NAS upgrade question

If they are exact duplicates then copy them all into one folder and any copies will overwrite each other.  Then for a final check create a new iTunes library and import all the songs from the new combined folder and then ask Itunes to show just the duplicates.

Backing up an entire NAS is generally a non-starter. There is too much data and it will take too long.

Yet raid only protects against disc failures - not the entire NAS failing.

A solution is to have 2 identical NAS.

Then if one NAS completely fails you can take the discs out of the broken NAS and put them in the other NAS, allowing you to retrieve your data.

Well, the entire Synology NAS will only have about 200GB data to begin with. So backing up to an external hard drive shouldn't be a problem. It doesn't affect me how much ever time it takes. Of course, RAID doesn't protect from entire NAS failing, hence the idea to back up to an external hard drive.

Thanks! I'll give it a go.

This is a mad statement. How long is too long?! Anything and everything can (and should) be backed up. You might have to find the right solution to do it, but it's always possible. Certainly a 2 TB NAS isn't going to present too much of an issue.

It's a solution, but an expensive solution. For most home setups, one or two USB disks will do the job for a significantly lower cost. Unless you had to have your data back up and running quickly (i.e. a few minutes instead of a few hours), but very few home users are that reliant on their music collection.

Well, QNAP TS-412 with four 3TB WD Reds took about two hours to initialise and set up in RAID 6. Now just a matter of copying some 2TB of music content over – current estimat from MuCommander is 25 days

Eek - something wrong there! Even at 100 Mbps, 2 TB should take about 2 days. Move up to Gigabit and it goes down to about 5 hours...

How are they all stored? If all in iTunes, I'd say best would be to merge them into one iTunes Library stored on the NAS. Probably easiest way would be just to copy one of the iTunes libraries to the NAS, then merge the other into this (see the WHF video on getting iTunes to a NAS).

Once you've done this, any movies included in iTunes should work just as they did when they were stored locally.

Not concerned - it'll just chug and the time will reduce. Direct connection via the same gigabit switch - should be fine...

Thanks! In the process of copying my iTunes library onto NAS now. Once done, will then copy iTunes from MacBook in the morning & merge into this.

I was hoping to have movies in a separate shared folder. Anyway, will see once copying is done.

I wonder why mine with just 2 X 2TB drives took 10 hours, is it because I chose Synology Hybrid RAID 

Finished transferring music, videos & pictures from my Vaio. Taking a break before I repeat the marathon on MacBook.

I then jail broke my Apple TV2 using Firecore (as my PS3 wouldn't recognise .avi files).

I can now watch movies stored on my Synology through my Apple TV! It even automatically downloads metadata for each film, resulting in beautiful artwork & explanation of the films! 

Thanks Paul Hobbs, for the tip regarding Firecore!

Curious as to why you've decided on RAID 6?

I managed to get some movies play on PS3, but not all. The Apple TV is connected to my bedroom TV. This brings me to another dilemma. How do I get all the videos play on my Kuro in the lounge? My AV receiver has only 4 HDMI inputs, & I have no intentions to add an HDMI splitter. I already have PS3, Sky HD, blu ray player & .......ooh, looks like I may have an empty HDMI slot! Let me check... 

Yes! I have an empty HDMI slot! 

Now which media streamer should I buy 

Time to create a new thread!