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Thesis [soylentnews.org] writes:

After many years of accumulating family photos, videos, and other digital files, I decided to purchase a NAS to centralize my storage needs. I researched many different brands and prices. In the end I purchased a QNAP TVS-871 [qnap.com] and populated it with three WD 4TB Red NAS drives in a RAID 5 configuration to start. It may be overkill for a home user such as myself, but I felt that it gave me the most bang for the buck, and allows me plenty of room to grow and learn. Hopefully, it will last me for many years to come. Yes, this is not being used as a backup, and I do have an off-site backup plan.

I do realize that many of you, who are certainly more tech savvy than myself, have more than likely built a home-brew NAS. This was simply the easiest way for a NAS noob such as myself to have something as close to plug-n-play as I could get. So my questions for the community:

1. Any general advice or tips that a NAS noob should know?

2. How do you manage your multimedia files? Is there any particular programs or folder structure you recommend for managing these files for easy viewing?

3. Do you have any other recommendations, thoughts, or experiences you wish to share with others who may be thinking of getting a NAS for home or small office use?

Original Submission