Finest NAS drives for Mac

Price When Reviewed:

£142.ninety 9 (2TB), £154.ninety 9 (3TB), £163.ninety 9 (4TB), £206.ninety 9 (6TB), £241.ninety 9 (8TB)

Editor’s point to: On April 3, 2023, Western Digital reported that its My Cloud servers had been hacked and an unauthorized occasion “obtained obvious data from its methods. The company is investigating the distress.

You’re spoilt for possibility when it comes to Western Digital’s My Cloud vary, with several devices accessible for house customers and shrimp firms, as well to a different of Expert and Pro devices for higher organizations.

The long-established single-power My Cloud is getting somewhat old now, but it completely’s unruffled spherical and extremely practical. Nonetheless, you’re likely getting the more recent My Cloud House mannequin shown right here, which is somewhat of dearer but is sooner and gives extra capabilities similar to reinforce for the Plex Media Server scheme (though that’s likely now no longer a need to possess for Mac customers).

It comes with a vary of storage allocations; 8TB will possess to be bigger than ample for most houses, as well to shrimp locations of work and self-employed customers. The slimline white-and-silver unit is neatly designed and finest measures 2in huge, so it’ll take a seat with out considerations on your desk or on a shelf shut to your router with out taking up too grand house.

There’s also a higher dual-power mannequin, known as the My Cloud House Duo, which houses two matching drives and supplies severely more storage. That offers RAID 1 mirroring for additional data security, but while you want more sophisticated RAID capabilities, as well to the capability to put in and take away drives yourself, you’ll possess to step up to the My Cloud Expert or My Cloud Pro devices.

Western Digital frequently does a honest job with Mac strengthen, and the My Cloud House shouldn’t be any exception, with apps that tackle a vary of projects rapidly and with out considerations. The iOS app can manufacture automated backups of your images and movies, while the Mac app permits you to make employ of Time Machine on your backups (and there are Mac and Windows versions of the apps accessible too).

There are some good touches too, similar to the capability to faithful-click a folder on your Mac and automatically sync the contents of that folder on to the My Cloud House. That will be to hand for folk that desire an additional backup of their present work recordsdata or initiatives as well to the essential Time Machine backup. You would also moreover faithful-click any file that is kept on the My Cloud House and send a download hyperlink in show to rapidly allotment that file with pals or colleagues.

And, while you furthermore mght employ an on-line backup service, similar to Dropbox, then that you would possibly likely likely sync the contents of your Dropbox legend on to the My Cloud House too. That you would possibly aid up images and albums from Facebook on to the capability for safekeeping while you must.

There are just a few rough edges. That you would possibly’t simply double-click the capability’s icon on the Mac desktop in show to open the capability after which streak-and-descend to copy folders or recordsdata on to the capability. For some cause or now no longer it is a need to possess to open the app’s pulldown menu and perceive the contents of the capability during the app as an different. That you would possibly’t invent individual person accounts on the Mac both, so that you’re compelled to make employ of the app on an iPhone or iPad while you must invite any individual else to invent their very enjoy personal folders on the My Cloud House power.

Most Mac customers will possess an iPhone or iPad, obviously, but we’d relish to survey the Mac app updated to permit you paunchy freedom to manipulate the My Cloud House with your Mac as smartly.

Price When Reviewed:

From £575 (unpopulated)

Many folk now count on cloud storage, similar to Apple’s iCloud Force or Dropbox, for personal employ or working from house, but Synology is one in all the few firms that unruffled makes mature NAS drives that provide bodily storage for house networks and shrimp locations of work. Basically the latest addition to its vary is the Diskstation DS723+, which supplies a cheap and easy-to-employ storage scheme which would possibly be extra expanded in the shatter if required.

The compact power enclosure measures faithful 166mm high, 106mm huge and 223mm deep, so it’s easy to situation up on your desk or any handy shelf. There are two bays for laborious drives on the front, alongside with two shrimp slots for SSD drives which will be positioned on the underside of the unit. Superior customers who desire to configure their very enjoy scheme need to aquire the DS723+ as an empty enclosure (unpopulated) for spherical £575/$450 after which provide their very enjoy possibility of HD or SSD drives. Or, while you’re having a inspect a really easy, all-in-one storage scheme then just a few of Synology’s specialist dealers also promote the DS723+ with power objects already installed (populated). The associated payment for ‘populated’ drives will obviously  count on the quantity of storage you require, however the 8TB mannequin that Synology offered for our evaluate will possess to designate spherical $800/£850. Prices elevate out vary extensively on-line, though, so it’s positively price hunting spherical to gain the like minded designate (the initiating designate quoted above will upward push looking out on the storage suggestions.)

