Qnap Network Attached Storage (TS-470-PRO-16G-US)

Worth every freakin' penny. I threw 4x 1TB WD RED drives in this thing and had a RAID 6 array, thin-provisioned data volume and all of my data backed up (approx. 1 TB) by the morning after I plugged it in. I was transferring via wireless.The features are amazing - built in web server, VPN termination point, LDAP server and too many other things to count. I expect this will last for years. It's well built and quiet.I have it running off an APC Smart UPS 750 in case of power issues. The only thing I need now is some method of getting the NAS to shut down from a signal from the UPS in case of loss of power.

After web research, ordered this unit from Qnap. Set up via internet was easy, but at the end of the setup, error message came on saying 'system failure due to fan problems.' Fan was spinning fine, but the software did not let the set up to complete and the unit was never functional. I then went on to google this message and no surprise, there were numerous complaints about this same problem that offered no clear solution. I returned it and ordered synology unit instead and very happy with it now. Stay away from Qnap.

I debated 3 stars because this thing is chock full of amazing features but I went with 2 stars because of the new forced mandate of using RAID and the file system corruption that ensued causing a complete and unrecoverable of loss of my data. Fortunately I had an offsite backup that was 3 months old from my old TS-439 Pro. You can no longer have offsite backups with these new storage pool devices.These new Qnap units mandate that you use RAID and give you no choice of using a plain Linux/Unix ext4/3/2 partitions. They call this the Storage Pool which allows you to aggregate many disk and assign a logical volume to them. Indeed very handy and useful; but only if one needs it. This new Storage Pool is essentially a forced use of an ext4 only partition on the primary data partition and ext2 on the smaller system partitions with LVM (Logical Volume Manager) slapped on top of the ext2/4 partitions and finally encapsulated in a RAID array. Even if you format the disk as a single disk, it is still a RAID array. If this Qnap unit dies, you cannot take the disk out and slap them into any Linux/Unix machine and get access to your data. You’ll have to get familiar with mdadm commands and reconstruct the RAID array and you can do that only if your SATA controller on the new machine supports RAID. A royal PIA!!!I’m a prior owner of a Qnap TS-439 Pro that does not have the storage pool implementation and I used this as a backup server primarily. I then had two other disks in the device part-time that contained a mirror copy of the primary drive. One was kept in a fireproof safe and backed up every weekend. The other was an off-site backup that I kept at my parents’ house. With 1TB of data, the cloud was not an option. This offsite backup was actually two disks that I alternated every 1 to 3 months. I used command line rsync to keep these drives updated and everything worked beautifully.If you are looking for a hot-swap unit to manage backups, these new Qnap units are certainly not for you. You have to keep your drives in this thing 100% of the time and cannot take them out. I am now building a Linux (CentOS) hot-swap server for my house. Using a Corsair 550D case and an Icy Dock hot swap cage, this is replacing my Qnap.

To start, I was sick of using iCloud and Dropbox for personal use and work. Limited storage and features, I also didn't like the idea of my work documents and pictures on someone else's server.Setting this NAS up was a cake walk, I am no IT professional and have no previous NAS experience. It took me about 5 minutes to get it up and running. I set it up in RAID 1, seems to be the standard for basic users like myself. I transferred several external hard drives through the USB port using the Backup App in the server. Transfer went smoothly with no problems.I also have it set up to automatically upload all my files on the computer through QSync and from my iPhone 5 through Qfile, Qfile also uploads all my pictures from my photo stream. Same process is being done on my wife's computer and iPhone and iPad.Its hard to explain how awesome and fast this machine is. If you get one, you won't be disappointed.

I would buy this unit again. I had no issues with the installation.

Easy to setup, just worked

Great NAS... simple, effective, fast. No brainer at the price point.

Great!