Looking to purchase this NAS unit solely to be able to back-up my portable HD that I carry with me to and from work. The info and specs I read say this unit will do what I'm looking to do. Does anyone have experience using this feature, backing up a portable hard drive? Thanks in advance. Looking to purchase this NAS unit solely to be able to back-up my portable HD that I carry with me to and from work. The info and specs I read say this unit will do what I'm looking to do. ... » Read More Looking to purchase this NAS unit solely to be able to back-up my portable HD that I carry with me to and from work. The info and specs I read say this unit will do what I'm looking to do. Does anyone have experience using this feature, backing up a portable hard drive? Thanks in advance. « Show Less
579533
Yes, this NAS would be able to back up a portable HD. There is a 3.0 USB connection on the front and you can configure the NAS to do a USB Copy. I must say that I think if all you need is a backup solution for portable HD this NAS may be overkill, but that is just my opinion.
579534
The backup utility built into the NAS software will only back up the NAS. You can backup your external drive to the NAS using third party software, or backup software that came with your drive. I backup my external drives to the NAS by plugging them into a computer on the network that has my backup software. I use Acronis. I do not know if you can backup the external drive if it is plugged directly into the NAS. Never tried it that way. It probably depends on the capabilities of your backup software.
250877
This device is not a stand-alone solution for storage like a NAS device would be. It also does not have the ability to be connected via eSATA without some kind of intermediary eSATA to SATA converting cable or device. For me I connected an un-used ATX power supply that had SATA power connections to the HDDRACK5, then hooked the drives directly to controller cards in a PC.
101318
I've wondered about this too. When I purchased this drive all I wanted was a drive, not a lot of software. And I have no interest in their sharing capability on social media. Maybe someone can answer this, like Seagate themselves.
101221
I considered doing this myself, as the Mini is built from OTS parts. I even purchased the identical case ($200). However, once I created a spreadsheet and entered all of the parts and prices (as best I could; still can't find a source for the exact DOM used in the Mini), the total came to within $30 of the iXsystems price for the diskless Mini. So, is that a fair price for a guaranteed-to-work, out-of-the-box solution? OTOH, if you don't build an exact duplicate, you *can* save some money. But, as Brian L. Bailey pointed out, it comes down to the value you place on your time and data. In any case, whether you buy the diskless Mini or roll your own, be sure to use at least 8GB ECC memory (the Mini has two 8GB ECC DIMMs; ECC should be a ZFS requirement) and server-grade disk drives (Western Digital Red drives are highly recommended), neither of which is as cheap as consumer-grade hardware. Note that FreeNAS requires 8GB base memory plus 1GB per TB of disk space. (See my other answer for Amazon ASINs for DIMMs and Disk drives.) Bottom line: If you value your data, don't scrimp on the hardware. See the FreeNAS web site and forums, such as the thread about "So you want some hardware recommendations?" for more information. On the forum, there are numerous postings by folks who did not adhere to the minimum hardware recommendations for FreeNAS and ZFS and lost all of their data - don't become one of them. Since you still need to back up your data, and backing up, say 6 or 12TB, is no trivial task, I may go ahead and build a second unit using identical parts and locate it in a relative's home. This would help protect our family's data from fire, theft, vandalism, or other disaster.
527108
ABSOLUTELY. I have been using a pair of 3TB, a pair of 4T and a pair of 1 TB seagates for some time with no problems. I do not use any of their special back-up software. (KIK, Ph.D.)
2080494
The best answer is that my WD unit liked it. If you have a newer model/version - then I can not answer but I know they would not want to mess with something that is working for now. Besides, it is cheep and if it doesn't work your only out a few bucks.
252684
I'm using 5 of these... WD Red 3TB NAS Desktop Hard Disk Drive - Intellipower SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRXI've had no problems out of them since installing back in June (2013). I think you can format up to 10GB of usable space with Synology's RAID "method".I'm using the DS710+ as my main NAS controller. It has an additional 2x 2TB drives installed in it. I have the entire system connected to an APC UPS via the USB connector. Pretty much all automated shutdown/recover in case of power failure.Bill I'm using 5 of these... WD Red 3TB NAS Desktop Hard Disk Drive - Intellipower SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRXI've had no problems out of them since installing back in June (2013). I think you can format up to 10GB of usable space with Synology's RAID "method".I'm using the DS710+ as my main NAS controller. It has an additional 2x 2TB drives installed in it. I have the entire system connected to an APC UPS via the USB connector. Pretty much all automated shutdown/recover in case of power... » Read More I'm using 5 of these... WD Red 3TB NAS Desktop Hard Disk Drive - Intellipower SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD30EFRXI've had no problems out of them since installing back in June (2013). I think you can format up to 10GB of usable space with Synology's RAID "method".I'm using the DS710+ as my main NAS controller. It has an additional 2x 2TB drives installed in it. I have the entire system connected to an APC UPS via the USB connector. Pretty much all automated shutdown/recover in case of power failure.Bill « Show Less
1339936
I am looking for an external hard drive to back up my entire lap top hard drive, in case of failure. Is the Passport Essential the unit I am looking for?
