PC Review Reviews Storage QNAP TS-209 Pro II

Many small businesses and advanced home users will use some form of external storage device to backup data or store common files across a network. One of the most convenient methods of doing this is to use a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, which allows you to access network shares from all other PCs connected to the same network:

The QNAP TS-209 Pro II provides space for two SATA hard drives, providing ample storage capacity (for example, 2 x 1TB drives). However this NAS unit isn’t quite as simple as just providing access to storage space, it can do a whole lot more. The official manual lists the 12 additional functions as follows:

• File Server
• FTP Server
• Backup Server
• Encrypted Remote Replication
• Web Server
• MySQL Server
• Printer Server
• UPnP Media Server
• Image Files Backup
• Download Station
• iTunes Server
• Surveillance Station

In this price bracket (around £250 at the time of writing), it will be difficult to find another NAS with so many powerful features. Most other NAS devices will include the file server with FTP access and backup tools, however this QNAP device can allow you to run a webserver (using PHP, with MySQL databases) and even download torrent files without turning your PC on. These features will be covered in more depth in subsequent pages.

Installation and Setup

Everything you need to get the NAS up and running (apart from hard drives) is included, meaning that you should be up and running within around 5-10 minutes. QNAP include thumbscrews for the front facia and drive bay mounts, which is a welcome addition when disks are swapped about frequently:

The TS-209 Pro II follows the same design style as its predecessors, a glossy black front with a matt grey metal casing. The NAS cube has a recessed indicator panel with an array of LEDs, USB Port and two buttons (power and backup):

The casing feels reassuringly solid, with no rattles or flimsy chassis areas. Once the hard drives have been mounted, it does become too heavy to become an easily portable solution (which isn’t a problem, considering it is after all a NAS drive). The rear of the TS-209 Pro II (from left to right) includes a Kensington lock slot, power socket, reset button, LAN connection and two USB sockets. Above these ports is a small fan exhaust, used to cool down the internal hard drives and NAS chipset:

Installing the drives is a straight forward process, involving removing the front panel and placing each SATA drive into the removable drive trays. There is a list of compatible hard drives on the QNAP website, but you should be able to use almost any SATA drive in the NAS unit. In this example, a 250GB and 1TB drive have been used. Once they are screwed back into place, the front facia can be reattached and the power/LAN cables connected – then it is time to power on:

The power on sequence does take some time (under a minute), which will be followed by a beep sound when ready. Once the boot up sequence is complete, you will be able to access the drive over the network. The first time you connect to the device, you will need to initialise the disks and configure the NAS settings. This process doesn’t take long, but it is worth mentioning that you will lose any existing data on the disk during the initialisation process (due to a change in file storage systems). At this stage you can set up RAID 0 or 1, ideal for mirroring your drives in case of disk failure: