ZyXEL NSA310 1-Bay NAS Media Server (With 500GB HDD) - €90.37 delivered [Dabs.ie]

SteM · 01-01-2013 01:29PM

Access wrote: »

No as it is in EXT 3 or 4 format... (linux format)

If you put it in a sata enclosure and plug it into a windows pc/laptop... it will ask you to format the drive (in other words windows wont read it at all)

There is also a chance that if you remove the drive from the unit and power the unit on again during the drive being out... that when you put the drive back into the unit it will want to reformat it.

I know this from experience over the past month!

Is your drive/zyxel giving you trouble?

Cheers for that. Yeah, the drive was working fine the night before last, got up the following morning and it was unreachable on the network and acting very strangely. It looked like it was in some sort of constant booting cycle. I thought I was going to loose all my files. I reset it this morning and lost all my setting but at least I have admin access back. Will have to look into an external esata drive for backups asap.

Access · 01-01-2013 05:46PM

SteM wrote: »

Cheers for that. Yeah, the drive was working fine the night before last, got up the following morning and it was unreachable on the network and acting very strangely. It looked like it was in some sort of constant booting cycle. I thought I was going to loose all my files. I reset it this morning and lost all my setting but at least I have admin access back. Will have to look into an external esata drive for backups asap.

Can you access your media on the zyxel or is it showing up at all now?

I would recommend to anyone who has a NSA310 a tip i was given by a member on here and also when i was on the phone to zyxel customer service in the UK when my zyxel failed and the internal drive went down (the zyxel forums are useless IMO, hence why i rang them instead)... Dont bother with a raid setup is what i was told... just have a spare NTFS (windows formatted) hard drive of the same storage amount or your internal hard drive attached (so if you have a 2TB in the zyxel, have a spare 2TB external usb hard drive plugged into the usb port or the esata port on the rear of the zyxel) and using the zyxel file browser, copy over everything to it whenever you want to backup.

I use a 3TB hard drive in an Icy box esata/usb enclosure for backup now. I backup using usb as i dont trust the esata connection to the zyxel (it has given me errors sometimes during file transfer)

Im currently doing a weekly backup... but will make that a fortnightly backup as i dont usually add much media onto it now.

The advantage of doing this is that if the Zyxel fails or the internal hard drive fails/goes down, you have a handy one to one mirror of all your media and files on an external usb hard drive ready that can run on any windows pc/laptop and can be used to transfer files back to the zyxel when you would get it back up and running.

Also, you dont need to create a volume of any sort in the zyxel for the external drive... it will just show up when plugged into the zyxel usb/esata port and like i say, using the file browser you can copy over all the media and files from your internal drive.

Just for reference, using the usb lead to my external drive, it takes about 10 hours approx to do a complete copy of the 900gb of media i have on the zyxel.

It does everything i want it to do and it was a brilliant price. But i have had it fail on my in a big way already and sometimes when i want to access it, it also seems unreachable on the network and acting very strangely every so often too.

Brilliant bit of kit, but it keeps me on tender-hooks every so often!

mp3ireland2 · 01-01-2013 08:52PM

Access wrote: »

No as it is in EXT 3 or 4 format... (linux format)

If you put it in a sata enclosure and plug it into a windows pc/laptop... it will ask you to format the drive (in other words windows wont read it at all)

There is also a chance that if you remove the drive from the unit and power the unit on again during the drive being out... that when you put the drive back into the unit it will want to reformat it.

I know this from experience over the past month!

Is your drive/zyxel giving you trouble?

Would installing linux on the pc and booting to that work?

Access · 01-01-2013 09:21PM

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

Would installing linux on the pc and booting to that work?

Yeah, but its messy IMO

SteM · 01-01-2013 11:43PM

Access wrote: »

Can you access your media on the zyxel or is it showing up at all now?

I would recommend to anyone who has a NSA310 a tip i was given by a member on here and also when i was on the phone to zyxel customer service in the UK when my zyxel failed and the internal drive went down (the zyxel forums are useless IMO, hence why i rang them instead)... Dont bother with a raid setup is what i was told... just have a spare NTFS (windows formatted) hard drive of the same storage amount or your internal hard drive attached (so if you have a 2TB in the zyxel, have a spare 2TB external usb hard drive plugged into the usb port or the esata port on the rear of the zyxel) and using the zyxel file browser, copy over everything to it whenever you want to backup.

