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NAS recommendation, Yes another NAS thread!

Gillbot

Gillbot

Lifer
Ok, i'd like a NAS appliance (no, i'm not gonna build one) and my main requirements are:
HDD Mirroring (yes, false sense of security but more on this later)
NO DRIVERS/SOFTWARE, I'd prefer to access it like a windows shared folder
HDD Power Down for saving disk life

My main reason is my wife and I access our music shares to update/edit them but we'd like a centralized place to keep them stored. She keeps a copy on her system and the other backup would be on this NAS. (Hence the reason mirroring is an OK form of protection.) I don't need to keep a copy on my system as I like to keep my HDD as clean as possible for work and space reasons. Currently our shares are stored on my system and she can't access them if my computer isn't on. I also have a backup copy on a USB backup disk but once again, that's hooked to my system.

Are there any NAS appliances out there that support easy shares like a windows shared folder without the need for extra software/drivers? I'm even flexible on the mirroring requirement!
 
No decent NAS is going to require a extra software or drivers, provided you use Windows XP, Windows Vista, or a recent version of Mac OSX.

I now have the $180 Buffalo Linkstation Pro 250Gb which is easy to use, relatively quiet, and delivers excellent price/performance. It doesn't support HD mirroring, but it does allow you to backup to other drives, including other Linkstation Pros. For mirroring capability, you've got to spend a bit more and may sacrifice some usability and/or performance.

The Infrant ReadyNAS NV costs about 4x as much, but does what you want with a reasonable level of usability. It does lack in performance, especially for the price, though.

You can see benchmarks of most popular NAS solutions here:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190

If you've using an old router, you may want to consider a new router with gigabit ethernet like the D-Link DIR-655 ($99 from Frys.com) to go along with your new NAS.

 
Speed isn't that important but price is.
I was thinking about the Netgear SC101 but alot of people are split on the reviews.
 
Im using the DLink DNS323

small, fairly quiet, mostly aluminum, raid 0 or 1, configured via web interface (no software needed), 10/100/1000 connection and the spin down time is adjustable.

been using it for a few months ...no problems, wife even likes it

(just a note that it takes a few (5-10) seconds to access folders once the drives have spun down and have to spin back up)
 
Originally posted by: DrGreen2007
Im using the DLink DNS323

small, fairly quiet, mostly aluminum, raid 0 or 1, configured via web interface (no software needed), 10/100/1000 connection and the spin down time is adjustable.

been using it for a few months ...no problems, wife even likes it

(just a note that it takes a few (5-10) seconds to access folders once the drives have spun down and have to spin back up)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up!

I may have to look into that one. My main concern is longevity and price, speed doesn't matter since the wife will be accessing it via wifi and once the data is on there, it won't be heavily modified or accessed. It will just be a centralized storage place for all our media.
 
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