A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is one of the best long-term investments in your home tech setup — it eliminates subscription storage costs, gives you a private media server, and creates a central backup target for all your devices. The setup is less complicated than it looks, but a few decisions made at the start (drive count, RAID level, drives) are hard to undo later. Here is how to do it right in 2026.
What changed in 2026
- Synology DSM 7.2+ and QNAP QTS 5.x are more polished than ever, with guided setup wizards that handle most configuration automatically for new users.
- 10GbE ports are now standard on mid-range NAS enclosures — useful if you edit video directly from the NAS, less important for simple backup and media streaming.
- AI photo organization is built into both Synology Photos and QNAP Moments, providing local face recognition and scene classification without cloud dependency.
- Drive prices have continued to fall — a 4 TB NAS-rated drive is now in the ~$80–$120 range; an 8 TB drive is ~$150–$220.
Step 1: Choose your enclosure
| Bay count |
Best for |
Notes |
| 2-bay |
Home users, first NAS |
RAID 1 gives 1× drive capacity with redundancy |
| 4-bay |
Small office, media collection |
More capacity, RAID 5/6 options |
| 6-bay+ |
Power users, workgroup storage |
Significant upfront cost; plan your use case first |
For a first NAS, a 2-bay from Synology (DS223/DS224+) or QNAP (TS-233/TS-264) is the practical choice. Both have strong software ecosystems and good community support.
Step 2: Choose the right drives
Do not use desktop consumer drives in a NAS. NAS-rated drives (Seagate IronWolf, Western Digital Red Plus) are designed for:
- Continuous 24/7 operation without thermal shutdown
- Vibration compensation (TLER — time-limited error recovery)
- Multi-drive simultaneous operation
Match drive size to your storage needs with growth in mind. In a 2-bay RAID 1 setup, usable capacity equals one drive's size — two 4 TB drives give 4 TB usable. Buy in matched pairs for RAID configurations.
Step 3: Understand RAID levels
| RAID level |
Min drives |
Usable capacity |
Protects against |
Does NOT protect against |
| RAID 0 (striping) |
2 |
100 % of all drives |
Nothing — faster only |
Any single drive failure |
| RAID 1 (mirror) |
2 |
50 % of total |
1 drive failure |
Deletion, ransomware, fire |
| RAID 5 |
3 |
~67 % of total |
1 drive failure |
2 simultaneous failures |
| RAID 6 |
4 |
~50 % of total |
2 drive failures |
3 simultaneous failures |
| SHR (Synology) |
2 |
Varies by drive sizes |
1 drive failure |
Same as RAID 1 |
For home use: RAID 1 (2-bay) is the right starting point. It is simple, reliable, and rebuilds automatically if a drive fails.
Step 4: Initial setup walkthrough
- Install drives — seat them in bays, secure with screws or tool-free trays.
- Connect to your network — Ethernet to your router. Use a wired connection; Wi-Fi is not recommended for NAS.
- Power on and navigate to find.synology.com or find.qnap.com from a browser on the same network.
- Follow the setup wizard — it installs the OS on the drives, creates the storage pool, and guides you through creating an admin account.
- Create a shared folder — this is your primary storage location. Set permissions appropriately.
- Enable SMB (for Windows) or AFP (for Mac) network sharing — this makes the NAS appear as a network drive on your computers.
- Set up automatic backup — Synology Hyper Backup or QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync. Point it at the shared folder and configure a schedule.
Step 5: Configure backup (RAID is not enough)
Set up the 3-2-1 backup rule:
- 3 copies of your data
- 2 different media types
- 1 offsite copy
Your NAS is the "2" (local copy with redundancy). For offsite backup, Synology supports Backblaze B2, Amazon S3, and other cloud targets via Hyper Backup at ~$5–$10/month for typical home volumes.
Common mistakes
Treating RAID as backup. RAID protects against a drive dying. It does not protect against accidentally deleting a folder, a ransomware attack encrypting all files, or a house fire. Add an offsite backup.
Buying desktop drives. The warranty on desktop drives explicitly excludes NAS use. They overheat and error-correct slowly in multi-drive environments.
Skipping the OS and app updates. NAS systems are always-on network devices. Keep DSM/QTS updated — vulnerabilities are exploited quickly when exposed to the internet.
Exposing the NAS directly to the internet. Use the built-in VPN (OpenVPN or WireGuard are both available on modern Synology/QNAP) instead of port-forwarding the admin interface to the public internet.
What to skip
- RAID 0 for any data you care about — it is striping with no redundancy; one drive failure destroys everything.
- 1-bay NAS for important data — no redundancy, no RAID; fine for scratch space, not for photos or documents.
- Exposing port 5000/5001 (Synology) to the internet — use Synology QuickConnect or a proper VPN instead.
FAQ
How much power does a NAS use?
A 2-bay NAS with spinning drives idles at ~15–25 W and spins up to ~30–40 W under load. Running 24/7, that is ~$15–$35/year in electricity depending on your rate.
Can I use a NAS as a Plex media server?
Yes. Install the Plex Media Server package from the Synology Package Center or QNAP App Center. For 4K HDR transcoding, you need a NAS with an Intel CPU that supports hardware transcoding (Synology DS224+ or similar).
What happens if one drive in RAID 1 fails?
The NAS keeps running from the remaining drive. Most enclosures email you an alert. Buy a replacement drive, hot-swap it in, and the NAS rebuilds the array automatically over several hours.
Can I expand storage later?
On most 2-bay NAS systems, you can upgrade to larger drives one at a time (replace one, rebuild, replace the other, expand the pool). Plan your starting drive size with this in mind.
Where to go next
See How to set up a home server in 2026, How to set up a VPN on router in 2026, and How to block ads network wide in 2026.