Is this a NAS or just a giant networked hard drive?
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.
1824428
You interface with it via Thunderbolt from your computer to the drive itself. So far it's been a boy and it's fast.
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.
735279
I'm only using the one drive it came with right now. It might have software raid. You can ask the seller via their support link at deepdiscountservers.com.
1128816
Look at NAS (Network Attached Storage Devices) for hard drives that attach to a network. This is not for that use case.
1879836
I don't have this hard drive yet, they have not sent it back to me. But it is not a network storage device, it connects to your computer via firewire or USB. At least that's what it should do.
1690212
There are NAS drives that also have USB ports but most of the affordable ones I have seen don't let you use the network and ethernet simultaneously. So with that it would just be unplug the USB, update over ethernet, plug the USB back in. As long as you have 2 sets of cables, I don't think unhooking the drive and hooking it into the computer is a big deal myself...
1897317
I am just about 100% certain that you cannot plug this directly into a computer. It's not a mass storage device like any kind of external hard drive. If the three different workstations talk to each other on the network, might as well have them talk to the Synology NAS (Network Attached Storage) using the network.
2238076
It's an mSATA drive. Search for mSATA drives here on Amazon, larger capacities are available.
729023
You can us it as a normal drive. The main difference between a desktop drive and a nas drive are some modifications to the firmware, like TLER:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_recovery_control
2138931
This is a diskless NAS, so it has no storage. You will need to purchase your own HDD, and each bay supports 4 TB
649046
no - its a network device with storage, access to disks are via the network
1863851
I would get a NAS. I would avoid this particular product. I had a bad experience with this one. I did get a NAS, because I have the same configuration at home where PC and MAC need to live together.
93402
Hello yes this NAS is network secured with group security. it's easy to configure & stable. They only last 3-5 yrs though so do your backups!
2207812
You could definitely do that, but for less tech-savvy users this is very good. Additionally, it is power-efficient, the software is very solid, and set-up is easy. I got one because i didn't want to fiddle with FreeNas. The community that supports the DiskStations is massive, too. In essence, this thing is simlpy a NAS, and a very stable one at that. A dedicated PC like what you mentioned could and would be much more that a NAS, and if you were only using it as a NAS you would be wasting a whole lot of power. Go to the synology website and check out the DSM 5.0 demo. The software that they made for this hardware is quite slick.
1433025
Yes. It can handle many nas. The more files you have the router out its to search for them.
930958
What is an NAS? We are very happy and seem to be able to stream everything . Hope it helps?
1363894
Well, I do not know as it seems pretty neatly closed, but there is always the alternative to use an external and/or network accessible drives. That's what I do over a Gigabit network. Good luck.
1118055
yes, it is easy to map as a network drive. I have mapped it to both Windows 7 and 8, as well as Linux