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    NAS drive shopping ....

    Discussion in 'Accessories' started by zero7404, Jul 31, 2011.

  1. zero7404

    zero7404 Notebook Deity

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    i am looking at the 2 major brands of HDD manufacturer's NAS drive offerings. Seagate, WD both offer external NAS drives to connect to my router.

    i am interested in buying one, but it doesn't look like these drives can offer up a simple HDD-style interface once connected to the network.

    from what i understand an NAS has it's on OS that manages the file system. that's what a user interacts with when accessing the drive over the network.

    are there any NAS systems that allow me to simply access/view the drive as what it is over the network ? for example, once installed, it would appear as a drive in windows explorer, and i would be free to create my own folders and sort information on it any way i want ....
     
    zero7404, Jul 31, 2011
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  2. paper_wastage

    paper_wastage Beat this 7x7x7 Cube

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    i believe most NAS will allow you to set up SAMBA/NFS shares, where you can just log in via Windows Explorer and treat it like a regular folder
     
    paper_wastage, Jul 31, 2011
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  3. SoundOf1HandClapping

    SoundOf1HandClapping Was once a Forge

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    My D-Link DNS-321 did just that. I sat connected to the router, and after some formatting it was viewable as any old network drive. Could also do some interesting things with some tweaking, like torrents.

    But then I built a proper server and the little guy is there collecting dust.
     
    SoundOf1HandClapping, Jul 31, 2011
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  4. zero7404

    zero7404 Notebook Deity

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    thanks for the replies ...

    i am thinking the latest offerings by seagate and wd aren't quite ready for prime-time, they have their own processors/ram and software, which can interfere with the streaming of large files, like HD movies in 1920x1080.

    not sure if it's possible to actually reformat the drives considering they are mini-servers with their own OS.

    they do offer some cool features, like access to the drive from the outside (android, over the web, etc.) but then i haven't addressed how security is handled with the data transfer. it also relies only on the router's firewall for intrusion prevention.
     
    zero7404, Jul 31, 2011
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  5. zero7404

    zero7404 Notebook Deity

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    has anyone used iomega's NAS yet ?
    it's got a lot of features but not sure about it's speed ....

    i plan on getting an NAS to serve 2 laptops and a PS3, for music/photos and HD movies (mp4)

    i'm looking for something that will work well for me, i don't necessarily want to install any software on the laptops, if i could just open folders on the drive via a windows explorer window, and click a file to play/view via the programs i've got (itunes/wmp/vlc), that works for me.

    so what i'm looking for is the functionality of a basic HDD within windows, but connected and accessible from my router.
     
    zero7404, Aug 1, 2011
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