Flying Dog,
Does your NAS have a power saving schedule? (Hibernation) spins down after a pre-set time of inactivity and spins up again when required, just a thought and a lot less hassle.
As for the OS question from OME its a valid question, how it could help I'm unsure however most NAS units have a couple of different ways for management, web interface as your using and connection managers such as RAIDar by Netgear.
Cheers