Setting up a NAS - Network Attached Storage - Synology DS1515+

Article for this video: jayscustomcrea...
Synology DS1515+: amzn.to/2niQskF
Seagate IronWolf NAS drives: amzn.to/2niVmhs
These videos are short project and everyday updates. If you would like to see actual woodworking videos check out my main channel.
Main Channel: / jayscustomcreations
My website: www.jayscustomc...
Tools in my shop (affiliate links):
Bandsaw - amzn.to/2gMHrjd
Bevel gauge (t-bevel) - amzn.to/2eYLB2N
Bluetooth adapter - amzn.to/1GDYgFl
Dado blade - amzn.to/210w6ex
Dewalt planer - amzn.to/1IGqVoz
Dewalt sander - amzn.to/1IGt0B6
Dewalt countersink - amzn.to/1ThxZQi
Dovetail gauge - amzn.to/2bJpxIi
Eclipse quick release vise - amzn.to/1PUkyEW
Engineer square - amzn.to/2bqS0lA
Festool Domino - amzn.to/1IGrQ8u
Forstner bit - amzn.to/2fMph1z
Glu-Bot glue bottle - amzn.to/1LrKulZ
Gyokucho 372 japanese pull saw - amzn.to/1TgnE9i
Irwin Marples 10" blade - amzn.to/1klkIIr
Kreg K4 - amzn.to/1V4LTGM
Kreg DB210 pocket hole machine - amzn.to/1pFvmwU
Kreg Mini - amzn.to/1phH3cQ
Marble router bit or drill bit - bit.ly/1HIAZCA
Marbles - bit.ly/1OJjQbo
Megapro NAS Driver - amzn.to/1OH8H8v
Milwaukee plunge router - amzn.to/2gSr5Ci
Mp3 earmuffs - amzn.to/1RF5CZq
Narex marking knife - amzn.to/2ciT7K2
Ridgid miter saw - amzn.to/2h0Xf2s
Rustic pine Briwax - amzn.to/1EnC0Jg
Ryobi 18v brad nailer - amzn.to/1Q3zZdG
SawStop titanium series blade - amzn.to/1OQUXbr
Scraper BAHCO - amzn.to/1PTR4Ie
12" speed square - amzn.to/1QY7BKg
T-bevel (bevel gauge) - amzn.to/2eYLB2N
Table top hold down clips - amzn.to/1MeGnfx
Tudor brown briwax - amzn.to/1TnDPxC
Wax brush wheel for drill - amzn.to/1PtRYLi
Wood glue - amzn.to/1lZOwfc
Woodriver #4-1/2 - amzn.to/24pY95R
Woodriver #62 - amzn.to/22aF3F0

[@gamingSlasher]

Good call from Synology to sponsor you on this one. It was an excellent walk through of the basics.

[@ninjamalta]

Nearly 2022 and this video has helped me ALOT to get started, many thanks and keep up the good work!

[@RobinsonStevens]

Synology rocks, I have been using their products for years now. You are lucky to have picked them up as a sponsor.

[@dstarr3]

I've got a Synology NAS much like your old one, the DS214. Really handy, easy thing. It's great to have access to some files from any computer, phone, or tablet in the house.

[@wboweiiigmail]

Your mention of synology and Plex made me like your channel even more

[@JeremyThompson21]

Woodie Bowe Same here. I'm a qnap user because a friend gave it to me, but use it for Plex among other things.

[@kevinsussex3039]

Thank you Jay - GREAT VIDEO - I bought a Synology DS918+ after seeing your video - my first NAS - and have used your video to install it and set it up. You're a legend! It would have taken me a whole lot longer to figure this out otherwise - now it is set up I can explore the many other features. Great video. Thank you.

[@craigslist04]

Cool stuff for sure. The Synology DS1515+ box ($700) alone is more than my computers. If I was a content creator this would be a hot setup. Thanks for the heads up, and the NAS education.

[@omgchrisftw]

Was doing NAS research and was surprised to see one of my favorite woodworkers! Glad to see you cover everything, thanks!

[@JayBates2]

:)

[@StamosTee]

Good piece of hardware. Used them a lot in the past for SOHO installations.

