Storage windows home server

First, create any users that you want to have access to the shared folders. For a home server, this will probably be just a handful of people. The larger your user group is, the more time you will spend managing file access.

First, create your users- these can be either Microsoft accounts or local accounts. Click Add a user without a Microsoft account.

Enter a username, password, and fill in the security questions. Then click Next. Follow the prompts to add the new user. You probably already did this during OS installation, but make sure your partitions are how you want them to be forever.

I like to use different drives to separate my entertainment from my important files. A little planning now might save you a lot of headache later. Verify the structure of your partitions before you start adding shared folders. This will make it easier in the long run. In File Explorer, navigate to the hard drive or partition where you want to add a shared folder.

Right-click and select New Folder. You can rename it to whatever you want. Right-click on the newly created folder, then click Properties. Choose the Sharing tab. Click Advanced Sharing. Check the box that says Share this folder. Give your shared folder a name. This is what will show up in File Explorer, not the actual folder name. Click Permissions. Remove the user Everyone. You can only add users that have an account on this computer. It can be a Microsoft account or a local account.

Click Check Names to verify the account. If everything is good, click OK. The default permission is read only. Full Control means the user can also modify permissions. Choose your allowed permissions then click OK. Click OK again to close out the window. From this, again according to the particularities of each device and manufacturer, we can configure specific functions such as remote access from devices. A NAS is accessible from computers, but also from smartphones, smart TVs and other devices connected to the internet.

The solution that is available to anyone, and without having to spend one penny, except if we want to expand the storage of our cloud, is to create our personal storage cloud, at home, directly with our own PC.

In this case, what we are going to use is software, a program that simply converts our computer into a server accessible through the internet, and with a specific application for managing files. There are several possibilities that we have, as there are several programs that we can install and fulfill the same function.

In any case, we will have to download the program that we want for the platform in which we will install it, and start the installer as if it were any other application, following the steps for the configuration. Moreover, it is possible that, as in OwnCloud, we need a specific app on mobile devices to access our personal storage cloud created at home. Taking OwnCloud as a reference, after installation, the program will simply guide us through the configuration.

We will have to configure parameters like the username and password to access and select one or more directories to be available through the web interface. In the app for mobile devices, when everything is already configured on the computer, it is where we will have to enter the address of the server, which is our personal cloud storage, and where we will also have to enter the login credentials, as indicated above.

The third option, as an alternative, is to use hosting, basically, a remote server, but private, to create our storage cloud. In this case, we will have to pay a monthly service for hosting, but the advantage is that it will always be available, not like our computer, which may get turned off.

In a way, with personal cloud storage hosted in hosting we will combine some of the advantages of a NAS or a PC converted into a cloud and some other typical services like the Google Drive or Dropbox. In the case of personal cloud storage mounted on hosting, we will need the specific ownCloud installer for servers and upload it to our hosting. It depends on the application that we are going to give you, our knowledge, and some other details.

However, for most users, the most convenient option will be a NAS. At the end of the day, it is a device which is basically, dedicated specifically to fulfill this function, as personal cloud storage, and its configuration is extremely simple. In addition, even the variety of models is extraordinary and the price, also, at this point is relatively quiet little.

However, if we look for the most economical option, then we should mount our personal cloud storage system using our PC. This will simply give us some problems like the transfer speed will be reduced if the computer is connected via WiFi, or an automatic update when we are away from home will cause the computer to turn off and the files stored in it will not be available remotely.

In addition, it will force us to share resources between personal use and use as personal cloud storage. We also connected a flash drive to one of the USB ports.

A NAS interface should recognize a connected drive and display its make, model, and file system. All our NAS picks have some sort of energy-saving feature.

We used a Kill A Watt EZ to test the power consumption on each NAS when it was performing a task such as a file copy , when it was idle, and when it had its energy-saving options enabled. However, the results were close all around. The gap was a bit wider when we transferred lots of small music files mainly MP3s.