I use a 3TB hard drive in an Icy box esata/usb enclosure for backup now. I backup using usb as i dont trust the esata connection to the zyxel (it has given me errors sometimes during file transfer)

Im currently doing a weekly backup... but will make that a fortnightly backup as i dont usually add much media onto it now.

The advantage of doing this is that if the Zyxel fails or the internal hard drive fails/goes down, you have a handy one to one mirror of all your media and files on an external usb hard drive ready that can run on any windows pc/laptop and can be used to transfer files back to the zyxel when you would get it back up and running.

Also, you dont need to create a volume of any sort in the zyxel for the external drive... it will just show up when plugged into the zyxel usb/esata port and like i say, using the file browser you can copy over all the media and files from your internal drive.

Just for reference, using the usb lead to my external drive, it takes about 10 hours approx to do a complete copy of the 900gb of media i have on the zyxel.

It does everything i want it to do and it was a brilliant price. But i have had it fail on my in a big way already and sometimes when i want to access it, it also seems unreachable on the network and acting very strangely every so often too.

Brilliant bit of kit, but it keeps me on tender-hooks every so often!

It's showing up now so I can access everything I need.

Cheers for the tip. So I can connect a spare external 2tb drive (which I have already) via USB and backup all of the files to it every few weeks, music one week and video the next. I need to set something up, I'm nervous having all my files in one place.

random.stranger · 02-01-2013 12:08AM

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

Would installing linux on the pc and booting to that work?

No need to install it, you could always run it from a live cd or usb.

WeleaseWoderick · 02-01-2013 10:15AM

What would be the fastest method of transferring all my files from an external hard disk to the NAS? Just connect by USB and copy & paste?

jArgHA · 02-01-2013 10:28AM

SteM wrote: »

..So I can connect a spare external 2tb drive (which I have already) via USB and backup all of the files to it every few weeks, music one week and video the next. I need to set something up, I'm nervous having all my files in one place.

Make sure you use the Zyxel file browser to back stuff up to the USB drive and do not do it through Windows Explorer. If you use Windows Explorer it will copy everything to your PC first, before copying back to the USB drive attached to NAS - needless to say this is a *lot* slower.

The Zyxel file browser is accessible through the internal webpage (http://your-nsa-ip-address) - then click on the icon that looks like a home symbol at top right, and then choose file browser from the menu on following page.

Access · 02-01-2013 11:07AM

jArgHA wrote: »

Make sure you use the Zyxel file browser to back stuff up to the USB drive and do not do it through Windows Explorer. If you use Windows Explorer it will copy everything to your PC first, before copying back to the USB drive attached to NAS - needless to say this is a *lot* slower.

Agree totally, using the zyxel file browser is the fastest way of doing it... files take seconds instead of minutes to transfer this way.

iPhone. · 05-01-2013 10:42AM

WeleaseWoderick wrote: »

What would be the fastest method of transferring all my files from an external hard disk to the NAS? Just connect by USB and copy & paste?

according to Zyxel support they recommend the following method

If you want to transfer a lot of data between the NAS and a PC
Attach the NAS to your router and switch on - let it get an IP address from your router.
Switch on PC and let it get an IP address from the router.
Disconnect the RJ45 patch cable at the PC.
Disconnect the RJ45 patch cable from the router that came from the NAS and reattach to the PC.
They will be then be able to see each other and transfer files, theoretically at Gigabit speeds if you have a gigabit network port in your pc to match the Gigabit port on the NSA310. (It will in practice though be much slower than Gigabit as the controller on the NSA310 isn't the fastest but still probably the 'fastest' transfer method of all other options.)

stephendevlin · 23-01-2013 12:22PM

Just got mine recently NSA310 and put a 3TB mainly for storage, have an external for backups. I have to say its working pretty good at the moment, anyone care to tell me how you install extra packages? Do I need to FTP them into a folder?

Basq · 23-01-2013 12:27PM

stephendevlin wrote: »

Just got mine recently NSA310 and put a 3TB mainly for storage, have an external for backups. I have to say its working pretty good at the moment, anyone care to tell me how you install extra packages? Do I need to FTP them into a folder?

Under the Admin Web interface..

See here on how to install Polkast to give you an indication of where to go.

stephendevlin · 23-01-2013 12:35PM

Basq wrote: »

Under the Admin Web interface..

