RAID and NAS?
I see lots of mentions of NAS drives and RAID devices, but I don’t understand the difference. If I want to add storage to my computer which one should I choose? Nathan Foster
First, let’s take a step back. If you want to add storage to your computer you might not need either of these technologies. Instead, a straightforward hard disk drive will do the job – either fitted internally or attached externally. We don’t know which computer you have, but these days pretty much any PC or laptop can connect via USB to almost any external hard drive, so that’s definitely the easiest (and cheapest) way to add storage.
Now back to NAS and RAID. These are distinct technologies, but ones that do overlap. NAS stands for networkattached storage, and at its simplest, it means a single, high-capacity hard drive that connects via Ethernet to your router. In this way, it can be made available to any other compatible and authorised device on your network.
We should say that in theory the same could be done with an external hard drive connected via USB, but that would require the host computer to remain permanently on, which is rarely ideal.
RAID stands for a redundant array of independent drives and it is often used to describe storage. We’ve explained RAID plenty of times, but, to recap, it’s a technology that allows a number of drives to operate together, in various different ways.
This might be for redundancy. Two drives might precisely mirror each other’s contents, so that if one drive fails the data remains available. That’s known as RAID 1. Th The other key RAID ‘level’ is 0 (zero), whe where the storage of two or more drives is pooled to create a single, larger ‘logica ‘logical’ drive.
So, where’s the overlap? Well, a NAS drive can be a single drive, but some, such as the pictured Synology DS218J (£189 from Amazon, www.snipca. com/39515), can contain two or more – and these can be set up to work in a RAID configuration.
Want to know the difference between technical terms? Email noproblem@ computeractive.co.uk