NAS Drives/Wireless ExHDD/Personal Cloud Storage etc...

[Jack!]

I currently have a desktop PC, and I have a new Macbook arriving next week. I want to carry on using both in different scenarios.

I'm trying to get a good setup together whereby I can access anything on either machine, and beyond, getting to the point where I can access anything on any PC/Tablet/Laptop etc.

The only way I can see of sharing all my files with each machine without having to have one always on as a host is to get a NAS Drive of some sort.

I see on Amazon you can get NAS Enclosures without any drives; if I were to buy one of these, could I take the HDD out of my current desktop PC and put it into that, and still boot the desktop from the NAS drive (using a Bootloader that dual boots OS X & W7)? Would I need to do anything to set this up? Was kinda hoping it'd be plug and play, but not sure how you could tell the desktop PC to boot from a NAS Drive?

Does a NAS Drive work like Virtual Desktop, in that you log into it from any device, or can they be used to share files over a network?

Ultimately, I want all my music accessible on any device, and be able to play it wirelessly to my speakers from any device.

Any experience/info greatly appreciated.

 

[Jack!]

Think I've found my own answers, gonna buy a Synology DS214se and 2 WD 1TB drives.

 

[biojo]

I personally wouldnt save direct to nas drives as desktop etc, as i sometimes use laptop away from home, so wouldnt have any thing saved on here.

You also state boot the from NAS, are you referring to the laptop etc not having any hard drive and loading all over a network, cos even if this is possible it could be very slow

I do have drives available from all pcs within house, and some that are specific to users.

Also you wouldnt just put a hd straight from a PC into a NAS, I would use a fresh format drive and possible use which format is best for it , in my case Linux formatted.

In my situation i save everything to laptop, then this creates a duplicate copy to the NAS (in My Documents it saves 3 version of each file saves). These can then be accessed from other pcs, places out side the house.

Mine stores the itunes music on hd for when im out and about then copys the music files to the nas for my media pc to read

You can set a bideirectional copy so it updates in both directions

 

[Jack!]

My Macbook only has 256gb SSD storage though, so don't want to be saving much if anything to it, hence looking at a NAS Drive. The one I've bought has remote access, so I'm hoping I'll be able to access all my stuff anywhere as long as I've got an internet conection.

 

[biojo]

you can usually set them as a drive, so they are accessible from anywhere on home network (so mine as E:\ (music) etc ), from outside networks you either need VPN connection i believe.

Or u would set the router to fwd a certain port to NAS and access it through a web interface, but this looses ability to save direct to it. Suppos FTP you could do it, cant think of another way

Some might come with software to view as if it was on current network.

My work around is to open a remote desktop connection on my server and use that remotely, then you can access everything as if you are at home

 

[Jack!]

I'll have to see when it arrives how it actually works, but Synology kit comes highly recommended so it would seem, so looking forward to seeing what it can do.

 

[Jack!]

I changed my mind and went for the DS213j, because it has 512mb RAM (instead of 256mb) and 1200mhz CPU (instead of 800mhz) and only cost £40 extra, so it's a bit of future-proofing and also allows for a bit more multi-tasking. I also changed the two drives to WD Red's, as they come recommended for NAS RAID setups.

 

[theduck]

My dad has a synology NAS drive, its ace for streaming. Thats about all I know on the subject.

 

[Jack!]

My main reason is just laziness/ease - I wanna be able to pretty much never have to plug in a wire, just stream all files to MacBook, use a Raspberry Pi as a Media Center and use Airport Express for wirelessly streaming music, then I can just take the laptop anywhere in the house at any time.

 

[Jay_A]

I have a DS211. Brilliant bit of kit and we also use it to backup our MacBooks to via time machine.

 

[Dink]

i think i would of gone for a hp microserver being as it has cash back this month.

you would have to put a little effort in but would come with 2Gb of ram and a 2.2Ghz cpu for just over £100 after cash back

 

[Jack!]

i think i would of gone for a hp microserver being as it has cash back this month.

you would have to put a little effort in but would come with 2Gb of ram and a 2.2Ghz cpu for just over £100 after cash back

Got a link?

 

[Dink]

here is one place

i've bought both the n40 and n54 and had cashback for both after a month

also comes with a 250Gb HDD

i run one with 3x 3TB WD reds + 1x 4TB WD red

 

[Jack!]

Think I'm still leaning towards the NAS because it's a bit more simple, has really good power consumption/noise levels and the software provided by Synology is really well reviewed and seems simple.

The Microserver would no doubt be more flexible though.

 

[AK]

I've got the microserver. Good when I used it, lol.

 

[Jamie86]

Would a normal person (me) be able to set one of those microservers up ok?

 

[theduck]

Synology software is great! Makes using the content like using video and audio content just like using Netflix or lovefilm

 

[Dink]

Would a normal person (me) be able to set one of those microservers up ok?

depends. it's no different to a normal pc so if you could do that then i'd say yes

 

[biojo]

yer its hard to say, if your technically minded and can use google, theres no reason why not lol

i use a netgear nas which i bought 4 years ago, its not the quickest compare to whats available now, but is able to stream 2-3 movies on hi def at once.

but set up wise its not as easy as windows, my old nas was allot simpler but less secure.

 

[dk]

the synology is a great bit of kit, sod a micro server, the synology does everything you need and more out of the box. Remote access is easy too and there are iPhone apps for all the apps.

 

[Saner]

Thread Hi-Jack, asking for advice.

Parents have a PC, and two laptops. Whilst most of the surfing is done on the laptops, any 'work' is at the PC.

The PC has started BSOD'ing so needs replacing and i'm wondering if I can kill two birds with one stone.

If they could have access to all files from both the laptops and PC's it would be great.How do I achieve this?

Can I buy the Synology thing to replace the tower? Or do I need to get like a Home Server thing?

EDIT:

Can I g further with this? If I had something with a TV Tuner I could record Freeview and it would stream to any device no?

 

[Jack!]

Sorry for the late response, only just seen your post.

The Synology could certainly replace the tower - I love the one I've just got, it's brilliant. It's quiet, efficient, really really easy to use and the web interface is really simple.

As for streaming recorded Freeview, if you record something then yes, you could stream it to any device - Synology have good apps too, so you could stream it to your smartphone or tablet also.

Achieving what you want literally couldn't be easier; buy the Synology (or other, you choose, but I highly recommend the Synology), stick two HDDs in it (I used WD Red's which are recommended for NAS because they can spin down when inactive for energy saving), it will set itself up, will prompt you to create a RAID array on first startup, so you will have resiliency, then you just put everything you want on it, and you'll be able to access your stuff from any device in your network, or even via a web connection anywhere in the world once set up - you can set up security, encryption, automatic startup/shutdown times, power-saving options etc.