Network Storage

[drpete]

Having had the Mac hard drive pack up this week, I think it's about time I revisited backups. Currently, I have a selection of external hard drives which hold the backups of our music library, photos etc. We're now a 5 laptop household, which creates some issues with what's stored where and access to music files. I'm thus considering going down

Comments

[cookwitch]

If you unlock the post I can point Tex here? We recently got a NAS.

[drpete]

Done!

[aca]

I've got a ReadyNAS NVX. It's basically a Linux box, and you can get it to use "standard" linux RAID if you so choose. The proprietary formatt they use allows you to grow the volume without reformatting, which Linux RAID does not.

If you're after a simple mirror then the Western Digital World Edition might do the job. Also running Linux on the inside it's a pretty simple little thing but does what it does well.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=589

[incy]

I looked at the netgear stora around Xmas time. It is very good value, but not without its faults; the big one being that it Raid 1 disks only (and while that in itself, it is not really a proper backup solution). Also and it is a bit terrifying 1TB is not actually that much and I am less then convinced about its expandability. However it does look like it runs out of the box and as I say good value; if you go for the next step up it costs more and is a lot more fiddly. I would not worry about the disk format I have a number of wd external disk with proprietary disk formats hanging off with no issues.

If you want something now then get it, however I have a feeling that there will be a next generation out in six to nine months and might well address the few faults they have.

[ccomley]

You could've come round and looked at our NAS collection had you not sprung the question no sooner than we had hit the continent for a few days... still can if you can wait until we return.

There's lots of NAS boxes. They pretty much all do the NAS thing for Windoze, Mac and *ix users alike. Some offer web-file access and FTP and stuff too.

Many are also media servers.

SOME are even also media players. Does your TV have a player built in?

[drpete]

Will do!

We popped in to see you yesterday as we were in Great Missenden for the food festival, but figured you'd gone away for a bit. We put an envelope through your door, and will catch up when you get back.

[ccomley]

Sorry we missed you. We're enjoying cheese et al. Catch up when we return - unless you fancy a long weekend..?

[silenttex]

I have a Thecus N2200. Takes either 2.5 or 3.5" SATA drives. Configurable as the usual: JBOD, RAID 0, or RAID 1.
The web interface can be a bit slow and clunky, but you don't often have to go into it once it's set up.
It's one of the faster NAS boxes (depending on what drives you put in it, obviously)
It can be externally accessible over FTP, HTTP & HTTPS which is a nice feature, as well as being a media server.

[d_floorlandmine]

Which is also what I have, and was wittering on about on Saturday.