I will eventually get the Synology but as of now I’m using my PC and I’m happy! I also have a paying service and backup to the cloud. I have 3 hard drives inside and 2 outside my PC. I think total I have 20tb for storage. Believe it or not I still have my 1st real computer an IBM Aptiva I bought back in 1994 from RadioShack with the original hard drive and it’s hookup and running in my basement right now. I also still have my Commodore 64 but it’s not hooked up but it still works. I taught myself Basic Language and had written a few programs. I have another computer that predates the 64 that I still have but I can’t remember the name. I’ll have to dig it out later. I’ve never had a hard drive failure so I basically buy any name brand that’s on sale. That was funny when you said you’ll be glad when the prices of Solid States are the same as a regular mechanical drive!🤣 It ain’t gonna happen!😥 The prices have come down l must say! Great Video! 👴🏽
Get some velcro straps. Cut the SOFT side into pieces that fit into the upper and lower tracks of each drive slot. This will reduce disk vibrations! Try one slot first, to see if you can use both upper and lower rails. It depends on the thickness of the velcro. The velcro doesn't have to be the full length of the rails, try to see what fits your nas best.
Regarding the drives not being on the Synology website of drives they support - Apart from when installing the new drives into a storage pool and how you get a warning, are they are other warnings once the drives are installed? Maybe they have changed this as I have seen videos of drives coming up with ''critical'' warnings in videos and this means its hard to tell if the drive is actually bad or not. Would like to know once drives are installed that are not supported if they appear without any warnings at all.
Synology makes great NAS! May not necessarily be the cheapest hardware, but if you account for both hardware, software, and support, they are hard to beat. I've got a DS1812+, DS1813+ and DS1819+. My media (movies, family videos, etc.) is in the DS1812+ and backed up to the DS1813+. Both have 2 expansion units each. One thing about the expansion units: they're nice when you run low on space, and instead of replacing existing drives with larger drives, you just add expansion units. The only negative, at least for my DS1812+ and DS1813+, is the expansion units go over a SATA interface. Operations on the expansion units (such as rebuilds) take a LOT longer than operations on the main unit. Do you backup your DS1821+? If not, consider getting a second NAS to back it up (do an online search for "RAID is not a backup"). My DS1812+ and DS1813+ only have one redundancy drive each, but since my DS1812+ is backed up to the DS1813+, I felt confident having just one redundancy drive. i've been using them for over a decade, and there were 2 scenarios when having a backup NAS was essential (issues where disk redundancy wouldn't have helped). So, it's best to have a backup NAS. Or at least at a minimum, use 2 drives of redundancy instead of 1. During a rebuild (when 1 drive goes bad), all the drives are constantly reading/writing for days at a time, so, there is a much higher failure rate than normal during a rebuild. Having no redundancy during a rebuild would make me very nervous.
I do not back up the NAS. Anything super important on the NAS is backed up or generally stored in the cloud and the NAS is providing a local/additional copy of that. The other stuff is just movies and things not important enough to spend the money to have two copies.
Thanks for the video was really useful. Have you had an issues with using a 18TB due to only 16TB drives being on the Synology compatibility list? I have a DS1019+ which needs more storage and currently Amazon UK has the 18TB IronWolf Pro as cheaper than the 16TB.
While I understand buying on the cheap and mixing drives is all well and good-however, I have found having all the same drives of the same capacity is best. You are storing important information on the NAS so why not spend a few more dollars to make sure. With so many variables (spindle speed, cache RAM, helium sealed, etc) I myself will always use the same manufacturer and model.
There is a nice consistency to using all the same drives, although better still to have bought them over time to make sure to get drives from different batches or starting life spans, I think.
Thanks Jeremy! Just what I needed. I have the same machine and used this to add an eighth drive. here is a question for you: I am using SHR(1). I've got all 8TB drives. The drive in the fifth bay is set up as a hot spare and is not part of the storage pool. The question is, does it make more sense to just add it to the storage pool, or is it wise to keep a hot spare at the ready. I could also re-configure to SHR2. I am a noob to all this and I appreciate your help!
been considering a NAS for a while. But don't know a lot about them or what real advantages it would give me. I am now using an older HP elite 8300 with internal 12 and 16tb drives for my plex library, paired with matching external drives as back up. I only share with my 2 sons outside my house. Of course leaving the PC on all the time is one draw back
NAS is a little more compact and has more built in server-type applications. No need to change from a server PC if there's nothing else the NAS will do for you though.
