Terramaster NAS - Before You Buy

Buying your first Network Attached Storage (NAS) device can be a remarkably daunting task! Even for the most technologically knowledgable, a NAS is a very different kind of device than most of the hardware in your environment. At its heart, it is just a computer (like most things are when you break them down to the basics) that is built for a specific task. However, there are numerous elements of a NAS (such as it always being ON, the constant remote accessibility and focus on storage primarily) that set it apart from most other devices, and this si where a lot of people get a bit intimidated by it. There is always the option of using cloud services, such as DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive and more, but these are often paid monthly subscription services, involve your data being shared across other services and (most worrying of all) leaves your precious data in a position to be used for analytics without your knowledge OR open to hacking because of the sheer size of the target. Add to this the fact that in most cases, a severed connection to the internet means a severed connection to your data, and the appeal of moving away from 3rd party cloud and on to a NAS is pretty clear. The industry of NAS has been in constant growth for over 30 years, with big players like HP, Dell and IBM steadily losing the home and SMB market to the likes of Synology, QNAP and more. The brand diversity in the field of NAS servers has continued to grow right up until 2021, with the benefit that the way you can interact with your data, what NAS devices can do and the price point of this technology being exceedingly affordable (with fully featured solutions WITH storage media arriving as low as £200). So, today I want to talk about what NAS is, what a NAS can do, and which NAS Brand you should consider buying in 2021.

This description contains links to and Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's video.

NAS Solutions from -

[goldenrool]

Recently, I began considering investing / implementing in a NAS for home use and discovered your postings on YouTube while researching. First, I need to say a proper “Thank You” first for the effort you put into making informative videos. It has been very helpful for a newbie, providing a baseline of what are the important features and industry trends to consider when contemplating a significant change and investment such as this.



With that out of the way, this video strikes me as being highly unusual and wonder what was the impetus behind doing it. Although everything you have said may be true, it seems odd that you would go thru the effort to create a video whose sole purpose seems to be to disparage and emphasize a vendor’s negatives. A more appropriate title should have been, “Five Reasons Not to Buy a Terra Master NAS”.


It seems doubly odd because I had never noticed or seriously considered Terra Master until watching a couple of your videos (particularly the F5-221) where you consistently gave better than a measured recommendation. Yes, you pointed out areas where compromises may have been made but generally put it into context and concluded that the Terra Master was a viable well thought out NAS, though perhaps Spartan, that offered a lot of value for the SoHo market.



Instead, this video comes off as a deliberate hit piece. What’s going on?

[lentilgod]

The the thing about Terramaster is that the lack of 3rd party RAM is so stupid. You're a budget unknown brand, you think i'm gonna spend twice as much for your unknown brand's RAM?

[nevoyu]

I bought a terramaster and nuked the OS off of it for redhat instead. It's my homelab backup server so the hardware is more than enough.

[zyborg]

I have a Terramaster f4-210 and for what I need it is fine, the f4-210 is certainly at the lower end of Terramaster devices, only having an ARM quad-core CPU and 1GB of ram, but I only want it for storage and for that it does well. I agree that the apps couple be better and maybe even the ui is a bit clunky, but since this is the first proper NAS I have owned, I found it easy enough to set up OK I did have a buffalo single drive unit for years, but i never dealt with raid before, i had to read a few things about it.
My main problem is that sometimes the UI is a bit slow now and again as it seems to communicate with terramaster servers. Noise yes, it can be noisy, but I can cope with that, I can not really compare it to any other NAS, apart from maybe a mates QNAP TS963 something or other, but that is not dead quiet, I know because I have slept in the room where the cupboard is that holds the unit :)

I am thinking of getting a DAS at some point, Terramster does a non-raid one, which I will look at, if I was going for another NAS, then I expect I would get a higher spec Terramaster, it does what I i need. The one problem people may have is that it is a Chinese company

[jenniferw]

I think the Terramaster enclosures look pretty good. They go with Mac Minis & Mac Studios well. Also reminds me of the old silver ti-99/4a expansion box from the early 80's :)

[Lexington]

I just ordered one. All I need is a place to store video files when I'm done editing them on my internal SSD.

[Rick-fczr]

I have an old Synology 212J that still works although it is painfully slow. Decided to get an Asustor Lockerstore 2 this time around because it doesn't require it's own brand of memory etc. I think Synology is hurting themselves by requiring their own hardware add-ons. The Asustor seems good and the software isn't that much different.

[miguelfonseca]

I'm trying to buy a NAS and the main focus is to replace goggle photos, can you please tell me if this NAS has an app for Android that can make a backup after a photo is taken and then have like a terramaster photo app

[justplaintommy]

I have the F5-221, I tried to open it to add ram when I bought it. It wouldn't open right away so I put the screw back in and just started using it. I need to open it up though, that little ram is kind of annoying

[heckyes]

Can it run syncthing? That's all I want.

[deathspawn]

I'm thinking about picking one of these up just for backing up my photos and being able to edit off my PC or my surface when I need to, I'm a wedding photographer, this would replace my super old drobo 4 bay das units, do you think this is a good choice?

[josemolina-narradordigital]

Hey there, I love your content, thanks so much for it. Please, would you consider making a tutorial on how to set up a postgresql DB fot Davinci resolve project sever? i have been trying and haven´t been able. please.

[EduardoRubioLogan]

General question here ... how could I upgrade my HDD ? 5 Drives in JBOD F4-210 ty !

[dannyrozados]

have around 30tb of movies and TV shows and I want to share to someone In Europe, what is best nas for this?

[mattcolour]

To say their software is garbage would be an understatement. The GUI is god awful especially compared to brands like Synology. And I don’t think they really care.

[peterxyz]

Get to the point: 1, Price first. 2, functionality, next

[pastech]

I have a Terra Master 2-bay NAS... AVOID this brand.
STAY AWAY from Terra Master, I have ENDLESS problems with it, software is weak, hardware is kind of okay.
I have had to factory reset mine at least 8-10 times (since Nov 2019), and most times, you LOOSE all your data.
I'll NEVER buy another Terra Master device again.
My other NAS (Western Digital 2-bay), still working (since 2017).
Terra Master is a BAD buy.

[vinylmonster]

as much as he likes Terramaster he is owned by QNAP