96349
Dr. Bozarth, I take all reviews with a grain of salt of course. I also noticed the disparity in the ratings between the two sites. I usually frequent thehomeservershow.com. Many of the forum members are I.T. Professionals, or like myself, a medical professional with a keen interest in technology. The Western Digital Green Drives were the go to drives in the past, but were not ideal for NAS/RAID situations. Many of the members have had good luck with the RED drives, but still recommend a program such as SpinRite or HD Tune Pro to evaluate the drive before putting it into service. I can only recall one situation where a member reported a DOA Red Drive, and many more situations where the Green drives presented problems. The recommended drives for your scenario would be the WD Red drives or the Seagate NAS drives. RAID-1 would be a good solution, and a cloud backup such as CrashPlan on top of that. I have personally purchased two 3TB Red drives and have had no problems with them in the 6-12 months I have owned them. Hope this helps.
619969
i use it only for backup, i have 2 drives, one in my brothers house and one in my house basement, both drives doing rsync between each other for off site backup to my brother house. I am running 2 physical servers, dl hp 380, i am running Proxmox virtualization platform allowing me to migrate form one ip to another, with backup there as well onto separate RAID in each dl 380. Solution works well... trascoding maybe intensive with cpu, cpu is not the best here, since it's not pc, i would advise to have some powerful dl 380 doing transcoding with fast speed rpm drives. I help customers build backup solutions, and weird things that they need build in technology my site networkconsultant.net
1761415
Others (per forum postings elsewhere) have replaced the 500mb standard drive upon purchase to avoid the hassles. You *can* un-mount the OS drive. Most users just probably *shouldn't* go through that. I just left it in there and added 2 1TB drives. Heck Seagate 1.5TB drives are now well under $200 each.Regardless, you can back up the server software (and backup the backup) via the external ports (4 USB/1 eSATA). I recommend doing so and backing up your backup and then taking that to an off-site location such as your work office, safety deposit box, friend's house, etc.
1451883
This is a set it and forget it NAS. Needs not be re-imaged. And for the price you will pay for this unit, you are better off buying a used case, sticking 4 4TB drives in it and getting a USB flash drive and calling it a night. Thats what I did using Synology's free version of their NAS and sofar its working great. Over 150 days up. I sold this unit last year with over two years of trouble free service. The only reason I sold it was because it was too small for my growing needs. So to answer your question. Not sure. But its also not needed.
860402
I "third" Robin V.'s comment. A few years ago, I installed four Seagate consumer drives equivalent to WD green line HDs in a Drobo and had 2 single drive failures followed by 3 simultaneous failures that resulted in a lot of downtime and some data loss. WD Red drives are built for NAS use and have not failed me yet (multiple years in, now!) And for those counting, yes, that was 5 failures with 4 (purchased) Seagate 1.5TB drives -- the first drive that failed was replaced under Seagate's warranty, and then that replacement failed. All failures happened between 6 and 18 months after purchase/deployment. I "third" Robin V.'s comment. A few years ago, I installed four Seagate consumer drives equivalent to WD green line HDs in a Drobo and had 2 single drive failures followed by 3 simultaneous failures that resulted in a lot of downtime and some data loss. WD Red drives are built for NAS use and have not failed me yet (multiple years in, now!) And for those counting, yes, that was 5 failures with 4 (purchased) Seagate 1.5TB drives -- the first drive that failed was replaced under Seagate's warranty, and then that replacement failed. All failures happened between 6 and 18 months after... » Read More I "third" Robin V.'s comment. A few years ago, I installed four Seagate consumer drives equivalent to WD green line HDs in a Drobo and had 2 single drive failures followed by 3 simultaneous failures that resulted in a lot of downtime and some data loss. WD Red drives are built for NAS use and have not failed me yet (multiple years in, now!) And for those counting, yes, that was 5 failures with 4 (purchased) Seagate 1.5TB drives -- the first drive that failed was replaced under Seagate's warranty, and then that replacement failed. All failures happened between 6 and 18 months after purchase/deployment. « Show Less
1824429
It is not really a NAS in my estimation since it is really for working on large files across a network. Additionally, the RAID element of it is not really terribly "safe". I returned mine and got a Drobo instead for the hot-swappable no data loss aspect to it. I run a busy multimedia studio that, in addition to other services, offers photography and video for our corporate clients. I use the Drobo for this purpose and it works great with 5 people accessing the Drobo 5N.
1824427
This is not a NAS or a "giant networked hard drive". It is a 5-bay Direct-Attach-Storage device. It connects to a single host machine via Thunderbolt.
1232667
Absolutely and that is one of the features that made me buy it. It also is able to support a very wide range of media and codecs which is probably the best reason to buy it. I run a Seagate 1.5 TB Backup plus USB portable drive as the main storage for my WD player. When you first plug in the drive it takes a long time for it to initialize so be patient if you have alot of media to sort through. The price is really great with the functionality of the system overall.
228404
There is no hard drive in the sd version. You back up data to a usb thumb drive or standard sd card which you can attach to the unit. I did not want a hard drive as it coud be problamatic if the hard drive fails.