How would you add that 16TB drive to the system if you wanted to keep what was on that 16TB drive? Does the 1821 wipe it out and add it into the storage pool, or does it add it to the storage pool and keep whatever data / files on the 16 TB drive as well? What I’m getting at is, adding a drive that is blank and has files on it you need, but want to add it into the raid storage array. Please advise.
Synology SHR lets you dynamically add drives to the array in empty banks. It will grow the storage array without losing the existing content. SHR is one of the big reasons I like Synology so much.
@@Techthusiasm i hope so, just 4 32TB disks will be 128 TB, so thats already over the limit. the Drobo NAS'es had a volume cap of just 16TB, that's "NOTHING" in todays standard, and people started dropping them until they went bankrupt. a 8 bay Synology full of 32TB drives needs to support 256TB of RAW storage, i know some competitors already do support this and higher, and Synology is my favorite NAS company so i really dont wanna switch to something else again
This is from their site. "The maximum single volume size supported by Synology NAS varies depending on the CPU architecture and can be: 16 TB, 108 TB, 200 TB or 1 PB." You'd have to verify model by model.
@@Techthusiasm thanks lol, i wont bother you more. all my models are currently capped at 108 or 200 according to their site, and from what i see this is mostly a software limit because you can lookup people who use the a command code to cheat and go around this limit anyway, meaning most models like the DS1821+ has a cpu that can handle more than the artificial cap of 108TB per volume, maybe even a future software update could fix this, hopefully. 20TB drives were released in 2021. but only now are they starting to get affordable, 32TB disks got released this year, so there is still some time. so overall this isn't a HUGE issue yet, but it will be in the future, so the faster Synology finds a solution the better. imagine buying a 12 bay Synology NAS(the cheapest one), with 18TB disks, and you realize half of that HDD space is not supported on that volume(108 out of 216TB). luckily the slightly more expensive one supports 200TB, but even that is not enough in the future. anyway thats just me
Jeremy - is the 18TB you installed one year ago still running good ? I want to get the Synology 8 bay , but the tec guy from company won’t recommend drives not verified by the manufacturer. But their 18TB are twice the price of Seagate .
Isn’t there a 108 TB limit on this NAS? If so, shouldn’t the maximum HDD be 16 TB for SHR1 and 18 TB for SHR2… assuming filling all 8 bays. I was thinking of Exos X20s (20TB) HDDs considering the $/GB, as they are currently on sale for $289.
My understanding is the limit for a volume is 108 TB, but if you have larger drives, you can make multiple volumes. I think some of the new Synology models boosting this limit too.
I thought about it and researched adding more RAM. For my needs serving files and video content and a few other things, I haven't felt a need to upgrade RAM so far.
Do I understand correctly? Only one drive, "for protection"? I thought you needed to use half the drives for data and the other half for backup. I can see only needing enough backup to contain all the data in a situation where the data drives are not full but if you expect to have them all full eventually seems like you have to do it half and half. Edit: Ok, I see I also asked questions on your unboxing video 10 months ago. I'm starting to see the advantages of the NAS after watching that video again. Still don't understand why you don't have to limit the data drives to half however. Another edit: found the answer to that question here... "RAID Levels Explained RAID 0,1,5,6,10 - Which one is right for you and Why?" I'm finally getting internet at the house almost a year and a half after moving in, a long story about an internet provider that somehow left three lots in the subdivision out when the system was installed. They wanted over $14,000 to put it in even though houses on each side of those three got it for free. I wasn't going to put up with that so I took drastic steps... after letting them know I had acquired the rights to the original contracts between them and the subdivision developer, they agreed to do it for free🙂 Anyway, it gets turned on Feb 6 so I'll be putting in the router etc and I will want to go ahead and do something about making all my movies etc available on a network. So it's time to make the decision and most likely I'll get the DS1821+.
Nice! As you found out, there are different levels of RAID (including the special Synology SHR variant). I recommend using SHR and choose 1 or 2 discs worth of protection based on your comfort level and how critical the data is. I just chose one. If my contend helped, please consider buying from Amazon for your NAS with my affiliate links. Let me know if you have more questions.