[@MrFimpster]

I appreciate seeing this kind of content from you Jay. I run a FreeNAS box myself, and it's interesting to hear a non-network-geek's perspective on these Synology boxes. I've heard pretty good things about them. Thanks.

[@norm1124]

I'm still on a 211j ;-), nice you found Synology as a Sponsor. Great products!

[@CountryFarmBoyUSA]

Wow, a woodworker and a techie! I have a Synology NAS myself and many extra backup drives that I keep off site. My NAS is a 4 bay version with 8TB Drives. I locked mine and then lost the key! A paperclip solved the problem though and I found my key months later. Love your channel, just found it last night and I'm also located in Michigan so we both can suffer through the Lions, Wings, Tigers and Pistons. 8-(

[@Simplecove]

Jay you did an excellent job explaining this whole process as well as the NAS. Synology makes great units and you sold me on the 1515+. I have the DS215j right now (the older model of your smaller one) and am running out of space too. Thanks for sharing.

[@scottbuckley9731]

SimpleCove personally I have moved to unRaid on a custom box and I am loving it. I previously used Drobo and FreeNAS, both of which I had major problems with. I haven't tried Synology yet (can't really afford one), but that looks great too :) I just love unRaid's redundancy system though. I made about 10 mistakes during a rebuild last year and I lost zero files. I'd say it's worth looking into if you're planning an upgrade :)

[@Simplecove]

I currently also have a ZFS raid box using openIndiana but after getting the smaller Synology, I've come to realize that it just works and has all kinds of features out of the box that my ZFS system doesn't have (apps). I guess it depends on the amount of time you want to spend setting a system up, but for the money, Synology really is a great deal.

[@Retroweld]

Those are awesome. You can never have too much free space.

[@dutch971]

Jay I'm really glad you did this video. I haven't even watched it yet but I know if it's from you it'll be great. Would love to see any other videos along these lines. Thanks for sharing some knowledge.

[@johnfithian-franks8276]

Hi Jay, When I started using computers the only personal one that was available was the ZX81 and that had a massive 16k of memory. I can remember writing a bubble sort database on that that kept track of my record collection, Nowadays a icon on the desktop takes more than 16k and computers are getting bigger all the time. It seems that we get a bigger drive and think that we will never manage to fill that only to find that we have filled it need more space. I hate to think how big drives will be in 10 years but I do know they will be massive compared to today.

[@pridejoseph6692]

yes.. so sad of the old days and so glad for the new stuff.. love to remember them too

[@JMTosses]

Great video again, Jay! I just found out I wasn't subscribed to your "2" channel - anymore?! Fixed. I can say nothing but great things about Synology at this point. I have been owning a 413j unit (4 drives) for since it's been released and just recently upgraded to a 12 drive unit (RS2416+) that allows me to run with the SHR2 filesystem enabling two drives redundancy. I had drives failing causing no issues in access to the system - yay! And the greatest thing is that even my old Synology unit still runs the latest firmware enabling me to use the latest features. Luckily I never did anything stupid to the unit but I saw on "My Play House" that Synology's customer service will help even in cases where the issue is between chair and keyboard. Thanks as always!

[@SuperYtviewer]

nice job on a basic introduction. I have been setting up NAS using dedicated boxes from Synology and building my own from Linux, Windows, and Macintosh systems. If you have an older box, that can handle extra hard drives, it is often cheaper and just as easy to do this without the dedicated box. Anyway - nice job. PS - you really need to blur any screen information unique to your system. Do this in your video editing software. - Annie (Geek since 75).

[@5Towaways]

Good stuff Jay. I've been looking at getting a NAS, and Synology was at the top of the list.. Now it's the only one on the list. Great preview.

[@jparra4766]

Awesome storage. Thanks for the demo.

[@Iseeuandwatch79]

Jay .. I have had toast wetter than this video. But I did learn something new. ☺

[@rodelvaliente6259]

wow, I'm a follower of your woodworking channel and here you are doing totally diff thing. you're so cool man!

[@glenn549]

You always impress me Jay, thanks for all of your tips on the Synology.