See here on how to install Polkast to give you an indication of where to go.

Thanks Basq,

Sorry I should have been more clear. By extra packages I mean ones that are not on the list. Im hoping to install openvpn

There is no option on the web gui to do this

Access · 29-01-2013 05:26PM

Im with eircom at the mo, so my external router IP address keeps changing, (not willing to pay eircom €50 for a staic IP address) so no hope of logging in (say in work) and adding Torrent links to it...

But does anyone know if something like this is doable with the Zyxel?...

http://lifehacker.com/5175362/start-bittorrent-downloads-at-home-from-any-computer-with-dropbox

stephendevlin · 29-01-2013 05:55PM

Access wrote: »

Im with eircom at the mo, so my external router IP address keeps changing, (not willing to pay eircom €50 for a staic IP address) so no hope of logging in (say in work) and adding Torrent links to it...

But does anyone know if something like this is doable with the Zyxel?...

http://lifehacker.com/5175362/start-bittorrent-downloads-at-home-from-any-computer-with-dropbox

Google dydns you can use this as apposed to static ip

Basq · 29-01-2013 06:01PM

Access wrote: »

Im with eircom at the mo, so my external router IP address keeps changing, (not willing to pay eircom €50 for a staic IP address) so no hope of logging in (say in work) and adding Torrent links to it...

But does anyone know if something like this is doable with the Zyxel?...

http://lifehacker.com/5175362/start-bittorrent-downloads-at-home-from-any-computer-with-dropbox

Yeah, I had my NAS set up with NoIP on my old router.

However just installed a Sky Hub recently so need to reconfigure it for that.

Basically, port forward HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) traffic from your router to the IP address of the NAS.

All information on how to do so should be here!

mcgovern · 29-01-2013 10:29PM

Depending on what your router and the NAS supports, you could also try http://freedns.afraid.org/. I have it setup on Freenas and it works fine, good range of domains to choose from too.

M00lers · 07-02-2013 09:24AM

Hi,
I've a NSA325 for about a week and have been mostly happy with it but last night I thought I would organize my files and tidy up a bit.

I went into the File Browser on the Media Player and tried to move a folder to another location on the same drive. The NAS gave me the option of "copy" or "move".

I selected move and the folder I had selected to move AND the folder I was moving it to dissappeared:eek:. A right pain in the arse I lost about 80GB of movies/tv etc. I was ready to put my foot through it!!!:mad:

So my question is how can I move files around on the NAS without running the risk of this happening again? I can't be losing GBs of data while trying to organize my media!!!

Any 310/320/325 owners out there with a failsafe solution??

Thanks,
Moo

johnybean · 07-02-2013 09:46AM

Hey Moolers,

I have a NSA310 and I just have it set up as a Samba network share so I use my laptop to browse and organize files. I am using the NSA for fairly basic needs, have it up in the attic and have it networked to a Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc and its all through Samba without issue.

M00lers · 07-02-2013 09:52AM

johnybean wrote: »

Hey Moolers,

I have a NSA310 and I just have it set up as a Samba network share so I use my laptop to browse and organize files. I am using the NSA for fairly basic needs, have it up in the attic and have it networked to a Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc and its all through Samba without issue.

Cheers,
I would prefer to use Windows Explorer too but I noticed that its really slow to move folders even if only moving from a different location on the same drive. I have a feeling I'm missing something......but what?!

johnybean · 07-02-2013 10:03AM

moolers2000 wrote: »

Cheers,
I would prefer to use Windows Explorer too but I noticed that its really slow to move folders even if only moving from a different location on the same drive. I have a feeling I'm missing something......but what?!

To be honest, I just did one big transfer of my old stuff onto the NSA which took about a day and a half (500GB) and now I just tidy up on a regular basis so its only small transfers so I haven't noticed any real slow down but one of the other guys here might have a better idea of the technical side of things with regards to a different option to Samba as I stuck with it because it just works for me.
One thing that bugs me is that when using the built in torrent client to download stuff, the NSA keeps putting new stuff into a new folder within the folder I have specified e.g.
I select the folder I want to download the file to and instead of just downloading the file to the specified folder, it makes a new "incoming" folder and puts the file in there. Haven't figured out how to sort that out yet.