@@Techthusiasm Happy New Year! I finally set up the NAS but I have problems! It works... and yet not. Right now I have everything stripped down to the basics and it still doesn't work. I have the NAS connected to the router, I have a Roku connected to the router, and I have a 4K monitor connected directly to the Roku. I have ripped disc files and Plex on the NAS. It can stream ripped DVD no problem but it cannot stream 1080p or 4K. When I try a 1080p, it brings up some artwork and the little circle spiraling at, "33%". Attempting to play 4K brings up artwork and, "13%". Again, it's stripped down to bare bones, just the NAS, the router, the Roku, and a 4K monitor, no receiver etc. I just went to Best Buy and bought a new router, no change. I picked up a new Roku, no change. I've tried multiple Ethernet cables and different HDMI cables from the Roku to the monitor. Any troubleshooting ideas you have will be greatly appreciated. Thanks and happy new year! Monte
When you loose half of your data size it’s when you use raid1 or raid 10. For example if you have 2x12tb in raid 1 , you have one drive for the data and the other one is a mirror. With raid10, same thing , 4x12tb you will end up with half the total size of your storage , so around 24tb instead of 48tb
Jaremy definitely lives and breathes technology. I do enjoy his passion and enthusiasm. User name checks out❤🔥❤🔥
Thanks! :)
I will eventually get the Synology but as of now I’m using my PC and I’m happy! I also have a paying service and backup to the cloud. I have 3 hard drives inside and 2 outside my PC. I think total I have 20tb for storage. Believe it or not I still have my 1st real computer an IBM Aptiva I bought back in 1994 from RadioShack with the original hard drive and it’s hookup and running in my basement right now. I also still have my Commodore 64 but it’s not hooked up but it still works. I taught myself Basic Language and had written a few programs. I have another computer that predates the 64 that I still have but I can’t remember the name. I’ll have to dig it out later. I’ve never had a hard drive failure so I basically buy any name brand that’s on sale. That was funny when you said you’ll be glad when the prices of Solid States are the same as a regular mechanical drive!🤣 It ain’t gonna happen!😥 The prices have come down l must say! Great Video! 👴🏽
Thanks!
I always smart test a drive before adding it. I run a quick and a long smart test and if it pass , I will add it.
Get some velcro straps. Cut the SOFT side into pieces that fit into the upper and lower tracks
of each drive slot. This will reduce disk vibrations!
Try one slot first, to see if you can use both upper and lower rails. It depends on the thickness of the velcro. The velcro doesn't have to be the full length of the rails, try to see what fits your nas best.
Interesting tip, thanks!
Regarding the drives not being on the Synology website of drives they support - Apart from when installing the new drives into a storage pool and how you get a warning, are they are other warnings once the drives are installed? Maybe they have changed this as I have seen videos of drives coming up with ''critical'' warnings in videos and this means its hard to tell if the drive is actually bad or not. Would like to know once drives are installed that are not supported if they appear without any warnings at all.
I have never seen any follow-up warnings on mine.
Synology makes great NAS! May not necessarily be the cheapest hardware, but if you account for both hardware, software, and support, they are hard to beat. I've got a DS1812+, DS1813+ and DS1819+. My media (movies, family videos, etc.) is in the DS1812+ and backed up to the DS1813+. Both have 2 expansion units each. One thing about the expansion units: they're nice when you run low on space, and instead of replacing existing drives with larger drives, you just add expansion units. The only negative, at least for my DS1812+ and DS1813+, is the expansion units go over a SATA interface. Operations on the expansion units (such as rebuilds) take a LOT longer than operations on the main unit.
Do you backup your DS1821+? If not, consider getting a second NAS to back it up (do an online search for "RAID is not a backup"). My DS1812+ and DS1813+ only have one redundancy drive each, but since my DS1812+ is backed up to the DS1813+, I felt confident having just one redundancy drive. i've been using them for over a decade, and there were 2 scenarios when having a backup NAS was essential (issues where disk redundancy wouldn't have helped). So, it's best to have a backup NAS. Or at least at a minimum, use 2 drives of redundancy instead of 1. During a rebuild (when 1 drive goes bad), all the drives are constantly reading/writing for days at a time, so, there is a much higher failure rate than normal during a rebuild. Having no redundancy during a rebuild would make me very nervous.
