Network Storage - Not via a MAC or PC

[Ogi]

Hi,

I'm searching for an external storage device that I can use on my home network.

I'd like it to be machine independant!

It needs to be able to store documents for use by my Mac Mini and my PC.

Any suggestions?

Carl.

 

[SimonDavis]

There are quite a few external drive bays around that connect via ether firewire or USB2.

Depends whats on your PC I guess, but these are pretty simple, and will take any IDE hard drive.

I have one which works fine - I recycle all my old hard drives. My PC and my Mac both see it fine, and can swap files.

Just a tip though, if you don't have USB2, get a card. USB1 is way too slow to be a practical solution.

 

[Ogi]

Hi,

I've decided to chuck a 200Gb IDE drive into my Web Server that sits in the loft. It uses wireless and can be a bit slow but will do for what I want.

I'll replace the CDROM drive for a DVD re-writer and then write stuff to DVD for offline!

Think that sorts my data requirements out!

Thanks,
Carl.

 

[SimonDavis]

Sounds good to me!

 

[chiph]

There are a number of network-attached storage devices available (hint: seach on NAS). They generally work well, but are very expensive. As in: you could probably buy a cheap PC for much less.

So, that's what my recommendation would be: Buy a WalMart-grade PC, and put a big hard drive & DVD burner (for backups) in it, load FreeBSD with Samba on it, stick it in a closet and reboot it about once a quarter.

Chip H.


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[Ogi]

Hi,

I've got a Synology standalone device with a 300Gb drive in it.

For backups, I use a 80/160 VXA drive to take backups off site!

Works okay!

Carl.