Did the same thing. I replaced the 12tb drives in my ASUS NAS with 20's. Then got one of these and put 12's in it. WAY cheaper then buying a whole new NAS and I didn't want to replaced the smaller drives in a NETGEAR NAS.
Do the drives that I put in the expansion units need to be the same capacity as the main unit or can they be larger? Like for instance if I have four drives in the main unit each 10TB and then I buy this expansion unit, can I put four 16TB drives in there or do I need to put 4 10's like the other one?
As one of those guys with a who wants all the speed it's a shame it's only USB link between the devices. And what happens if you plug the USB directly into a PC?
It works fine plugged into a pc and shows up as 4 separate usb attached scsi drives, no software needed. Widows will automatically install the correct drivers for it. You can set the 4 drives up as single drives or as a software raid, windows storage space raid, jbod etc. When my Asustor 6604T decided to corrupt the nas ADM operating system and not to boot one day (caused by a bad factory ram stick!!) the ADM was installed on the nas 3.5" drives, 4 x 8Tb drives in raid 5 btrfs. I then used my 4 bay expansion and plugged it into the pc and put the drives with my data and the damaged ADM install into it. I could then use some raid recovery software on windows to directly mount the raid 5 btrfs volume on the pc and recover all of my data. You can also use linux on the pc to mount the raid volume using the expansion. I have since factory reset the nas and have now installed ADM onto the 2 internal nvme drives of the nas (supported in the latest ADM) mirrored. The only downside of the expansion unit is that it is usb 3.1 gen 1 5Gbps. The other thing to be careful of is that the supplied usb cable is data only so does not have the power pins wired up. You must use this cable with the expansion or else you risk damaging your pc's usb ports as the expansion has its own power supply. I have now also bought a Sabrent DS-SC4B 4 drive enclosure to connect to the pc. This enclosure is usb 3.2 10Gbps. I have populated it with 4 x 8Tb drives also and is set up as a windows 11 storage space. This storage space is my main external storage and is then mirrored onto the nas as a backup.
@@AgentHeX_0007 How did you manage that? I have turned on mine, plugged it into USB port of a laptop, heard the USB windows plug in chime, and nothing. Plus, the LED on the device is stable orange (which i mean it is put to sleep). How did you get it to work?
@@avoakrabian It depends what disk format the inserted drives are in. If using new blank drives then use windows disk management to format and mount them.
YOu can say something is 'Twice as expensive'....; the converse of that, relative to the less expensive product is that it is only 'half as expensive'; nobody says something is '2x as cheap'...(or shouldn't anyway; it's nonsensical)
@@nadtz They are popular because its something that most people can understand.... just put a bunch of disks in there and connect with USB. They don't understand bottlenecks, data corruption, bit rot, and most of all...... what happens when proprietory hardware fails. There is often little or no data recovery. Also such things as snapshots and replication are not available in such "toy systems". Totally kiddy way of storing your important data as a creator. I wonder why he keeps promoting such consumer stuff. Maybe he's being sponsored. At least he got the unit free from the manufacturer for review. Happy to be proven wrong in that he actually paid for it with his own money.
@@dyong888 Again I agree with most people having no clue. I used to do IT for small to mid size companies with no in house IT, half the time my biggest hurdle was convincing people not to skimp and actually pay for the solution that was best suited to thier needs. And yeah having dealt with a few unrecoverable NAS units and no 3 2 1, believe me you are preaching to the choir. To be clear I'm not advocating for this kind of device, I'm a diy guy when it comes to this kind of thing and would like you said use Truenas.