[@BruceAUlrich]

Really interesting information. I learned a few things. I could see how this would be very beneficial to have. Right now, I have about that same amount of storage, but am manually managing redundant storage on different drives. Very times consuming with how I have been doing it.

[@de_stroyed]

Could you do a proper video on how to get the Synology window program to work/boot up with the nas? A step-by-step guide on what to do.

[@OldFartsStreaming]

thanks, just bought a NAS and this was super helpfull

[@VBWilhite]

I've had a Drobo for a long time. You made a better choice I think.

[@topgundk]

One thing to add on the number of drives. It is not only a matter of disk space. The more drives you have, the more spindles you have to write to at the same time. So speed will also improve a lot. Another thing are data loss, if you have (i think 3 disks) or 4, you can use Synology own raid system. This ensures that you can loose a whole hardrive, without dataloss and it cost you the minimum in lost space. I have being using Synology myself for the last 8 years or something like that. Also very fond of the Cloud Sync feature and using it as a media center too.

[@pridejoseph6692]

thank you for bringing up the speed increase with more drives added... that is often missed by storage enthusiasts like myself. sometimes it is not about the amount of space as it is about the speed of access and loading. I am falling in love with Seagate and just recently purchased the 5TB drive here in the Philippines.. they are 20+ years behind the tech curve.. but to my shock.. they had this big one compared to the 1TB my friend had. I needed a bigger potable drive.. and I am very happy with it. Sorry for going off topic slightly... I am inspired to get back to the US in April after ten years here.. I will probably spend many many days getting updated to what the tech world has in the US and available for folks like me to continue building what needs to be done.

[@m.g2944]

I just got my first NAS a few weeks ago. Learned more watching this than all the videos put together on the web. Well spoken and great knowledge and understanding of the system. One question though under Network I do not see the NAS I do see it as a shared drive like the one you made. How do I get it to show under Network? I'm using Windows 10. Thanks..

[@OsmanVAydogan]

Great video bro! Thanks to you, I managed to have a very smooth setup. But you gotta be careful, someone might visually hack your password by recording this youtube video and playing it in slow motion.

[@JayBates2]

Of course. All of this was changed.

[@hazarageek3112]

very well explained, Thanks a lot. You got a new subscriber

[@MRrwmac]

Nice that Synology sent you the bigger system. I have been saving money to get a Synology NAS for household drive backup, shared data, local cloud for idevices and for security cameras. I was going to ask you to sell me your old one, but your plan to keep it for offsite storage is great! You seem to have all your bases covered. Will you be installing security cameras and having them run on this system? I hear their app is great.

[@TheGeekPub]

Great minds thing alike! I just put in a Synology Rack Station RS2416+ last week!

[@akhurash]

I need to get me one of these. It's a pain to use external drives to backup files, this would be so much easier.

[@Kloran27]

FWIW: I am not convinced that with 4TB drives you should be running with a system that only supports a single drive failure. Rebuild times are too long and it is likely (but not for certain) you'll see a URE event; which will toast the entire thing. This is nice for convenience and availability; but it should not be considered a backup.

[@dougptankerengr759]

You can set it up in a variety of RAID configurations. I have a 4 disk unit set up with the ability to fail 2 drives

[@Kloran27]

Yup. I have a DS1812+ with 6x4TB drives. I went with the RAID 6 option. When I added two drives it took the better part of an entire weekend to rebuild. I was a bit nervous to say the least since I had not done it. Synology seems to handle it very well though. I was just referring to the configuration he went with. It is definitely a risk assessment everyone needs to have; and it is important to remember that "it is saved on the NAS" is not "I have it backed up".

[@Jeffferguson1911]

NO local replicated storage regardless of if you're in RAID 6 or 60 should be considered "backup".

[@pridejoseph6692]

thank you for the testimony validation on rebuild time.. I am smarter for knowing it

[@Tugmun11]

Most Excellent Mr Bates well done Sir

[@brianmacconnell1249]

Great video. Thanks Jay!

[@FredMcIntyre]

Really cool Jay, thanks for the info!

