Network hard drive

no1beemerfan

Hi, hopefully I'm in the right forum if not mods please move!

I want to be able to have a harddrive connected to my internet router that I can access anywhere in the world.....my ultimate aim is to have everything stored on it and have the laptop empty so if its lost/stolen when abroad etc I can still access my info.

Is it possible (I presume it is!) to do this and if so whats involved?

Cheers!

dpmurray

what you're looking for is Network Attached Storage (NAS), you can spend as little or as much as you like, anything from €150 to '000s.

I took the plunge about a year ago and got one of these:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/netgear-readynas-nv--4-bay-gigabit-desktop-network-storage-nas-4PG4.html

seems like a lot to pay (cost about 500 including 4 x 1tb hard drives) but it works perfect. Been on 24x7 and never any problems. I did a lot of research before finally buying and looked at a lot of options.

DLink do a few decent ones between 150-400 euro, but from a lot of time spent researching the readnas nv+ seemed the best option and most reliable.

Hope this helps

no1beemerfan

Cheers for that dpmurray. I have to buy the hard drives I take it....would you need four? Or are they seperate drives for different users or would I need two for raid?

dpmurray

no worries.

theres a few different configurations for RAID-google it for more info. there are 5 types(from memory) but the one that's designed by netgear and reccommended for the readynas line is called X-RAID. The main advantage is its much faster and provides full redundancy for your data - more details here http://www.readynas.com/?cat=54

You can use 1-4 drives. One drive will have no backup. With 2 you will mirror etc. You can use different sizes of harddrive within it- but if your using xraid you'll be limited to the size of the smallest drive.

tbh - i'd reccommend you read the info on the netgear site - or even wikipedia it in case theres another product (eg by dlink etc) that you'd prefer to use.

I found the x raid very easy to setup- bought 4 1tb drives (check for compatibility) i used 4 seagates that they reccomend. Then popped them in, let them sync( bearing in mind this took me about 14 hours the first time) and one thats done you can use the RAIDAR software to setup on your pc. It supports gigabit networking and i get a steady read write speed of 30MB/sec - enough to handle 4-5 HD streams at once over ethernet gigabit network. Also - if you're thinking of having this on all the time i'd reccomend getting a power supply - it'll power the system down in case of electicity crsah etc and is better than a power protection strip.
i got this one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-UPS-CS-350-USB-Serial/dp/B00006BBIK/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1284476504&sr=1-4

I realise this all might seem like a lot of cash - but once it was up and running I didn't need to touch it - other than the occasional power down.

Justto mention - they have other NAS products (cheaper and more expensive) which you might consider. As I said, from research they seem to be the best in this price bracket.

no1beemerfan

Thanks for taking the time to reply with the info that you supplied. Appreciate it!

JDxtra

Some routers, such as the Netgear WNDR3700, allow you to connect a USB drive directly. This would mean a simpler setup (no extra NAS) but it may not be as feature rich as a dedicated device.

Or... use the cloud. Store all your Word/Excel docs with Google Documents - or use a service like Dropbox to host any file.

Rick Deckard

This is what I bought in PC world for €120 a couple of months back (1tb).. neat little thing, about the size of a wii..

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=586

Ethernet into one of the ports on your wireless router and you're set.

(also has a bit torrent client built in, so you can d/l while your laptops are off)

hearny

This is an excellent NAS box, you need to buy the drives seperately but my setup uses 2 x 1.5 TB Hard drives set up in RAID 1 which mirrors the drive so the everything is duplicated. If one dies you can just replace it and all the data will be copied onto the new one.

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/11_HDD/08_NAS/productdetails/15341616/D_Link_DNS_323_2_Bay_Network_Storage_Enclosure_/DNS_323/default.aspx

2 x 1.5TB Hard Drives from komplett here:

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/11_HDD/07_INTHD35/productdetails/20001393/Seagate_Barracuda_7200_11_Hard_drive_1_5_TB_/ST31500341AS/default.aspx

The box includes a upnp media server, itunes server, bittorrent client and you can set up Dynamic DNS so you can access the drive from anywhere.

Needless to say the speed is going to be much slower connecting over the internet.