How to set up QNAP NAS on Windows & Mac
What is QNAP?
QNAP's Network Attached Storage(NAS) are systems made up of one or more hard drives that are always linked to the internet The QNAP serves as a backup "hub," or storage device, for all of your essential data and media, including images, movies, and music. Consider it your external hard drive, but instead of carrying it everywhere with you, it's kept at home and is available to you and your family at any time.
Now let us teach you how to set up a QNAP NAS!
Step 1: You need to download the Qfinder application. The application is free and available for all users, whether if you're using Mac or Windows.
Step 2: Pile up your NAS and put your drivers inside as per the manufacturer's instructions. Later, have the NAS booted up for 3 to 5 minutes.
Step 3: By clicking on the top right-hand corner, you can scan your local area network to find a NAS. Make sure that NAS and the device you're using to set up are on the same network.
Step 4: A network will appear, and if not set up before, it would ask you if you want to initialize the server. Click on, "Yes."
Step 5: Change the language options on the top right-hand side corner, if needed. Otherwise, you may continue by clicking 'Start Smart Installation Guide'.
Step 6: Now, name your NAS, your username (e.g., admin) and set a password. After doing so, click Next.
Step 7: Now, you need to set the date n time, but we recommend to let it synchronize instead. To do so, check the option which says "Synchronize with an internet server automatically". After doing so, please click next.
Step 8: Choose static IP, later press next
Step 9: You will see a pop up saying, "The IP address is not changed", which may lead to an IP address conflict. Are you sure you want to continue?" Press 'proceed'.
Step 10: Now, it will ask you which platform you're using (E.g. Windows or Mac).Would you please select the platform you'll be using? You are allowed to choose more than one option.
Step 11: You will see the summary of the initial setup; click apply.
Step 12: Now, please wait for a moment as it takes some time to load. Once loading completes, you'll find yourself at the login page. Enter your username and the password you've set earlier.
Step 13: You will see the user interface of QTS, QNAP operating system and graphical user interface.
Step 14: The first time when you boost this device, you'll see four different popups letting you know of some help guide. Check "Do not automatically launch Help Centre" and press 'ok'.
Step 15: You'll get another pop up saying, "Licenses are available in the QNAP store," You don't have to use it, but it's good to know the option is available. Hence you could ignore it by checking 'Do not show this message again, and later press close.
Step 16: Start setting up your storage by pressing 'storage and snapshots', and now you can prepare the hard drives.
Step 17: Click on the storage pool option on the right side; you'll need to create a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) system. This RAID is a system where you can have multiple drives that serve three purposes,
They combine all of the space to create one visible drive to your connected system.
Act as a safety net system where your data will not be lost even if a drive fails due to a hardware foul.
The Read and Write speed will significantly increase if you have data spread across multiple disks.
Step 18: Now you'll be on the page 'select drives'. If you want to utilize SSDs, you can create a tiered storage option. Or else, you could skip the process and click next.
Step 19: You'll be viewing the existing hard drives on the device.
Note: each hard drive has 28terabytes of storage with 14TB drives. Choose your preferred RAID drive type. You'll be viewing the existing hard drives on the device.
Note: each hard drive has 28terabytes of storage with 14TB drives. Choose your preferred RAID drive type.
Single: it's a disk on its own
j-bot: just a bunch of drives; hence all hard drives work independently
Raid 0: combines all the drives, but if one drive dies, you lose the entire storage array and your data
Raid 1: has two mirrored copies of the disks
Raid 5: 3 or more disks were if you lose one drive of capacity, but data spread across all of the drives in the waveforms, one hard drive will have the blueprint of the rest of the data known as parity. Hence it'll rebuild your data (reading n righting speed can be slow)
Raid 6: Acts similar to Raid 5 but creates two parities; hence can protect you from 2 hard drives worth of failure (reading n righting speed can be slow)
Raid 10 combines: Raid 1 and 0. it splits the storage you got into two pools and pairs them together. It can survive up to 2 disks of failure but with increased read and right than raid 6.
Step 20: Click next; you'll see 'Alert Threshold'. It is a setting that warns you when your storage is reaching its limit. The current default settings are 80%, but if you prefer to be alerted at another level (e.g. 90% or 70%), you may click the box and change the numbers. Once finished, please press 'next'.
Step 21: You'll see the details of the storage pool you're creating. Click 'create'.
Step 22: It'll give you a warning which says, "All of the data on the selected disk(s) will be erased. Are you sure you want to continue?" click 'ok' as it wouldn't be a problem if you're using brand new disk. Please wait for it to load. Some may take hours to load, depending on the type of RAID.
Step 23: After getting a notification that your storage pool has been created, click on create a new volume, and then click next
Step 24: Later u can choose your volume capacity (for example, 10TB)
Step 25: You can change the volume name to preferred by clicking on the box near 'Volume Alias' and later clicking next, leaving the technical information untouched and defaulting.
Step 26: You'll see the information of volume you've just created; now, you can click finish. The disk volume will start building; this may take a while.
Step 27: Once it's all done, you can look inside shared folders and mapped network drive to view the volume you've just created.
Step 28: If you want to create a folder that other users over the network can access, click on the symbol that has a plus inside a folder, and click shared folder. Share folder is a folder of space that things can utilize outside of the NAS.
Step 29: Name the folder (e.g. Share1), type a comment if needed, check 'Specify path automatically', and press 'create' later. This process creates a shared space.
Step 30: You can create new folders inside the shared space by right-clicking and then pressing 'create folder'.
Step 31: Later, to create a mapped network drive, you have to go back to the QNAP page, click on network drives. It will search the Local Area network. (If asked for admin credentials, press allow).
Step 32: Now you'll see all the folders. To map a specific folder, right-click and press Map network drives. Later select your driver name and leave the IP address untouched.
Step 33: Click 'Finish', and you'll be able to see your mapped network drive.
I know what you're thinking, that's ALOT of steps for 1 device. If you ever run into issues or need help with installation, just give us a call and we'll be there! Our customers are our top priority ALWAYS.