@@nadtz Totally get you. I'm not an IT guy by any means. I played with HD docks in prior years in early attempts at mass storage with manually created backups. They were time consuming and manual. Even tried Apple's Time Machine at one point. Next I decided to skip the Synology route as I discovered FreeNAS. I looked into bit rot and other issues and educated myself on industry best practice when it comes to data integrity, availability, and backups. I decided that FreeNAS was the way to go and haven't looked back since. Had a couple of HDs report errors over the years and taught myself how to replace them and re-silver them into the pool. My FreeNAS has provided me years of uptime. Its on 24/7. I run enterprise drives now and they don't even spin down. Its been spinning literally for years. Temps are constant 36 degrees. My next steps will be to learn replication to a second TrueNAS machine.
If my machine started failing, I can easily build a new machine using OTS parts. Nothing is proprietory. No vendor lock in. Viewers of this channel should know very well how to build a new pc! (if they don't then something is wrong as this is what this channel is about). So there really isn't any legitimate reason to use proprietory hardware. Also really no legitimate reason to recommend such stuff unless its sponsored.
@@theTechNotice Well .. then I apologize to you both. I would delete this, but obviously if you wanted it gone, then t would already be gone, so I will leave it in case anyone else has doubts. Sorry about that. ☮
![What Is a NAS and Why You Need It? [NAS aka Server for Creators Explained]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EuAPx5y7bnc/mqdefault.jpg)
Did the same thing. I replaced the 12tb drives in my ASUS NAS with 20's. Then got one of these and put 12's in it. WAY cheaper then buying a whole new NAS and I didn't want to replaced the smaller drives in a NETGEAR NAS.
Thank you for making this video, because I thought it was a Standalone NAS. You saved me a lot of money.
You are welcome!
I think we need more NAS, can't ever have too many NAS. NAS impossible.
Def. a quick setup and ready to go!
indeed!
Running 2x8tb drives in raid (I’m assuming raid 1) and 1x8tb stand alone, why? Surely you’d just run 3 in raid 5?
Do the drives that I put in the expansion units need to be the same capacity as the main unit or can they be larger? Like for instance if I have four drives in the main unit each 10TB and then I buy this expansion unit, can I put four 16TB drives in there or do I need to put 4 10's like the other one?
This is what I heard in the first 5 seconds: "This over here looks like an A**!" --- Then I realised you said NAS
Is it proprietary to Asusustor only or non-proprietary and will run with other brands of NAS devices? 🤔
I don't think ASUSTOR made it for other NAS devices, other brands might have something similar though...
As one of those guys with a who wants all the speed it's a shame it's only USB link between the devices. And what happens if you plug the USB directly into a PC?
probably becomes a DAS
Amber X is the best for home use.
Important note : this extension DOES NOT SYNC ANY SETTINGS WITH THE HOST. Fan on full throttle and led at maximum brightness 24/7.
When you get an alert about your archive, it will be a Tech Notice Notice
Can this be used as a DAS?
super thanks😎
Can you try to connect the expansion box to pc and see if it works without connecting to the nas?
Interesting idea, I guess you'd need some software to run it and configure it since it doesn't have an IP on its own...
@@theTechNotice Run it like a 4 drive usb box?
It works fine plugged into a pc and shows up as 4 separate usb attached scsi drives, no software needed. Widows will automatically install the correct drivers for it. You can set the 4 drives up as single drives or as a software raid, windows storage space raid, jbod etc.
When my Asustor 6604T decided to corrupt the nas ADM operating system and not to boot one day (caused by a bad factory ram stick!!) the ADM was installed on the nas 3.5" drives, 4 x 8Tb drives in raid 5 btrfs. I then used my 4 bay expansion and plugged it into the pc and put the drives with my data and the damaged ADM install into it. I could then use some raid recovery software on windows to directly mount the raid 5 btrfs volume on the pc and recover all of my data. You can also use linux on the pc to mount the raid volume using the expansion. I have since factory reset the nas and have now installed ADM onto the 2 internal nvme drives of the nas (supported in the latest ADM) mirrored.
The only downside of the expansion unit is that it is usb 3.1 gen 1 5Gbps. The other thing to be careful of is that the supplied usb cable is data only so does not have the power pins wired up. You must use this cable with the expansion or else you risk damaging your pc's usb ports as the expansion has its own power supply.
