Wanting some sort of NAS storage (I think)

[jenic]

I'm wanting some sort of storage attached to my network, I want to dump my music/video's on it and access it all from all the computers/xbox.

I want it to contain 2 x big HDD (1TB+), but I want one to simply be a duplicate of the other as backup.

Could anyone link me to something that could do this?

 

[sbridgey]

Not cheap i am afraid

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-...nas-duo-2-bay-mirror-raid-inc-gbit-lan-3x-usb

 

[iain187]

does it have to be on your network... im thinking dropbox if you are looking at backup

 

[jenic]

Not cheap i am afraid

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-...nas-duo-2-bay-mirror-raid-inc-gbit-lan-3x-usb

Bit more than I wanted to spend really. But thanks, it gives me more of an idea what I'm looking for.

does it have to be on your network... im thinking dropbox if you are looking at backup

Ideally yes, since I want to access the video's when all my computers are off.


I'm beginning to think it might be better to buy an old PC and stick a couple of HDD in it, and some software to mirror the HDD.

 

[jenic]

Just seen this, looks ideal

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-netgear-stora-ms2110-storage-home-media-network-storage-nas

 

[Gareth]

I've recently bought the first one linked ( Netgear ReadyNas Duo ), I bought the 2TB version then added a second 2TB, I also changed the fan out for a silent unit and upgraded the memory to 1GB. Unfortunately due to the HDD prices going through the roof you will struggle to go with that option without spending a lot more (luckily I got mine finished before the price hike) it's a great unit, powers itself on and off and mirrors everything automatically.

I've had enough of buying sealed external HDD units and the disks either failing or a new OS not wanting to know it / or work properly with it, so this time around I really wanted something I could switch the disks out on easily and not be 'directly' connected to the PCs.

 

[Sym0n]

I've just bought a Netgear ReadyNas Duo and thrown two 1Tb Samsung F3 drives in to it. In total it came to about £240. Amazing bit of kit and worth every penny, although setting up my folder structure is going to take me an age. Main reason for buying it was that I nearly lost an external HDD that houses all my photos, videos and music so I wanted data redundancy. Plus the ability to access my files from anywhere as well as things like iTunes Server and BitTorrent client made it ideal. I'll be changing the HDDs out for 2Tb jobs once the prices of them start to come down again, although for now I can runs with about 40% free capacity on a 1Tb drive with no worries and have peace of mind that it's all being instantly mirrored.

I looked at the Stora model but the lack of features and the monthly sub made me instantly dismiss it. My mates just bought a Buffalo NAS (2 x 500Gb) for about £85 delivered, specs not bad for the price and he can still choose how he operates RAID over the drives.

Gareth can you link me to the fan and RAM you've used to upgrade your unit please? Doubt I need to increase the standard 256Mb of RAM it comes with as I'm not going to be using it for anything intensive, but figure I may as well future proof it where possible.

 

[Gareth]

This is the memory (although its gone up £5 since I bought it):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00025O87Y/?tag=cliospnet01-21

You have to be VERY careful which one you buy as people are finding even with identical spec very few memory dimms are working with them and Netgear no longer keep an up-to-date list of approved memory because of it.

And this is the fan:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/60mm...lent-series-cooling-fan-inc-rubber-fan-mounts

Although I had to modify it as the cable was rather long!

 

[Silent_Scone]

Buffalo stations kick around quite cheaply on fleebay. I'm not really a fan of network storage in the home though... ESATA enclosures tbh

 

[Sym0n]

Awesome thanks Gareth, I'd read about the RAM so I was hoping that you'd found one that was still being touted as approved. Think I'll risk it and hope for the best.

 

[Gareth]

That price has actually just gone down! I paid £32 and at the time of posting it was £37 (its now £29.51)

 

[Sym0n]

LOL I love Amazon for that.

Just looked at Crucial direct and it's £27.59 on there and Quidco for 7% cashback on it too so about £25.

 

[AK]

Don't buy hard drives.

They're too expensive.

 

[Sym0n]

LOL and add to that a 5% discount code too.

AFFCRU in case anyone is wanting some memory, expires today.

 

[Andy.]

Out of interest, what sort of transfer speeds do you get writing to the Netgear ReadyNas Duo?

 

[Sym0n]

I've got a D-Link 655 router which can go to Gigabit, as can the ReadyNas which is connected directly to it, from my PC using 85Mb Powerplugs I was pushing a few gb of TV shows to the NAS at 3.5Mb/s. Ideally I would prefer everything to be cat5'd direct but I'm too lazy to run the cabling and hide it all and Powerplugs work well, although I may get some of the new Gigabit ones.

 

[Cup_Phil]

Netgear Stora every day of the week

Bought mine without hard drives for £60 new (ebuyer) - then put 2 x 2tb hard drives in it with RAID backup
Overall cost £180 - works brilliantly and is completely silent

 

[ChrisR]

Had a ReadyNAS Duo for a coupel of years now with 2 1.5TB drives in it, been really good.

Would be nice to have the Ultra model now though as it's a bit snappier, but it's more expensive and not sure I'll really notice much difference.

I also upgraded the RAM which helped, and keep meaning to swap the fan out. The previous firmware update introduced an annoyance in that the fan just randomly spins up for a minute or so then dies down again. Didn't used to do that and only seems to do it when the unit isn't being accessed.

