TB Helium drives in RAID 10.
Yes, I loose half the storage, but rebuild time is hours and the array is much faster due to not having to calculate parity.
32 TB + 512 GB of the fastest Samsung PCI SSD for OS and applications and backed up to a Backblaze B2 account makes this thing a beast.
It saturates my Gig E LAN on writes over NFS, so no problem with speed here.
I've built my own NAS boxes before, but got fed up with the size and noise of them and at the end of the day, it's only as fast as your LAN.
I really like the QNAP's, they are more expensive than Synology, but a lot faster and more solid in build.
Hey Lee Morris is it 10GbE or regular GbE ? Seems to be "only" regular GbE but would be nice to confirm. Thanks
Just 1 gbps
Hi Lee, just reading this very helpful article / watching your video! Can I ask you (and others in the comments) - you mention using 2.5" SATA hard drives, laptop size. Do you use dedicated NAS hard drives, which seem to cost more, or just regular laptop ones like the one you linked to? Just checking! I read that NAS ones are recommended as they have low vibration and operating temperatures designed specifically for bay systems like this, and that using standard ones can result in issues. What are your findings?
Much obliged and great to see practical articals like this here alongside the inspirational ones!