NAS, File servers & hard drives

[jonesyx]

Basically im looking for some network storage space for home. Dont want to upgrade laptop drive. Got a wireless network already.

Really looking for the cheapest way tbh

looking for 250gig ish

like the look of the buffalo one (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/75276)
and it is a print server as well as being able to take another usb hard drive which is a bonus but not important.
but the price is putting me off a bit.

Can get this enclosure for £30
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LAN-SERVER-3-...58QQihZ005QQcategoryZ1484QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And 250gb hard drive for £50
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/55242
or http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/89519

which is quite abit cheaper. Im not buying a Nas with a drive off ebay as id like some sort of comeback if the hard drives faulty, dont mind as much about the enclosure.

What would you IT guys reccomend?

Cheers
MJ

 

[telford_mike]

Depends entirely on what you're going to use it for to be honest mate. If it's for regular filestore (documents, photos etc) then anything will do, although the less you spend the more it's likely to go wrong.

The Buffalo and similar solutions are optimised for video and audio streaming - they have big, clever cache solutions which is where the extra cost comes in.

Whatever you choose, make sure you have a way of backing it up!

 

[jonesyx]

mainly just filestore, music pictures ect probably not too much streaming maybe audio at the most.

What would you reccomend? and where from?

cheers

 

[TheCake]

I've got a toshiba USB2 320GB hard drive from PC World for something like £120.

 

[Rasclart]

If you want NAS then use the software in the link below, an old PC and a large hard drive or drives

http://www.serverelements.com/naslite-2-usb.php

If you dont need NAS just a predone USB HDD. Like the cake boy I got a 320GB Tosh for £99 in PCghey

 

[cliokiz]

Personally i'd recommend something like the Iomega NAS storage boxes. They have 4 x hot swappable HDD's in a RAID 5 cofiguration, so if one drive fails you just take it out, stick another in, and it automatically replicates the data and rebuilds the RAID 5 array. Very nifty!

They run a simplified version of Windows 2000 (or 2003, can't remember) designed for storage devices and are administered by Terminal Services. We have one here at it has around 215GB of storage and works very well. Just attach it to your network and map the drive and you will be able to store all your data on there safe in the knowledge that it will be safe for years to come, unless of course something wipes it out!

Probably slightly more expensive than what you are looking for but i'd seriously recommend them!

 

[Rasclart]

LOL they are indeed awesome units. But £££££££££££££££££££££££££ and overkill for his needs IMO

 

[jonesyx]

i refuse to buy anything from pcworld lol, ive got issues with them. Could do the old pc job but still costing a bit in electricity and having to boot it up everytime want it and id still need a new hard drive anyway. Probably just going to go with the enclosure from my first post.

Wheres best place to buy pc components? always used ebuyer personally.

 

[UncleGrumpy]

Ebuyer, dabs or scan are the three i use - mainly ebuyer to be honest. I've got 4 of the Hawking Technologies NAS boxes running here that they sell, they only go to 250Gb which is odd but they are a piece of piss to set up, not the cheapest but they've been flawless so far.