Btrfs also features near-instant server-side copying, data integrity checks, and metadata mirroring, which supposedly helps with data recovery in the case of hard-drive damage. DiskStation Manager has a toolbar on the top where you can access the main menu, notifications, and login options, as well as search for files and check on system health. Below that toolbar, you have a desktop where you can access Package Center a store of sorts filled with add-on software , the file browser, the control panel which includes all your settings , and a support area offering video tutorials, FAQs, and more.

You can customize the dashboard to include storage, connected users, and more. DiskStation Manager also includes handy features for novices.

While these commands may be familiar to veteran systems administrators, new users or anyone who has forgotten the server name will welcome the embedded tip.

DiskStation Manager has an optional cloud service called Cloud Station Server that allows you to access your files remotely. You can set those backups to happen on a schedule and optionally encrypt them before you upload them to another service. DiskStation Manager packs in numerous security measures, too. For better or worse, instead of having one big app with tons of features, Synology takes a piecemeal approach to its mobile apps.

Newer apps like Synology Moments and Synology Drive integrate many of the functions in the apps listed above. We also had issues with any 4K video using the DTS audio codec, as no sound would play. We recommend transcoding your video files ahead of time if you plan on using your NAS as a media server.

You can do this with the Offline Transcoding feature in Video Station , though unfortunately you need to manually choose individual videos to convert. With the NAS running, we pulled the drive out of the second bay, and the NAS beeped at us until we acknowledged a drive-failure notification. Logging in to DiskStation Manager, we found another notification, as well as instructions for how to rebuild the drive array in the Storage Manager once we had replaced it.

You can adjust the LED brightness or set it up on a schedule so the lights dim at night. Or you can set it to export, say, only video files from a specific folder.

Design-wise, QTS takes at least some of its inspiration from iOS, loading up all your add-on packages as icons on a desktop. When we inserted a fresh drive to simulate replacing a failed drive, it rebuilt its array without trouble. QNAP provides a two-year warranty and excellent support both over the phone and via an online forum, plus a knowledge base and tutorials.

That extra memory, expandable to 8 GB, also allows the TSDG to run server-side apps while reading and writing files. For starters, you can opt for RAID 5, 6, or 10; those data-storage configurations require three or more disks but provide better data protection and depending on which RAID configuration you choose can offer better performance.

A four-bay NAS also lets you expand your storage capacity more easily since you can start with two drives and add more as needed, whereas the only way to expand the storage space on a two-bay NAS is to replace first one drive and then the other with higher-capacity drives.

Very few NAS devices prompt you to change or reset the admin password—doing so, however, is a crucial security step, because the NAS connects to the internet and is thus a ripe target for threats. So the first thing to do with any new NAS is to change the password on the admin account both Synology and QNAP prompt you to do this during the initial setup.

Always check the update notifications on your NAS. Updates from the manufacturer see these pages from Synology and QNAP for instructions on how to update will ensure that you are protected from malware threats such as QLocker or QSnatch.

Current QNAP NAS operating systems include a malware remover that is updated automatically, but firmware updates for both producers have been hardened against known threats.

Creating a unique user account for each person who accesses your NAS is a good idea. You can do so on any of the NAS devices we tested by going into the user settings in the interface. If you want to give someone the ability to upload files to the NAS, give that user account write permissions as well as read permissions.

If someone should only download files, make them a read-only user. When something goes wrong with a NAS, the culprit is usually drive failure, and according to this infographic from Seagate JPG , temperature extremes are one of the top five causes of hard-drive failure. Data corruption is another big issue with hard drives. Because most NAS devices ship diskless, you have to provide and install your own drives.

Otherwise, if something goes wrong with the NAS, you may have problems getting customer support—or worse, you may discover that you voided the warranty. The same rule applies to memory: If you buy a NAS that allows you to add RAM, check with the vendor to make sure that you purchase supported memory.

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