There’s a Gigabit Ethernet port on the aid of the for connecting to your house or attach of abode of labor network, however the DS723+ also has two expansion ports that allow you to upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet if required, and even to connect some extra power bays so that that you would possibly likely likely add grand more storage in the shatter. Synology’s manuals would possibly perhaps glance somewhat daunting for folk that haven’t aged a NAS power before – there’s a 50-page PDF faithful for the preliminary situation-up job, and but another 80-page manual maintaining the total capabilities offered by Synology’s DSM scheme (Diskstation Manager). Nonetheless, you don’t possess to memorise all that data straight, as there are hasty and easy apps for iOS, Android, Mac and PC that allow you to with the placement-up job, and we had no disaster at all connecting the DS723+ to our attach of abode of labor network after which the employ of the apps to connect our Mac and iPhone to the capability.

Price When Reviewed:

£208.79

The popular employ of cloud storage products and services similar to iCloud and Google Force manner that NAS drives aren’t as popular as they aged to be, and Synology is one in all the few firms unruffled making NAS drives that cater to the SOHO market (shrimp attach of abode of labor/house attach of abode of labor) with its DiskStation vary. Truly, Synology is rising its product vary with the introduction of the BeeStation.

The BeeStation seems relish a pretty mature desktop laborious power, and it supplies 4TB of storage so that you’ve got plenty of room on your work or personal recordsdata. Esteem most NAS drives it makes employ of an Ethernet port to connect to your house or attach of abode of labor network, but while you’ve linked it to your Wi-Fi router, that you would possibly likely likely simply scan a QR code with your iPhone or iPad to connect to the capability remotely and situation it up the employ of an web browser (though you’ll possess to have confidence an email address to situation up your Synology legend first). You would also very smartly be then induced to download two cellular apps known as BeePhotos and BeeFiles, which, as the names counsel, allow you to aid-up images and other recordsdata onto the BeeStation. Once the capability is decided up, that you would possibly likely likely log in by strategy of an web browser on your Mac, after which download the BeeStation desktop app for Macs (working macOS 12 or later) and Windows PCs.

These apps provide plenty of realistic capabilities, including the capability to automatically upload images and movies out of your cellular devices onto the BeeStation. That you would possibly allotment recordsdata with pals, family or colleagues, and sync particular folders on your Mac with the BeeStation. Nonetheless, these apps generally is somewhat tricky to make employ of – they’ve an inclination to throw plenty of settings and data onto the screen, and the Attend recordsdata on Synology’s web page online employ plenty of techno-jargon which would possibly be complicated for much less experienced customers. Mac customers, for instance, will gain that instructions for the employ of the BeeStation with Time Machine are hidden internal a somewhat convoluted Attend file about ‘native fetch admission to’ settings.

So it would possibly take somewhat of work to fetch the BeeStation wisely situation up, but its capability to have confidence each and each on-line storage for cellular devices and a NAS power on your house or attach of abode of labor network makes it a in reality versatile aid-up scheme for house and shrimp substitute customers.

Price When Reviewed:

From £171.ninety 9 (unpopulated) to £845.ninety 9 (28TB)

Western Digital’s My Cloud House power supplies a short and easy option for house customers who aren’t conversant in NAS drives and networking technology. Truly, the company doesn’t even call it a ‘NAS power’, opting for the more person-friendly ‘personal cloud’ label as an different. (Must that you would possibly likely also very smartly be feeling somewhat more contented with jargon similar to NAS and RAID, it is counseled to step up to WD’s ‘expert’ vary with the My Cloud EX2 Ultra as an different.)

The EX2 Ultra is a no-compromises NAS power with extra capabilities and customisation suggestions, while final practical ample for house customers or self-employed individuals, similar to photographers or designers, who need a terribly legitimate backup power for distinguished work recordsdata.

It’s a ‘two-bay’ power that holds two separate laborious drives, and enables you to do away with the live panel so that that you would possibly likely likely do away with the drives for repairs or adding more storage in the shatter. You must aquire the EX2 Ultra with a pair of drives pre-installed, with a huge series of costs looking out on the storage you pick.

WD contains its high-efficiency Purple Drives and 1GB of reminiscence to aid the EX2 Ultra multi-job when assorted individuals are the employ of the capability on the network on the identical time. There’s a Gigabit Ethernet port for connecting to your network, and the EX2 Ultra also has two USB ports that allow you to connect an exterior USB power for additonal storage.

Alternatively, you’ve got got the possibility of procuring for the EX2 Ultra ‘unpopulated’ – with out a drives at all – after which providing your enjoy drives to fit your particular needs. This is the like minded option while you deem it is counseled so that you would possibly add additional storage in the shatter, and set up is very easy: the live panel simply pops open on the click of a button to point to the interior power bays.