I do not back up the NAS. Anything super important on the NAS is backed up or generally stored in the cloud and the NAS is providing a local/additional copy of that. The other stuff is just movies and things not important enough to spend the money to have two copies.
Thanks for the video was really useful. Have you had an issues with using a 18TB due to only 16TB drives being on the Synology compatibility list? I have a DS1019+ which needs more storage and currently Amazon UK has the 18TB IronWolf Pro as cheaper than the 16TB.
Hi! All the drives are working fine. No issues.
While I understand buying on the cheap and mixing drives is all well and good-however, I have found having all the same drives of the same capacity is best. You are storing important information on the NAS so why not spend a few more dollars to make sure. With so many variables (spindle speed, cache RAM, helium sealed, etc) I myself will always use the same manufacturer and model.
There is a nice consistency to using all the same drives, although better still to have bought them over time to make sure to get drives from different batches or starting life spans, I think.
Thanks Jeremy! Just what I needed. I have the same machine and used this to add an eighth drive. here is a question for you: I am using SHR(1). I've got all 8TB drives. The drive in the fifth bay is set up as a hot spare and is not part of the storage pool. The question is, does it make more sense to just add it to the storage pool, or is it wise to keep a hot spare at the ready. I could also re-configure to SHR2. I am a noob to all this and I appreciate your help!
If you want 2 drive protection, I'd just change the array to SHR2. I think would be your best bet.
Gonna grab a synology NAS soon as I can verify if I can use a zappiti to pull from it 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
They are awesome. It'll work great with Zappiti. Use my Amazon links too! :)
@@Techthusiasm def will use your link
Thanks!
@@Techthusiasm no prob. Does the link work with any NAS or just the one it specifically pulls up when you click on it ?
You can get to Amazon off any of my links and shop in general and it should work. For quick linking, you can also go from www.jaremypyle.com/support.
been considering a NAS for a while. But don't know a lot about them or what real advantages it would give me. I am now using an older HP elite 8300 with internal 12 and 16tb drives for my plex library, paired with matching external drives as back up. I only share with my 2 sons outside my house. Of course leaving the PC on all the time is one draw back
NAS is a little more compact and has more built in server-type applications. No need to change from a server PC if there's nothing else the NAS will do for you though.
How would you add that 16TB drive to the system if you wanted to keep what was on that 16TB drive? Does the 1821 wipe it out and add it into the storage pool, or does it add it to the storage pool and keep whatever data / files on the 16 TB drive as well? What I’m getting at is, adding a drive that is blank and has files on it you need, but want to add it into the raid storage array. Please advise.
Synology SHR lets you dynamically add drives to the array in empty banks. It will grow the storage array without losing the existing content. SHR is one of the big reasons I like Synology so much.
does synology still have a 108 tb limit on a volume, cuz soon seagate will release the 32TB drives and even just 4 bay synologies will be capped
Newer models with new CPUs can go much higher, I believe.
@@Techthusiasm i hope so, just 4 32TB disks will be 128 TB, so thats already over the limit. the Drobo NAS'es had a volume cap of just 16TB, that's "NOTHING" in todays standard, and people started dropping them until they went bankrupt.
a 8 bay Synology full of 32TB drives needs to support 256TB of RAW storage, i know some competitors already do support this and higher, and Synology is my favorite NAS company so i really dont wanna switch to something else again
This is from their site. "The maximum single volume size supported by Synology NAS varies depending on the CPU architecture and can be: 16 TB, 108 TB, 200 TB or 1 PB." You'd have to verify model by model.
@@Techthusiasm thanks lol, i wont bother you more. all my models are currently capped at 108 or 200 according to their site, and from what i see this is mostly a software limit because you can lookup people who use the a command code to cheat and go around this limit anyway, meaning most models like the DS1821+ has a cpu that can handle more than the artificial cap of 108TB per volume,
maybe even a future software update could fix this, hopefully. 20TB drives were released in 2021. but only now are they starting to get affordable, 32TB disks got released this year, so there is still some time.
so overall this isn't a HUGE issue yet, but it will be in the future, so the faster Synology finds a solution the better.
imagine buying a 12 bay Synology NAS(the cheapest one), with 18TB disks, and you realize half of that HDD space is not supported on that volume(108 out of 216TB). luckily the slightly more expensive one supports 200TB, but even that is not enough in the future. anyway thats just me
Jeremy - is the 18TB you installed one year ago still running good ? I want to get the Synology 8 bay , but the tec guy from company won’t recommend drives not verified by the manufacturer. But their 18TB are twice the price of Seagate .
