Question 1

Do I have to format my drive before putting it inside this NAS? I have an internal 3.5 drive 3tb already formatted and with some data, so I would like to just plug it in the NAS and it will be on the network, is that possible?

Accepted Answer

first of all, you will need to mount (install) at least one hdd inside of nas to install synology OS. once you installed synology OS to your internal hdd, then you can add pre-existing external hdd (usb) to this nas and mount it to synology os. 
if your 3tb is only hdd you have, yes you will need to backup your data before install it to nas. synology will wipe out the data when it install synology os on primary hdd

Question 2

Hi there, I was wondering if this product mirrors both hard drives?

Thanks

Accepted Answer

Hello,

This nas has a 2 bay hhd, and it can be configured to mirror one drive on the other (you only "see" one drive) or combining them (you "see" both drives). It is called raid 1 & 0.

Hope this helps.

Question 3

This station working well with HD 4TB?

Accepted Answer

Well I have two 2TB drives in there running the synology RAID system. While the RAID works it isnt really what is promised. It will still use one drive for redundancy. I was a little disappointed with that. However, the system runs really well. The only time your system will lag is during upload of files. All the apps are useful and I would recommend this system to anyone.  Hope this helps.

cheers,
Face

Question 4

I am interested in getting this product as a christmas gift and I want to make sure I also get all of the required accessories.

1- Intended use is for storing and streaming music from the device to speakers.

2- A friend of mine seemed to control it all from his iphone, did I misunderstand or is this actually the case?

3- Do I need to purchase additional hard drives?

Thanks so much!

Accepted Answer

Happy to answer yopur questions as best I can.

1.  I use mine for music and movies.  It streams to iTunes and to Windows Media Player.  Will stream to any DLNA device as well.  For example, I have a WDLive box; streams to that.

2. All I can speak to is Apple products.  Synology has several FREE apps that permit you to listen to music, watch a video, or make setting changes on your Diskstation.  Don'y know if these apps are available for an Android device.

3. Very important question!  This unit as it comes from Synology is diskless.  That means it comes with NO hard drives.  You can operate it with one drive, but is will have no failure resilience.  Suggest you buy two drives - same size.  The 3TB drives are cheap; the 4TB drives are not yet cheap.  Synolgy has a great OS that automatically provides backup services (called Raid 0).

Question 5

will this easily run Plex media server?

Accepted Answer

there is a plugin for plex, and i used it briefly, but couldn't get the permissions right for media to be played from other computers/devices, so i reverted to the Synology Music, picture, video plugins for dlns media serving.

Question 6

I currently have 2 1TB drives in RAID 0 configuration.  I already have important directories in 'the cloud' but I would like to setup a backup system (RAID 1) to be able to mirror my setup.  Would I need to purchase separate backup software to mirror my drives?

Accepted Answer

I would put 2 2TB drives in the synology and set it up as Raid1 or "hybrid" raid.  This way the synology keeps a constant mirror at all times.

You can probably plug an external drive into a USB port on the back and have it backup to that weekly or something but normally the synology would BE the backup.

If using an external drive plugged into the synology look for 'local backup' - you can also find instructions for this in the synology forum but newegg will not let me post links to outside sites here.

Search google for "backup synology" and there will be a link to the instructions in the forum there.

Hope this helps

Question 7

I have lots of experience with RAID. In my experience, if one drive fails you can still access data (without replacing the failed drive). Is this possible with this device?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if running RAID 1 (mirrored drives) you can still access your data if one drive is failed.  It will serve data in the "degraded" state, though obviously without protection.  If the second drive fails, you will lose the data.

If running RAID 0, one drive failure will mean the loss of all data.

Question 8

Howdy there! :-)

I understand that you can set up a home cloud and with the use of the android aplications stream music from the NAS on the go. Can you access the NAS from a computer remotley, and stream music without instaling any software on the computer? Is there a browser based utility that will let me do this?

The reason I ask, is that I would like to stream music from my NAS at home on my work computer, and I cant instal any software on my work computer.

Thank you in advance!

Accepted Answer

I haven't set it up for that -  but I have read reviews from users that it will do it. It's amazing the variety of apps you can pull down (no charge) to make the system what you want it to be. Look up reviews on Amazon and you'll see what I mean. It's pretty easy to set up two. I got the red hard drives 3TB's each (best price point). Good luck!

Question 9

If I install/mount an internal drive, can I then connect an external disk formatted with windows to the USB and read it?

Accepted Answer

yes, you can read it and then copy data to internal hard drive.  I would recommend two identical drives (setup in synology hybrid raid (mirrored drives) for internal.

Questions & Answers