Using external drives with NAS

[estemp]

Hi, I'm a photographer and have recently purchased a nas to store and archive my shoots on - each shoot is typically 50-150GB in size.

My system:
Device: TNAS-6563
Model: F5-221
TOS: 5.1.41-00005

I've installed one Samsung SSD 4TB drive (new) and using this for shoots I need relatively quick access to.

I also plugged in an external drive (12TB, External Hard Drive, USB 3.0) which I had previously been using as an archive (and continue to do so). Not sure on the format of this but presume MacOS Journal.

I also have an external 2TB Sandisk SSD (1000GB/s), formatted for MacOS Journal. I use this for editing current shoots and is plugged into my MacBook most of the time.

I've been using both of these drives for the last 1-2 years without ANY issues at all.

I have been successfully been transferring small shoots from my MacBook Pro over WiFi to the external Seagate drive but it has been painfully slow so today thought I would try plugging in the Sandisk SSD into the 2nd USB port and use the TOS web interface to transfer files direct from one USB to another directly through the NAS. This seemed to be going MUCH quicker so I left my browser open and could see the progress over a couple of hours. Then before the copy process had finished I had to shut my browser down and leave with my computer. On return and logging into the TOS interface again later this evening, I couldn't see any indication that the copy process had finished and/or failed - no messages at all. I tried to review the files on both USB drives but neither were displaying files in the TOS interface or over the network using Finder.

I then unplugged the smaller Sandisk USB drive and placed it back in my computer just to check that I could still see files on the drive locally. However now I'm presented with a message that says "macOS Disk Utility Can't Repair This Disk" "You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."

Quite worrying!! I use this drive a lot and now apparently can't continue to use it to complete the projects that are on it. I've ordered a replacement so hopefully I can resume work again tomorrow!

Also, I can now NOT access files on the 12TB Seagate drive which is still plugged into the NAS - when using the TOS file manager to access usbshare2, it just says the folder is empty. When I go to Storage Manager > USB Device, I can see the drive is mounted and nearly 2TB is used. The file system shown is HSFPLUS/Mounted.

So far I've just tried restarting the NAS using the Profile icon > Restart.

Still nothing is showing on the 12TB external drive. Should I be worried about this drive too?

Please advise - did I do something wrong?

Are Mac OS drive formats supported in this way?

I have many shoots that I need to transfer to the NAS and I was hoping the USB connections would be the quickest way to get data on there - is this not the best way?

I guess I could run a network cable from the NAS to my laptop but this isn't ideal as the NAS is located in a different room next to our home router.

Please help! Currently I'm feeling like this was a huge waste of money and isn't going to solve my storage problems!
TIA

[crisisacting]

Umm, that SanDisk 2TB SSD isn't a Extreme v2 or Extreme Portable v2, right?

There's a growing issue with those units that the manufacturer isn't acknowledging: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05 ... -promised/

HFS+ is supported on external drives per their specifications (https://www.terra-master.com/us/f5-221. ... nu&mid=281), so there shouldn't be a mounting issue using either of your Apple formatted drives.

Direct connection should technically have the fastest theoretical transfer rate @ 5 Gbps over USB versus gigabit ethernet.

[estemp]

Thanks for the quick reply and useful info.

the drive is an Extreme Portable SSD. I'm aware that some of these have had issues raised in the press recently. Hence the reason for me investing in a NAS so store projects better. I've had this drive for about a year though and not experienced anything out of the ordinary. The only thing I did differently was to use a different cable with USB adapter attached. The copy process got to at least 25% though when I left it so wasn't indicating any issues. It was around 150GB so I would have thought it was going to take a few hrs.

Does the browser session need to be left open while copying files using the TOS interface? I wonder if I pulled the cable out while it was still copying? But since I couldn't see this process, or even read the drives at that time, I had no idea if it was still going or not.

Is there a better way to copy large amounts of data between one drive and another that doesn't require me to have my laptop open?

When I go to the Overview page on TOS, the Load is currently 100% and says 'system is sluggish'. Could this be indicating an issue somewhere that I need to look at?

[Gremlin]

My take on it is that once I close the browser session, my login dies with it. Unless I select 'stay logged in' during the login process, then my login may still be active when I reopen the browser again, but I would not guarantee (or expect) it depending on what I have done on the pc/laptop in the meantime.

I suppose you could set up the copy as a scheduled task. Then it would activate at the given time, regardless whether you are present or not.

[estemp]

thank you for the suggestion, I'll try setting up a scheduled task to copy the files.