Use mine for media storage and run my news client on there. PS3 and TV both can access it directly to play films and stuff.

Overall decent unit and relatively cheap for what you get, have seen the barebones unit for around £120 but you'll get bummed on the HDD price at the moment.

 

[Revels]

I need to work out a better solution for my set-up.

I have two 500GB and a 1TB drive that is shared between two computers via a cable and a little switch

Could I buy some sort of storage thing and just strip the drives from the cases?

Ideally I'd like it to have two cables coming out. Doesn't need to be properly networked. Just one cable I can plug into the iMac and one into my Mini. Only one of them needs to be able to access it at a time.

 

[Sym0n]

Netgear Stora every day of the week

I looked at the Stora model but the lack of features and the monthly sub made me instantly dismiss it.

The previous firmware update introduced an annoyance in that the fan just randomly spins up for a minute or so then dies down again. Didn't used to do that and only seems to do it when the unit isn't being accessed.

Overall decent unit and relatively cheap for what you get, have seen the barebones unit for around £120 but you'll get bummed on the HDD price at the moment.

Mines not spinning up, at least not above normal running. When I first plugged it in and it was doing sorting out the sync it spun up a couple of times but since then it's not made a sound. Only reason I want to sawp out the fan is because I've read that the bearings in them are s**t.

I need to work out a better solution for my set-up.

I have two 500GB and a 1TB drive that is shared between two computers via a cable and a little switch

Could I buy some sort of storage thing and just strip the drives from the cases?

Ideally I'd like it to have two cables coming out. Doesn't need to be properly networked. Just one cable I can plug into the iMac and one into my Mini. Only one of them needs to be able to access it at a time.

I'd look at a cheap NAS, Dan. You could possibly strip the drives out of their enclosure but I wouldn't like to guarentee that it will work. Although if you're not bothered about the other benefits of running a NAS you may want to just stick with your current pikie setup.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Out of interest, what sort of transfer speeds do you get writing to the Netgear ReadyNas Duo?

over 100 based you'll be lucky to see over 10-15mb. 1080 streaming is er, interesting also

 

[Andy.]

I've got a D-Link 655 router which can go to Gigabit, as can the ReadyNas which is connected directly to it, from my PC using 85Mb Powerplugs I was pushing a few gb of TV shows to the NAS at 3.5Mb/s. Ideally I would prefer everything to be cat5'd direct but I'm too lazy to run the cabling and hide it all and Powerplugs work well, although I may get some of the new Gigabit ones.

Cheers... large files take you a while then!

over 100 based you'll be lucky to see over 10-15mb. 1080 streaming is er, interesting also

I have everything at home wired up with 1GB/s but my WD media player, whilst having a 1GB/s connection, is limited to around 10-12mb by the processor of the unit. I was hoping that the Netgear did much better.

 

[Gareth]

10mb is what I see over CAT5, so yes large copies do take time, but I'm not using it for streaming, it is purely a backup solution so it's not a problem for me.

 

[Cup_Phil]

You don't need the monthly subscription for the Stora at all - all it does is publish your photos on the web for you lol

 

[jenic]

Great help so far, going to take a good look through all my options tonight.

Why are HDD prices increasing?

 

[Rob]

Tsunami

 

[ChrisR]

Factories in Thailand have been flooded so production has decreased massively.

As for transfers, mine's mostly used from a MBP laptop, over wireless N to my router, which is gigabit with the Netgear plugged in.

From what I can remember it took about 10/13 minutes to copy about 8gig up to the NAS over the wireless, but can do some tests when I'm back home on Friday if anyone wants.

Never had a problems streaming since having the new router and the MBP, used to have a few issues with an old netbook and old router, but think it was largely due to the netbook.

I know windows laptops can have weird wireless performance issues with them but you can usualyl tweak a few things to make it better.

The forums are pretty good for looking things up, never posted on there myself though.

 

[Dink]

just to anyone who was looking

i've got a Nas pc (it's a single core celeron 2.0 ghz cpu with 1 GB of ram)

i copied a 2.5GB file from my laptop and the slowest speed it showed was 62MB/sec (wired to gigabit switch which then goes to dlink router which Nas Pc is pluged into)

 

[jenic]

Still not got around to buying anything, mainly because of the HDD prices, but got this on a junk email yesterday. Thoughts?

http://www.cclonline.com/product/79...amp;utm_medium=eshot&utm_campaign=BAK2153

 

[Longy]

If you dont mind leaving your PC on, Just stick 2 x identical HDDs in your PC and run them as RAID1 which is built into windows. No extra devices to look after and configure.

 

[jenic]

If you dont mind leaving your PC on, Just stick 2 x identical HDDs in your PC and run them as RAID1 which is built into windows. No extra devices to look after and configure.

Only desktop is an iMac though.

I've bought the one I linked to anyway, just going to wait for some HDD's to come up at a good price now.

 

[AK]

That's mental the price of that.

 

[Longy]

Only desktop is an iMac though.

I've bought the one I linked to anyway, just going to wait for some HDD's to come up at a good price now.

It can be done with Mac OS as well but anyways less power and noise with that unit hopefully.