Anyone using NAS (Network accessed storage) at home??

[FlyboySMB 0]

I am looking into adding an NAS device to my home network. For the main reason of a centralized backup location. Wondering if any of you have any experieance with these devices. We are running various flavors of WinXP on 3-4 computers.

Thanks,
Steve

[PhreeZone 15]

Yeah, I'm running 1 right now and would love to get a bigger one. It works great but I'm not using it for back ups since my data is larger then the NAS I have. I use mine for storing raw builds of software and as repositories for work projects and VM sessions.

Total storage in my house right now is approaching 3 terras, I'm currently looking at getting something like a 15-20u rack or cage to mount my rack mount equipment in to get it off the cheap storage tables its on now.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[MikeForsythe 0]

I am using a Buffalo 4.0 TB TaraStation Pro II. It has been 100% rock solid with no compatibility issue using multiple operating systems accessing it. I will probably get another one in December.

Time and pressure will always show you who a person really is!

[f1freak 0]

I'm also running a Buffalo Terastation Pro II 4.0TB NAS... Never a problem, I would recommend it to anyone.

HAVE FUN...
...JUST DONT DIE

[FlyboySMB 0]

Thanks for the feedback!

[Cloggy 1]

Have a look at www.smallnetbuilder.com . Lots of reviews and NAS performance charts.

[asmund 0]

I've been using the 2TB ReadyNAS NV for about two years now. First year it was on 24/7, but lately I just turn it on to watch a movie every other week or so. I've had no issues at all, and OS updates are easy. Great support forum anyway, and they're talking about "opening it up" so that we can run whatever software/server we want on it.

Very compact design, with a solid "military grade" feel to it.

www.readynas.com

I like subway.

[nathaniel 0]

Representing the low end I've got a Linksys NSLU2. I flashed the bootloader and put linux on it (per unslung) and use it as a low-power multifunction device including a 1 TB NAS.

133mhz is plenty for lots of things...its main role is an ad-filtering and caching web proxy. All for $100 + cost of external hdds to tack onto it.
I was going to use raid on it but between the USB bus, 100mb ethernet, raid and the 133mhz processor, the transfer rates sank down to 40 kb/s...

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[skiskyrock 0]

I've been using an apple airport extreme with a built in USB port to attach a USB hub. Right now I can access two printers and two drives over the network. I works seamlessly on the Mac, haven't tried the PC software yet. Great solution if your needs are basic.

[tkhayes 126]

I had mixed results - the one I bought said 'network attached' which it was, but it used the HTTP protocol, which limited file transfer sizes to 2GB or something stupid like that.

Which pretty much made it useless for backup since almost every video file is larger than that and it would just hangup and the application would die.

Eventually I sold it, but I still want and need one - now i do not know what I am looking for to overcome the stupid limitation.

Of course the box or product info did not say "BTW, you cannot transfer greater than a 2GB file on this..."

TK

[okalb 78]

You won't have that limitation with the Buffalo NAS devices, but I decided not to bother with any of that. I just took an older pc that I wasn't using, put a SATA RAID card in it, loaded it up with 2TB worth of drives and put it up on the network as a shared device. Problem solved
The other nice thing about the using the old PC is that I was able to put in a Gigabit network card rather than use the NAS which only does 100Mbit. I know you can buy NAS devices with GB, but they are waaaay more expensive.

Time flies like an arrow....fruit flies like a banana

[riddler 0]

I'm using the Iomega StorCenter, which is well worth the very low entry price (around $150). The nice thing about it is that it backs up my Window$, Mac and Linux boxes nightly.

Here's what sucks - if you want to restore data, then you have to do it in small amounts. There's no restore function - you have to use the windows drag-and-drop. If you try to grab a huge block of files that way, the network will crap out and lose it's attachment point. I'm currently trying to restore all the data from a 60-gig hard drive, and it's an endless task to take a few folders at a time. But at least all my data's there.

Hopefully, the higher-end models and newer models (some of them look really cool, with removable disks in arrays) have a better restore function.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[klafollette 0]

I currently just use an old Windows 2000 PC with two 400GB drives, mirrored in a RAID 1 array, then I share out folders for my various media storage needs, and nightly backup of PCs and laptops in the house (Using Acronis True Image).

If you're looking for a inexpensive 2 drive NAS, I've heard good things about the DLink one, but no direct experience with it. Here's link http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509

and review

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2091788,00.asp