I have now also bought a Sabrent DS-SC4B 4 drive enclosure to connect to the pc. This enclosure is usb 3.2 10Gbps. I have populated it with 4 x 8Tb drives also and is set up as a windows 11 storage space. This storage space is my main external storage and is then mirrored onto the nas as a backup.
@@AgentHeX_0007 How did you manage that? I have turned on mine, plugged it into USB port of a laptop, heard the USB windows plug in chime, and nothing. Plus, the LED on the device is stable orange (which i mean it is put to sleep). How did you get it to work?
@@avoakrabian It depends what disk format the inserted drives are in. If using new blank drives then use windows disk management to format and mount them.
I suggest go with qnap instead. Asustor virtualisation solution doesnt work without external screen!
Huh? That's not true. I've been running Virtualbox on my AS5104T in my network closet for years, no monitor attached, ever.
can it be connected directly to my pc
Nope...
So cheap, almost same price as an equivalent NAS. The extention is 400$
YOu can say something is 'Twice as expensive'....; the converse of that, relative to the less expensive product is that it is only 'half as expensive'; nobody says something is '2x as cheap'...(or shouldn't anyway; it's nonsensical)
👍
Gosh. With this there are just so many points of failure. Not to mention bit rot and slow USB speeds. Just build a TrueNAS box and be done with it!
The slow USB I agree as well as added point of failure but you'd be surprised how popular these are for expansion.
@@nadtz They are popular because its something that most people can understand.... just put a bunch of disks in there and connect with USB. They don't understand bottlenecks, data corruption, bit rot, and most of all...... what happens when proprietory hardware fails. There is often little or no data recovery. Also such things as snapshots and replication are not available in such "toy systems". Totally kiddy way of storing your important data as a creator. I wonder why he keeps promoting such consumer stuff. Maybe he's being sponsored. At least he got the unit free from the manufacturer for review. Happy to be proven wrong in that he actually paid for it with his own money.
@@dyong888 Again I agree with most people having no clue. I used to do IT for small to mid size companies with no in house IT, half the time my biggest hurdle was convincing people not to skimp and actually pay for the solution that was best suited to thier needs. And yeah having dealt with a few unrecoverable NAS units and no 3 2 1, believe me you are preaching to the choir. To be clear I'm not advocating for this kind of device, I'm a diy guy when it comes to this kind of thing and would like you said use Truenas.
@@nadtz Totally get you. I'm not an IT guy by any means. I played with HD docks in prior years in early attempts at mass storage with manually created backups. They were time consuming and manual. Even tried Apple's Time Machine at one point.
Next I decided to skip the Synology route as I discovered FreeNAS. I looked into bit rot and other issues and educated myself on industry best practice when it comes to data integrity, availability, and backups. I decided that FreeNAS was the way to go and haven't looked back since.
Had a couple of HDs report errors over the years and taught myself how to replace them and re-silver them into the pool. My FreeNAS has provided me years of uptime. Its on 24/7. I run enterprise drives now and they don't even spin down. Its been spinning literally for years. Temps are constant 36 degrees. My next steps will be to learn replication to a second TrueNAS machine.
If my machine started failing, I can easily build a new machine using OTS parts. Nothing is proprietory. No vendor lock in. Viewers of this channel should know very well how to build a new pc! (if they don't then something is wrong as this is what this channel is about). So there really isn't any legitimate reason to use proprietory hardware. Also really no legitimate reason to recommend such stuff unless its sponsored.
asusususususus
hahaha
This entire video is a sponsored "segment".
We did not send the device. We had no idea that he even bought it and a video was going to be made.
Just confirming again that I bought this myself and this wasn't sent to me! :)
@@theTechNotice Well .. then I apologize to you both. I would delete this, but obviously if you wanted it gone, then t would already be gone, so I will leave it in case anyone else has doubts. Sorry about that. ☮