[@mamyadon5985]

This a great practical video. Thanks for sharing!

[@VampireOnline]

Oh awesome I was hoping you'd do a video on this when you posted the picture on Instagram!

[@donnymcarter]

Really good info Jay! Thanks for the video!

[@lucaa47]

Very helpful video! Thanks for sharing.

[@sidneipsw]

It was amazing Jay, thank you so much!

[@annemariesociety9605]

covered every thing,EVERY THING,i needed to no, thank you so much.

[@blerman13]

Great video Jay! In my case I have a windows and macbook laptops. How I will do the set up from connecting the internet cable up to having access to my files from both of my laptops? Any advice will be more than welcome (a detailed video is even better). Thanks

[@igobythisname]

I must say, i had to stop the video before it finished to say you are amazing at making this type of how-to/informative video! I came here looking for a video after looking at product images of NAS enclosures; I thought each drive installed would be connected via USB (or ethernet), but when I saw fewer ports then drives, I realized I needed to watch a video. I'm grateful your video is the first one I'm watching. So you installed 3 drives, and when you pull it up with Windows explorer, you see whatever folder you created using the Disk manager; is there a way to see each drive independently (as if they were installed and attached directly to the motherboard)? Are there non-raid enclosures and do they setup completely different than how this video illustrates? Thanks a ton!!!

[@254JROCK]

Good info Jay

[@pius222]

Great video! How do I go about I want to create a drive where I can put graphic design files in and access from home and work (via photoshop, illustrator...etc.), and it is fast as if I am working off of my internal HD, basically I want to work off of this drive so the files are always the most updated whether I am at home or work? Not sure if NAS is the way to go.

[@tlsmas007]

Great information. thanks for doing this.

[@Renerator]

Hey Jay, I can't seem to Map a network drive on my PC. I have Window 10 and when I try to map a drive and call it Z drive or any other letter drive I get the message that says "Network Discovery is turned off. Network computers and devices are not visable. Please turn on network discovery in Network and Sharing Center". I went to Network and Sharing center and no results after turning on network and sharing center. Any advice?

[@pjpassey3595]

Thanks for the information

[@rinoldassiurys8183]

Very good video! Nice and clear explanation . +++++ Question is How many devices support on one time ?

[@carlosvanvegas]

This was an excellent video thanks for that

[@rudraksh9986]

Very nice tutorial.. keep it up!

[@richardcranium5839]

all greek to me all i know is it takes power. when the power goes out........... do you have power backup?

[@pramodepandit486]

That's awesome.....

[@garydelder]

Very nice, thanks

[@mikemcdonald5147]

I have the DiskStation DS1815+ and i have had the problem of it loosing network connection at times. It doesnt happen often but it is irritating when it happens. I have to turn off the drive and then restart it reconnecting it to the network again. That said I like the ability to upgrade the size of my drives as bigger drives come out. Mine is full with 8tb drives. Another issue I have had is I use all the same brand drives and some it likes and some it doesnt. Makes no sense why as they are all bought new at the same time. Luckily I buy them new and can take the drives back locally where I got them and swap them out till I get one the symbology likes. Its picky for some reason and sometimes I make a lot of drives back and forth to town to get a drive it likes. WEIRD>. When it works it just works and stores a crap load of stuff which is nice. Looks like one Giant drive which is what I like. I also have two separate buildings on the property and transfer files back and forth from computers which is nice.

[@carrotsandrunning]

is it using DHCP to obtain an address ? Putting it on a static address is a good first start to debug that. Otherwise it may have some sort of power saving mode enabled maybe.

[@mikemcdonald5147]

Thanks I will check and see if thats the issue and if so will change it :)

[@saeedulhaq6752]

Can I use this device with my mobile ?

[@fixmypcleh8481]

Excellent content. Bravo. Subscribed!

[@tonybaggett1984]

I had a removable hard drive fry on me. The tech I talked to said that since they a mechanical with the spinning disk inside they break eventually. Are you concerned with that? BTW I have very limited computer knowledge just an bad experience with an external hard-drive.