07-02-2013 10:35AM

moolers2000 wrote: »

Cheers,
I would prefer to use Windows Explorer too but I noticed that its really slow to move folders even if only moving from a different location on the same drive. I have a feeling I'm missing something......but what?!

Yeah, that will always be slow. The recommended way:

Go to http://<IP of NSA>, and log in as administrator
Go to "Shares" on the left-hand side
Select the share that you want to move files from, and click Share Browser at the top
Select the folder that you want to move and click "Move"
Select the share and path you want to move it to

M00lers · 07-02-2013 10:37AM

Yeah, it's a funny little thing. Full of little quirks. I'll get my head around it I'm sure.
I just don't understand why it just deleted folders without warning!!!

M00lers · 07-02-2013 10:40AM

28064212 wrote: »

Yeah, that will always be slow. The recommended way:
Go to http://<IP of NSA>, and log in as administrator

Go to "Shares" on the left-hand side

Select the share that you want to move files from, and click Share Browser at the top

Select the folder that you want to move and click "Move"

Select the share and path you want to move it to

Legend......:D.

Thanks for that!! Great info there.

WARNING TO ZYXEL NAS USERS: Dont use the File Browser in the Media Player to move files/folders!!!;)

stephendevlin · 07-02-2013 11:01AM

moolers2000 wrote: »

WARNING TO ZYXEL NAS USERS: Dont use the File Browser in the Media Player to move files/folders!!!;)

Why? It just doesnt delete folders. Your drive may be playing up as I have lost folders before due to disk errors on another NAS but got them back once I let windows 7 fix them. Have you tried to FTP to the box to see if the folder is there?

Was the folder on another usb connected to the box or on the same internal drive

M00lers · 07-02-2013 11:20AM

stephendevlin wrote: »

Why? It just doesnt delete folders.

It did just that, both folders (the from and to folders if you like) are completly gone!!

stephendevlin wrote: »

Your drive may be playing up as I have lost folders before due to disk errors on another NAS but got them back once I let windows 7 fix them. Have you tried to FTP to the box to see if the folder is there?
Was the folder on another usb connected to the box or on the same internal drive

Haven't FTPed to the NSA325 to check but the amount of storage used on the drive went down by approx 80GB which is equal to what I was copying and what was currently in that folder. I was moving from one folder to another on the same HDD.

Thanks for your reply Stephen but I'm certain I won't be using the same method to move folders ever again. Can't be taking the chance of random folders going missing.

CreepingDeath · 07-02-2013 11:43AM

moolers2000 wrote: »

I went into the File Browser on the Media Player and tried to move a folder to another location on the same drive. The NAS gave me the option of "copy" or "move".

I selected move and the folder I had selected to move AND the folder I was moving it to dissappeared:eek:. A right pain in the arse I lost about 80GB of movies/tv etc. I was ready to put my foot through it!!!:mad:

Are you sure
a) that it didn't move the folder to a different folder than the one you expected or
b) maybe there's permissions on the target folder, so they are there, but you can't see them?

I've an NAS325 myself, but I've only transferred my files to it so far through a painfully slow USB 2 connection.
Must pick up a cheap USB 3 external disk enclosure...

M00lers · 07-02-2013 11:54AM

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Are you sure
a) that it didn't move the folder to a different folder than the one you expected or --I haven't many folders on the NAS but I checked them all and no sign.
b) maybe there's permissions on the target folder, so they are there, but you can't see them?--Perhaps but my HDD capacity increased after the "move".

I've an NAS325 myself, but I've only transferred my files to it so far through a painfully slow USB 2 connection.
Must pick up a cheap USB 3 external disk enclosure...

I use a USB 3.0 HDD enclosure and it seems speedy enough while using the copy/sync button.

joe250 · 08-02-2013 11:27PM

HI

I have this and am trying to mount this on my Vu solo and vu duo with no luck.
Any get this working with enigma 2 receivers?

fergiesfolly · 13-02-2013 12:26AM

Has anyone here installed Serviio on the 310.
Was looking around the forums and general consensus was thats its a better option for streaming video. Was only bothered, because my Sony Bravia won't play video files from the nas and this was supposed to be a good workaround.
I, unfortunately havn't the skills or know how to go about installing it.
Anyone here been able to?

ZyXEL NSA310 1-Bay NAS Media Server (With 500GB HDD) - €90.37 delivered [Dabs.ie]

Comments