It’s getting time to retire the old Apple Airport Time Capsule, and I’m looking recommendations on easy-to-use replacements. This would be used for general files and automatic laptop backups.
Requirements:
- At least 2TB
- Capable of archiving to an offline disk used as an off-site backup
- Easy enough for my parents to use
- Not crazy expensive if possible
I’ve never used a dedicated NAS, so I’m humbly seeking the opinions of the Lemmy experts. Thank you!
I will warn you against the mistake I made: DO NOT buy a WD MyCloud device.
They work okay, but you have zero control over what runs on the device. You will be limited if you want to run any apps that aren’t included.
Make sure whatever you end up getting, it has support for running docker containers if you even remotely think that’s a use case you want.
That’s not part of OP’s requirements, so I would recommend an appliance device like that. It does one thing, reasonably well, and has a non-technical interface to manage backups and restores.
Yeah, this all depends on how sure OP is in their requirements.
It works well as a (slow) Time Machine server but I did have to add a weekly reboot out flat it would get stuck.
But after buying my requirements changed and it couldn’t evolve to meet them, which is why I would warn against if there’s any chance you want to run out of the box services.
The WD devices also offer very limited long term support. The MyBook Live had a software exploit found a couple years after launch that allowed remote access to your files and enabled third parties to wipe your drives. Wd said “wow, that sucks, here is a $15 coupon for a new one. No, we aren’t gonna patch it. Buy a new one” I will never buy another wd device except for the raw discs.
Why even buy the raw discs? Their SSDs are trash (including their SanDisk offerings) and for hard drives seagate is perfectly fine. If I’m oka with high a cheap SSD, I’ll just buy an inland drive.