[@bmbpdk]

Thank you for this video, it really helped me alot! It would be cool though if you could daisy chain several expansion units, giving, in theory, unlimited storage, do you know of any such solutions?

[@triman82]

Thanks for a great video! Would like to know how to reconfig my raid to SHR? I've already backed up everything so ready to wipe all my HD and setup them up with a new raid system

[@Thom4123]

Great information to know about thank you

[@stevenmurawski4679]

This was perfect for what I'm trying to accomplish. Thanks Jay!

[@Renerator]

Great instructional vid man! Do u have a video concerning file transfer of hi Rez music files from a hard drive on my PC to my 218+?

[@georgesandoval2681]

just setup the Synology DS216J today and installed 2-3tb WD red drives into it and it only access one of the drives which shows only like 2.7tb available. how can I set it up to have the 6tb of storage?

[@Pepa0vojta0records]

george sandoval JBOD.

[@floxflux]

thanks for you insight

[@tdakov]

Great video. Thank you. :)

[@martinumber1]

Freaking fantastic video. great stuff man. thank you.

[@husainsundrani1546]

what if i want disk quota for specific user..

[@mfwoodshop]

interesting, Thanks for shareing this

[@grahamhillier8513]

Great job Jay, been subscribed for a while because I wish I could do the woodwork that you do. I've been considering a DS1515+ for quite a while and for mostly the same reasons as you have mentioned. I'd be really interested to hear your take on the remote access capability and useability, e.g. when your on the road and want to access your data with a laptop (not phone), what's it like?

[@johnstouchpad6437]

Graham Hillier it think the new 2017 models are coming out soon.

[@grahamhillier8513]

johns touchpad Hi John, yes I've been seeing a bit of talk about the DS1517+, but would not expect to see anything of substance till after Cebit this week. I think it will be a "bigger", more CPU and RAM unit off the shelf but not much else. Anything that the technobabble people say about it for the first couple of weeks will just be sales rhetoric, but I was hoping for a more "real world" response. I think (hope) Jay would give us a straight answer about his experiences with accessing his data while on the road. Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I'm close to my decision, but will still wait the short time to see what the DS1517+ offers, either way, I expect it will offer more and the price of the DS1515+ will drop, so all good for me ;-)

[@johnstouchpad6437]

Graham Hillier see comment about Atom C2xxx bug below

[@tonileskiev5299]

I hope you changed your connection information after the filiming of this video, as somebody could download the video and slow down the video as much as needed to reconstruct the information.

[@JayBates2]

That was a temporary user for the video.

[@VonWalther2]

Makes me wonder if there was a hidden message.

[@Renerator]

Hi Jay. I followed your instructions to a T. I finally got to 10:58 where I click on my nas name, I get a list of files: My NAS on top, and under my NAS I have in the following order from top to bottom, home, homes, music, NAS Storage, photo, surveillance, video. When you opened yours it show just your NAS name and under it NAS Storage. I did it as you did but I get those additional folders. Did I miss something? Now, over in the Shared Folder, I have from top to bottom, homes, music, NAS Storage, photo, ReneMobile, Surveilance, video. Am I to drag and drop music files from the hard drive on my PC into "NAS Storage" in FILE STATION? Sorry to give you so much, but I really found no better tutorial than yours. Thank you.

[@LiangChenShun]

Hi Jay,can you show me how I can sync all my files to dropbox?. Thank you very much

[@xCARPx2014]

It's that app specific to that model?

[@ethansmyth1563]

Is this accessible from a different network other than your own

[@CrisCheese_]

No

[@Socalcheeze]

that is nice of synology to provide. Leverage your clout .

[@fazmanicg]

One thing to be aware of when mapping drives to your local PC is that it is treated as part of that PC. If you were to get infected with ransomeware, all files on the mapped drive of the NAS will also be encrypted. - There is free software that you may want to check out called Ransomefree: ransomfree.cybereason.com/ - I am not associated with it in any way but I can say that it is not bullet proof but it did save one of my clients workstations last week. - Of course, Backups are critical. - Great overview Jay!

[@vemgm]

which version of firmware are you running?

