Network drive

robinph

I'm in need of more external drive space as it's always running out, ideally I'd like to have it accessible via my network rather than having to connect the USB drives directly to the laptop all the time. I noticed that there are now USB hub type deivces that you can connect to your router, such as this from Linksys so was thinking that I could plug my existing external drive into that and get another one to go alongside it. I'm guessing there is a limit to how many USB drives that you can hang of these hubs though, are you limited to just two drives and is there a limit to the drive size that a hub such as that would handle?

Or would I be better getting a new larger drive that has it's own network connection built in such as this? But I've noticed that a few of these larger drives have comments about them not working too well with Vista.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

If you could get your hands on an old PC (they go up on adverts.ie all the time), buy your choice of hard drives and stick them in, you could use linux to set up a network drive via samba which would be ideal.

It's a bit more hands on than the NAS you have linked to but you shouldn't have any compatibility issues.

Stephen

That solution will probably cost more in the long run due to energy consumption though.

ressem

Just be aware that many of these use Linux as the OS on the device. So if you plug in an external drive currently formatted as NTFS, it may require you to backup your existing data and then format the USB connected drive as EXT2 or FAT using the hub's interface before it can be used.

That was the case with the earlier version of
http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/network-storage/linkstation/linkstation-pro/
which I bought.
(Wasn't a problem for me, and the device is really useful.)

robinph

I just spotted this Maxtor on both the Maplins and PCWorld sites for £299 for the 1TB version. Neither of them have .ie sites though so quite what price that will translate to in Euros has yet to be seen but think I'll pop in and see if they actually have that one in stock later on..

kc66

robinph wrote: »

I just spotted this Maxtor on both the Maplins and PCWorld sites for £299 for the 1TB version. Neither of them have .ie sites though so quite what price that will translate to in Euros has yet to be seen but think I'll pop in and see if they actually have that one in stock later on..

That is €279 on dabs. Good price.
http://www.dabs.ie/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4HN3&CategorySelectedId=11157&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11157,47630000&InMerch=1

555guy

I have a Netgear SC101 that i bought from ebay .. takes two HDD of any size and is network attahced.. works brilliantly and setup in minutes, you just need the netgear app installed on all machines that use the drive.

jabaroon

555guy wrote: »

you just need the netgear app installed on all machines that use the drive.

I had one of these and frankly got rid of it almost instantly once I realised you had to have specific software installed on any PC accessing the device. In my opinion that completely defeats the purpose of a NAS device!

Just my 2c.

Jab

robinph

I eventually got the WD MyBook World 1TB drive from PCWorld for €320. They had the Maxtor one listed in Maplins prices but for €500 which is a fair bit of a markup from the UK price so I didn't even bother asking if they had one in stock. The WD one has one less USB port for connecting external drives but it does have a remote ftp access option as well, although I've not got as far as getting that working yet.