Yes, all good. No issues.
Did you tried any 20TB drive? I wonder if it works…
It should, but always check the official Synology compatibility lists to be safe.
@@Techthusiasm in synology’s compatibility list it’s a missing…
I would expect it should work fine, but perhaps ask their support. I'd hate to tell you to go ahead and buy drives and then find out they don't work.
Isn’t there a 108 TB limit on this NAS? If so, shouldn’t the maximum HDD be 16 TB for SHR1 and 18 TB for SHR2… assuming filling all 8 bays. I was thinking of Exos X20s (20TB) HDDs considering the $/GB, as they are currently on sale for $289.
My understanding is the limit for a volume is 108 TB, but if you have larger drives, you can make multiple volumes. I think some of the new Synology models boosting this limit too.
FYI, your link, "Seagate 18TB IronWolf Pro" has the wrong link, it goes to the PS Audio noise harvester.
Hmm, maybe a copy/paste error on my part. Try this one. amzn.to/3QUyO4E
@@Techthusiasm Yes, that works.
what do you think about installing 64gb of ram?
I thought about it and researched adding more RAM. For my needs serving files and video content and a few other things, I haven't felt a need to upgrade RAM so far.
No parity drives?
I use 1 parity drive with the SHR (Synology Hybrid Raid).
Do I understand correctly? Only one drive, "for protection"? I thought you needed to use half the drives for data and the other half for backup. I can see only needing enough backup to contain all the data in a situation where the data drives are not full but if you expect to have them all full eventually seems like you have to do it half and half.
Edit: Ok, I see I also asked questions on your unboxing video 10 months ago. I'm starting to see the advantages of the NAS after watching that video again. Still don't understand why you don't have to limit the data drives to half however. Another edit: found the answer to that question here... "RAID Levels Explained RAID 0,1,5,6,10 - Which one is right for you and Why?"
I'm finally getting internet at the house almost a year and a half after moving in, a long story about an internet provider that somehow left three lots in the subdivision out when the system was installed. They wanted over $14,000 to put it in even though houses on each side of those three got it for free. I wasn't going to put up with that so I took drastic steps... after letting them know I had acquired the rights to the original contracts between them and the subdivision developer, they agreed to do it for free🙂 Anyway, it gets turned on Feb 6 so I'll be putting in the router etc and I will want to go ahead and do something about making all my movies etc available on a network. So it's time to make the decision and most likely I'll get the DS1821+.
Nice! As you found out, there are different levels of RAID (including the special Synology SHR variant). I recommend using SHR and choose 1 or 2 discs worth of protection based on your comfort level and how critical the data is. I just chose one. If my contend helped, please consider buying from Amazon for your NAS with my affiliate links. Let me know if you have more questions.
@@Techthusiasm Will do, I'm flying home on the 3rd so I'll place the order one or two days before. Thanks for all the help!
@@Techthusiasm Happy New Year! I finally set up the NAS but I have problems! It works... and yet not. Right now I have everything stripped down to the basics and it still doesn't work. I have the NAS connected to the router, I have a Roku connected to the router, and I have a 4K monitor connected directly to the Roku. I have ripped disc files and Plex on the NAS.
It can stream ripped DVD no problem but it cannot stream 1080p or 4K. When I try a 1080p, it brings up some artwork and the little circle spiraling at, "33%". Attempting to play 4K brings up artwork and, "13%". Again, it's stripped down to bare bones, just the NAS, the router, the Roku, and a 4K monitor, no receiver etc. I just went to Best Buy and bought a new router, no change. I picked up a new Roku, no change. I've tried multiple Ethernet cables and different HDMI cables from the Roku to the monitor.
Any troubleshooting ideas you have will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and happy new year!
Monte
When you loose half of your data size it’s when you use raid1 or raid 10. For example if you have 2x12tb in raid 1 , you have one drive for the data and the other one is a mirror. With raid10, same thing , 4x12tb you will end up with half the total size of your storage , so around 24tb instead of 48tb