[@waregeeksny]

Jay - Have you looked into Hybrid Drives? They are better than standard hard drive but cheaper than SSD. I've been using them for a few years. The throughput is a lot faster than the standard dr8ves including the NAS drives.

[@WillyVLD]

waregeeksny redundancy is lower of these drives. I have 1 in my Mac (fusion drive) and that works great.

[@waregeeksny]

WillyVLD I don't know what you mean the redundancy is lower? Redundancy is not part of the hard drive but the hardware like the NAS or SAN.

[@WillyVLD]

waregeeksny sorry meant reliability of the drive.

[@SMD_N_LMB]

Performance wise, those hybrid drives are meant for running an OS.

[@waregeeksny]

WillyVLD The MTBF is the same on both drives. Look it up. I've had hybrid drives for years since they first came out. I still have the original 250gb sitting in a stack, out of 20 drives only 1 failed. But that's my non-scientific results. Never had problems using the in RAID configs.

[@brother854]

Does it matter if you are on Mac OS or Windows?

[@amirs5512]

Not at all; as it's on a network any OS that has a browser can access the files.

[@dstarr3]

The software runs in a web browser, so any device with a web browser can work, no need to install any other software. PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, etc.

[@beanzie99]

can you come set one up for me?

[@TheKarout12]

you went to the desktop management software ??? Why Why could you not explain the physical connection to a router, switch and other computers in house or office

[@billysmether6237]

Hi Jay. If you need network storage drive you may already have it at your fingertips. Just about everybody has a network wireless router. Take a quick look at yours, you will probably see at least one if not two USB ports. If not maybe time to upgrade that router. There ya go. Run down to your local electronics store and grab a couple drives. In my case I have 2 ports and each has a 5 terabyte USB drive attached. Think I paid 85 bucks for each one. I use t have a Network Storage Drive unit like you had for a few years. It crashed and the software to operate it was on one of the drives so I lost all the data. I do believe newer systems have this covered now. Through your wireless router you can setup your schema and passwords however you wish. when you want access to the drives just browse to them via your network. Takes a long time to fill up 10 Terabyte of drive space.

[@Kloran27]

This unit gives you a lot more than just a drive on the network.

[@billysmether6237]

Yes it does but don't know if most people will use all those other features. For real protection and security you would probably want some type of cloud storage. Storage off site. In case you forgot to dispose of those oily rags properly and the shop burnt down.

[@pridejoseph6692]

wow!!! thanks for the info... now I know how to use my 4TB Seagate on the wifi more easily

[@More-Space-In-Ear]

If this video was slowed down enough we can see your account/password on the mobile section sign in even though you blurred the screen mate...heads up 😉

[@JayBates2]

That was a temporary user for the video.

[@More-Space-In-Ear]

Jay Bates 2 glad to hear my friend, don't want you to get hit by scrupulous peeps do we. 😉👍🏼😊

[@Cyberslug1]

I recommend using 1TB to 2TB SSD's on a NAS, Your performance will be 10X - 30X faster

[@xmdude626]

Cyberslug1 the network speed will be the bottleneck, so not really much performance

[@Jeffferguson1911]

Unless you can LAG the NICs, a single pair of modern spindle disks can easily saturate 1Gbps links. I'm not sure where 10-30X faster is feasible given modern disks can sustain read/write at 100MB/s while most SSDs (without using NVMe) are in the 500MB/s range. Try again :)

[@XaeroR35]

Don't say things like that. There is no way a particular drive size will be 10X-30X faster.

[@NickFajardo]

SSD vs spinning platter would make it faster, and some systems have hybrid setups where you can put frequently access files on the SSD vs normal drive. However I haven't looked to see if there are any NAS-rated solutions like this out there

[@hazelbell42]

it is disappointing to see you getting away from woodworking something that you are very good at

[@JayBates2]

The header image for this Jay Bates 2 channel says "Sometimes I post other random crap on here as well".

[@suprawynn]

What? Its disappointing to know that he has other things in his life he might want to share? just because it didn't interest you.....doesn't mean it might not be helpful for others. Its disappointing to see you getting away from watching videos, that is something you are good at. stop trying to dictate content