Best NAS drive in 2024

What Is NAS?

To put it simply, a NAS device is a storage device that is connected to a network, which will allow you (and authorized network users) to store and retrieve data from a centralized location.

NAS devices generally speaking are pretty flexible and have a bit of room for scaling out. If you need additional storage, you can always add to your NAS device. As mentioned, NAS is like your own private cloud except it doesn’t cost as much and gives you access to data much faster.

Choosing the Best NAS Drive

The variety of NAS devices out there is quite large, often with varying amounts of drive bays, with consumer-level models usually coming with one, two, three, or four bays.

Which NAS device you buy will obviously reflect your storage needs and what kind of setup you are going for. As a bare minimum, you should look for a dual-bay system with two matching HDDs in a mirrored RAID1 configuration. When using this type of setup, you can protect your data from a failing HDD as it everything is copied to both drives.

For those that need more storage space or have a larger budget for finding the best solution, a four-bay NAS device could be a better choice. With a four-bay setup, you can get RAID5 going, which will give you a better balance of both security and capacity.

It is worth noting that four-bay NAS devices bring a lot of additional features with that extra cost. Additional features like LCD displays and extra ports also bring on the need for extra power though so be prepared for higher energy costs and a bit of extra noise!

What About Disks?

NAS devices can come with or without disks inside. Manufacturers recommend you populate the device with NAS-specific drives as they are built for heavier usage, handling higher temps, and reliability. These types of drives are quite pricey and in many cases are overkill for home use. An alternative to these drives is, of course, normal consumer drives or recycled drives.

Ports and Connections

Depending on what you plan to use your NAS device for, connectivity could be an important factor with your decision. For video and audio playback you’ll obviously need the relative connectors, so an HDMI or audio jack could be an important feature. Make sure you consider this when choosing!

Access Your NAS Remotely

A NAS device gives you the best of both worlds, with you being able to access data quicker when with the device but also being able to get to your data remotely. With the right NAS setup, you can access your storage from anywhere in the world, much like the cloud services we all know and love.

With the use of a NAS device, there will be no monthly charge for a large amount of data you are storing, and when at home you won’t need to download it. Each provider can offer different levels of third-party cloud services, but you can basically synchronize your files with online storage for an extra backup source/ route of access.

What Is RAID?

RAID (redundant array of independent disks) in some forms can sound quite complex, but its main goal is to protect data from hard drive failures or improve efficiency. The most popular RAID configurations are RAID0, RAID1, and RAID5.

Getting a NAS device with at least two bays will mean you could mirror the drives in a RAID1 configuration, meaning you would have all of your data backed up if one drive failed. The issue with RAID1 is that it uses twice as much storage space than it needs to, which can be quite annoying.

RAID0 is very fast and splits data between two or more disks, but it doesn’t protect against redundancy.

With a RAID5 configured setup you will need at least three drives, to begin with as it offers parity of data. RAID5 protects you against one of your drives failing as it is striped across all of your drives and can be copied over from one of the other disks. The main issue with RAID5 is the slow write speeds due to it needing to also write the parity data.

Whichever configuration you choose, don’t solely rely on the NAS device as your only backup. The golden rule is back it up three times, and you should consider this in case your NAS device breaks or in the event of a terrible event like a fire.

How Safe Is My Data On NAS?

You never know what might happen, and RAID can’t always protect your data. An electrical surge or theft can leave you without anything, and while there is support from some manufacturers, you should always back up your data!

How you do this is up to you, whether it is backed up using a cloud service or an alternative NAS device, it is better safe than sorry. If you plan on using a secondary NAS device, you can always replicate your data from one device to another.

Modern NAS devices are basically low-powered PCs and are often connected to an internet source, making them vulnerable to outside threats. Viruses, malware, and hackers are just a few threats to name which can steal, damage, or lose the data you have been storing. To combat this, remember to update the device whenever you can!