Help to set up a NAS?

[arad85]

Again,

in a Home system with only 4 drives - I wouldn't be installing either of those options....

Neither would I. I would (and do!) use RAIDZ.

Again all I am saying is that if you are dead set on belt and braces because someone has told you that you should use RAID10, the better choice for you actually is RAID6.

Clearer?

 

[The goblin]

Ok, I've been following this debate. And by following I mean reading as I'm pretty much blinded by tech speak!

So RAID 6 sounds like it's optional over 10?

I think the RAID level should be indicative of how valuable the data is to you combined with your ability to back it up. 6TB or even 9TB is an awful lot of data to back up to an ideally offsite location.

I would be gutted if I lost my photo catalogue! Saying that, currently I only have just over 1TB and a good chunk of that could do with clearing out!
I intend on archiving some old stuff and backing up onto 1 or 2 TB external HDD's and sending to a relative else where to store once full. And having active folders and family stuff with me but kept away from the home here!

But first I need to learn how to use this NAS. A 72 page manual is quite a dry read!

 

[arad85]

So RAID 6 sounds like it's optional over 10?

No. If you are intent on using half your 4 disks as redundancy, you should be using RAID6. The "smarter" approach (as it gives you more space) is to have RAID5 and another backup somewhere else that is regularly updated (2 locations is better than 1 heavily guarded one).