Using two separate laborious drives also manner the EX2 Ultra can work as a ‘RAID’ power, with both RAID 0 – which improves efficiency by splitting recordsdata in the route of each and each drives (known as ‘striping’) – or RAID 1 ‘mirroring’, which makes separate copies of your recordsdata on each and each power for additional reliability. In show for you grand more safeguards on your distinguished recordsdata, there’s also an method to aid up data from the EX2 Ultra on to an exterior laborious power linked to 1 in all its USB ports.

Regardless of all these additional capabilities, putting in place the EX2 Ultra is unruffled very easy, as the capability helps Time Machine for automatically backing up recordsdata out of your Mac. There’s also a My Cloud app for iOS/iPadOS and Android that permits you to aid up and allotment recordsdata the employ of non-Apple devices as smartly.

The app supplies some distance away fetch admission to to the capability over the gather, and there’s an web browser interface also accessible for Macs and PCs, which enables more superior customers to configure RAID settings and capabilities similar to the FTP server – and even to make employ of it as an ‘iTunes Server’ for streaming song in the route of your network.

It’s price testing the adjustments made by the
My Cloud OS 5 scheme replace, nonetheless; this provides several new capabilities, but reduces compatibility with some web products and services.

Price When Reviewed:

£80 (unpopulated), £165 (2TB), £190 (4TB), £250 (8TB)

Buffalo’s LinkStation 220D is a flexible and practical NAS power that’s staunch for each and each house and substitute customers. But, as we’ve viewed with Buffalo previously, its products generally lack the easy ease of employ that Mac and iOS customers take for granted.

The LinkStation 220D is a dual-bay NAS power that houses two separate laborious drives. You must aquire it ‘unpopulated’ – with out a drives at all – after which provide the drives that you in actuality desire to make employ of for yourself. Alternatively, that you would possibly likely likely aquire it with 2TB, 4TB or 8TB.

There’s also a dearer mannequin known as the 220DR that’s designed to be used with Western Digital’s high-tempo Purple drives, however the popular 220D mannequin that we evaluate right here will possess to be completely ample for most houses and shrimp firms.

The dual-bay setup also manner that you would possibly likely likely employ the LinkStation as a RAID power, supporting both RAID 0 for maximum efficiency, or RAID 1 for maximum data security (storing separate copies of your data on each and each drives). Future upgrades are easy as smartly, as that you would possibly likely likely rapidly do away with the front panel of the LinkStation and pull out the drives by their handles, with out a screws or tools required. There’s also a USB port on the aid of the LinkStation which would possibly be aged to have confidence extra backups to an exterior USB power for additional security.

Getting began is very easy, as the 4TB LinkStation that we examined automatically showed up on our attach of abode of labor network after we linked it to our router with an Ethernet cable. That allowed us to simply streak-and-descend recordsdata onto the LinkStation for hasty backups, but issues fetch somewhat more complicated while you originate to switch beyond the basics. The LinkStation does work with Time Machine so that that you would possibly likely likely aid up your Macs over the network, but putting in place Time Machine and a ‘shared folder’ on your backups proved somewhat complicated.

Buffalo’s NAS Navigator app for Macs enables you to perceive the LinkStation on your network and shows overall data, similar to its IP address. Nonetheless, the employ of any other capabilities requires you to open up an web browser in show to perceive the LinkStation’s web interface.

This does consist of a vary of realistic capabilities, including Time Machine strengthen, some distance away ‘web fetch admission to’ for while you’re some distance flung from house or the attach of abode of labor, BitTorrent downloads, and the capability to make employ of the LinkStation as an iTunes server for streaming your song in the route of the network. But this browser interface is extremely complicated and won’t be easy for non-technical customers to attain – and Buffalo’s 125-page jargon-heavy PDF manual doesn’t in reality have confidence life any more straightforward.

And neither elevate out Buffalo’s cellular apps. Buffalo supplies two separate apps for iOS devices: Smartphone Navigator for overall setup, and WebAccess to have confidence fetch admission to to your recordsdata by strategy of Wi-Fi while you’re out and about.

These apps are getting on somewhat, and a few customers possess complained that they’re unreliable. Truly, the apps regarded to trot on our attach of abode of labor iPhone and iPad with none considerations, but they’re unruffled somewhat complicated and unhelpful for folk that aren’t conversant in NAS drives and networking technology.

So while the LinkStation is a honest option for more experienced house or substitute customers who already know somewhat about NAS drives, it’s likely now no longer the like minded option for first-time customers who are unruffled studying the ropes.