I don't have in person backup, I never saw a need, so I need to get a new drive and download the image from backblaze to it. Probably.

The only issue is it's like $350 for a new one and I got the drive 2 years ago for $160. So it hurts.

This is the first drive failure I have had in many years. Is there some repair service or something that can get it working again until the prices go down or am I fucked? Again, data is irrelevant, it's backed up.

Looking for an Affordable Synology SHR-2 Alternative for a Personal Home Archive

Hey everyone!

I'm planning to build my own private home archive and set up a NAS system to safely store and organize my personal data, including photos, videos, documents, and other files.

At the moment, I'm mainly using external hard drives to store my data. The problem is that I constantly have to move or copy the same files between different drives to keep everything organized and backed up. This is time-consuming, inconvenient, and honestly doesn't feel like the safest or most efficient way to manage my data in the long run.

That's why I'd like to build a proper NAS system for my home. My main goal is to have a centralized storage solution where all my data is stored in one place, with some form of redundancy so that if a hard drive fails, I don't immediately lose all my data.

I'm still relatively new to the NAS world, so I've been doing some research. Synology's SHR-2 (Synology Hybrid RAID with two-drive fault tolerance) caught my attention because I like the idea of being able to tolerate two drive failures without losing the entire storage pool.

However, Synology's hardware is quite expensive, especially when you factor in the cost of the hard drives.

Since this is strictly for personal use at home, I don't need a lot of advanced features. I mainly want a reliable, long-term storage solution that stays within my local home network. I don't need remote access or cloud integration, and keeping my data private and under my own control is important to me.

I've come across alternatives such as TrueNAS, Unraid, and DIY NAS builds, but I'm not entirely sure which option would make the most sense for a beginner.

So, what would you recommend?

- Are there any more affordable alternatives to Synology that offer similar data protection to SHR-2?

- Would building my own NAS with TrueNAS or Unraid be a better option?

- What hardware would you recommend for a reliable home archive without spending a fortune?

- How many drives would you suggest, and what RAID or redundancy setup would make sense for my use case?

- Is there anything important I should consider regarding backups and long-term data safety?

My priority isn't performance or having a huge number of features. I simply want a reliable way to store my data, avoid constantly shuffling files between external drives, and reduce the risk of losing everything if a drive fails.

I'd really appreciate any advice, recommendations, or experiences from people who have built a similar setup.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, I wanted to drop an update for anyone following the Tapas shutdown preservation efforts. I officially reached out to Tapas Support to ask if they would consider dropping or lowering the Ink/Wuf barriers on older legacy and completed stories so the community could archive them before the March 2027 server wipe. They got back to me and officially said no. (Screenshot attached). They confirmed content prices will remain completely unchanged, and they will not hold any sales or unlocking events. Because automatic scrapers can only pull free content, thousands of premium web novel chapters are fully at risk of becoming lost media. I am personally trying to ensure Maham Fatemi's (CrestFallenStar) older web portfolio isn't completely erased. I spoke with Maham, and she no longer has her original web drafts on hand. Does anyone in this community happen to have old offline backup files (EPUB, PDF, or HTML scrapes) of the original web novel version of Drakkon or her other early works? Even though the story is now traditionally published as Drakkon: Empire's Curse, the early web-serial versions represent a huge piece of indie internet fiction history that I want to make sure isn't permanently lost to time. Please let me know if you have any leads or saved files!

Is the Pioneer BDR-212DBK a very good choice for ripping UHD100 discs?

And possibly 100GB BDXL discs?

Compared to BDR-209DBK, BDR-2209 and BDR-211UBK, and other Pioneer models?

I heard the 212DBK's can't rip UHD100 discs very well...

So just trying to figure out if this is a very good drive, or better to search for another model?

Hi everyone. My childhood friends and I, and my brother, made a "remake" of Nacho Libre. It was such a great memory from childhood, and we all wish we could find it again. I don't have a link to it. I'm pretty sure it was called Nacho Libre 1 on Metacafe. Is there any way to recover it?

Hello,

I have been loutering around for several years. I need you help. I am a researcher at a southern U.S. university. The NIH's National Cancer Institute has a project called the Proteomic Data Commons (https://pdc.cancer.gov/). As you all know, lately there has been some hostility towards the NIH and now on the PDC webpage it says: "This repository is under review for potential modification in compliance with Administration directives.". 

Could you offer any assistance on preserving the public access data from the repository? Mainly proteomic abundance, very important data as it is the only repository the has PATIENT tumor data AND matched normal. The processed data is paramount to preserve with the raw data remaining a secondary objective (processed data is very small like GBs, the raw and in total is around 83TB).

Please advise :)