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NETWORK BACKUP STORAGE
The best NAS drives for Time Machine backups on your network
REVIEWED BY HOWARD OAKLEY
GROUP TEST
ON TEST...
> Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T
> QNAP TS–253D
> Synology DiskStation DS920+
> TerraMaster F2–422
> WD My Cloud Home Duo
FOR A DECADE Apple sold millions of Time Capsules, simple appliances combining Wi–Fi router and network storage. Popular with families and small businesses, they quietly kept Time Machine backups for several Macs. Now we’ve got better Wi–Fi, and their hard disks are reaching end of life, what should you replace yours with? What’s the best way to store backups, shared photos, and documents on your network?
These are among the many roles that can be served by Network–Attached Storage, or NAS. Here, we look at five leading NAS systems aimed at homes and smaller businesses, with the primary role of storing Time Machine backups for several Macs. They range from systems similar to Time Capsules without the Wi–Fi, to those also serving rich media or internal websites, and ready to grow with your business.
You could also make your own system with a Raspberry Pi, or use a desktop Mac for the purpose. We therefore compare these five NAS systems against what you could do with an M1 Mac mini.
How we tested
Systems were configured to manufacturers’ recommendations, with their two internal hard disks in RAID 1 (mirror) configuration.