network attached storage

Ivan has a 2 drive NAS that has files he needs, but the RAID 1 hard drive are reading as corrupted. He believes it is the corruption of one, synced to the other. Leo says that the hardware is probably fine, there's just corruption in the files themselves. But it could be a physical issue making it worth using SpinRite to repair it. However, if the corruption has spread, that points to a software error in the files, not the hardware itself.

Brett is worried he's been hacked. He used UNRAID to create his own Network Attached Storage. But he recently got a message that he had 114 login attempts on his network. Leo says that it is very common. Any server that is online and attached to the internet will be attacked. Mostly by a bot that is programmed to look for servers online. Make sure you have security features that only allow logins from approved regions, IP addresses, or from your work. There should also be a feature that will lock out an IP address that keeps trying to log in.

Gifford is getting a new Mac but he also needs some storage for his 6TB of data. Is a Drobo a good option? Should he build a Hackintosh? Leo says that's a fun project, but it'll never be as reliable as a bonafide Mac.

Paul's WD NAS can't be seen on his network after changing the cable connector. There's a red light that says "I'm not working." Leo says he could try to use another computer with the dashboard software and connect directly, bypassing the router. If he sees it, then there's some issue connecting through the router. Leo says that Western Digital's NAS is terrible. Definitely not his preferred NAS. They fail more often than others. Leo prefers Synology.

Aaron has a Synology NAS, and he handles a lot of really large image files. But they load really slowly. Leo says that while loading it can bog down and there are several issues in the chain. He shouldn't treat his NAS as local storage. He should transfer his data to a hard drive. It still shouldn't be that slow, though. Leo suspects a misconfiguration issue. Aaron should make sure SMB File Sharing is turned on. That could help.

Wade wants to know if he can use network attached storage (NAS) with his Chromebook? Leo says he can mount the NAS as a drive, and he can access his NAS through the web. But to do a direct backup using Chrome may be nontrivial. Wade should check out the Chrome extension Network File Share.

Chip has a failed hard drive and doesn't really want to spend over $500 to repair it. Is there a way to do it himself? Leo says that a hard drive dying can mean a lot of things. It could be a hardware failure or it could be a software failure. It could be a corrupt sector on the boot record. Software failures are easy to fix and inexpensive. Hardware failures will cost a lot. Drivesavers charge a lot because they have a clean room with all the parts, and can replace bad parts and recover the data.

David works with about ten other people in a small company, and they all share files using DropBox. They're getting conflicts, however with certain database files that they have stored on DropBox. Leo says if he has two programs accessing the same file at once, they will have problems. David wants to set up a VPN, and he was able to configure Hamachi. Leo says this won't fix the fundamental problem, though — it has to support record locking. David says that Microsoft Access supports locking, but it doesn't work with DropBox because people are accessing the file on their local systems.

Bruce has a network attached storage (NAS) drive and he's getting an error message. He's worried he's lost the data. Leo says that if the network RAID was set to RAID 0 or "scary RAID" then there's a chance that's the case. But if it was set as "redundant" then if one drive has gone bad, replacing it will fix it. The error message Bruce is getting indicates the entire Western Digital NAS has been corrupted and the only thing he can do is reboot the NAS and see if it self-corrects. Bruce also said that the error occurred with all the drives taken out of the machine.

Brian wants to know how safe online encryption is. Leo says that as long as he has the only encryption key, he's safe. But if he doesn't even trust that, then Leo suggests using his own Network Attached Storage. Leo uses Synology, and he syncs it to all his computers using the web.