I got my new NAS yesterday. It appears to be about ten times faster than the current dying (though probably fixable) NAS.

That Synology one does look sweet, but what was your old NAS?

Okay, so now I'm moving all the data in the world onto the new external. I think.

Should I partition it so that Time Machine only eats up part of it? Maybe 1TB to Time Machine, and 2TB for general storage? I'd fill 500G of that immediately, moving off the old NAS, and probably another good 200G moving off the new conversion files.

Then I'd have to clear the old NAS, and re-setup the automated backups for the Windows machines. I would then use the old NAS as the daily in-progress project backup, which, once cleared, would give me a little time to get the Drobo or Synology in.

Turns out I couldn't have done my original plan anyway, because the old NAS doesn't support RAID5, only RAID0 & RAID1, plus it's smaller than I was thinking, 1TB combined, not each drive.

I still would end up without a media server.

Of course, the big question with all of this is what will I do with my naming conventions? It's like ND running out of ships. I had hard drive volumes as LotR towers, but I think I'm out of towers! So I may have to start allowing to general places.

I had cities for networks, people for computers, towers for hds, swords for mobile devices. But there aren't that many swords, either.

That Synology one does look sweet, but what was your old NAS?

It was a Linksys NAS 200.

Thanks. I'm currently using an Intel SS4200-E NAS. It works well enough for backup, but it's too slow to be a media server. Also, I'm using standard Seagate HDs with RAID 5, I think. I just read this review on Amazon that is scaring me into thinking I ought to replace the HDs with these WD "Red" drives. If I'm going to do that then, hey, why not also replace the NAS! Not sure if the performance would be any better though...

Hmm. That is a little scary.

Should I partition it so that Time Machine only eats up part of it? Maybe 1TB to Time Machine, and 2TB for general storage? I'd fill 500G of that immediately, moving off the old NAS, and probably another good 200G moving off the new conversion files.

I do not recommend partitioning the Time Machine drive. Time Machine will kick it automatically every hour and if it is partitioned you are increasing the overhead on the system by asking the drive to split duties and seek across two partitions. Also, if you are doing a Time Machine image of all volumes, it would included the general storage volume, and then you are backing up a mechanism to itself.

One of the great things about Time Machine is that it will use the space to automatically create images every hour, and then you can push back through those. In my studio I can roll back to a complete image of the machine from months ago with no problem. This can be very handy for tracking down an old take of a project, or for restoring the machine to a state that predates a problem.

Meara, I don't know if you got an answer but I use time machine. Or I guess I use the time capsule. Anyway, it's sort of hidden away with my modem so it might not be obvious to anyone who would break in. At home, it's not hidden that we'll, but at work, it in a closed cabinet that might not be so obvious to someone for that reason.

Hmm. Well, I wasn't thinking of having it back up itself. I thought the backup of the general storage portion would go to the new raid array. But I take your other point.

I'm a huge ditherer, too. I had myself all the way to the shopping cart with my decision last night, and got Dave talked into it, when I concluded I coulsn't conclude yet.

I guess I'm trying to figure out how to make the Mac & pc backups live happily together, without one bullying th other out of space. And I think I'm unclear on truly how much space I'll require, because up to this point, everything lived on the daw and optical.

I'm using 3TB WD Red drives in the new NAS. So far they have run cool and quiet making the NAS silent. Needless to say, I can't say how they hold up over time.