Satan
Discoverer
It's time for another bout with NAS!
For the last 1 year I've been looking at several options, but at the end of the day there are 2 deterrents that have always caused me to re-think my implementation.
1) Any reliable NAS box that is capable of hosting more than 1 drive is in excess of $300.00 and that is without the HDDs.
2) None of them can obviously support NTFS write.
Since I am primarily an NTFS user at home, like most people , I cringe at the thought of formatting my drives as EXT3 / XFS or any other form of NFS.
Should something go wrong, it would be a humungous pain trying to recover data from non-NTFS / FAT file systems (considering I'm not a Linux user).
What else can I do?
1) Go with FreeNAS (Cheaper alternative to buying a $300 box, but then again no NTFS write support)
2) Set aside an old PC running XP and have it serve as a NTFS-NAS (Unfortunately it's BIG, Clunky and takes up too much power for my taste. The whole point of a Home NAS is that it is inconspicuous and isn't a monster power drain.)
So here are my final thoughts for which I need your help and feasibility suggestions.
1) Buy an old laptop, instal XP on it and hook up a bunch of Drives to it.
2) Some sort of a thin client casing which can house all the drives + decent cooling solution.
3) Is there any minimal install of XP that you are all aware of that can be installed on some sort of a micro device with USB ports and a gigabit lan adapter?
Looking forward to your insights.
Also, how badly is an HDDs life affected if it is running 24/7?
Are power management features available on external drives that work via USB? I have a Vantec Nextar Drive Dock and the HDD's never power down on that. Come to think of it, I've never had an external casing that has had the ability to power down a drive after extended periods of inactivity.
For the last 1 year I've been looking at several options, but at the end of the day there are 2 deterrents that have always caused me to re-think my implementation.
1) Any reliable NAS box that is capable of hosting more than 1 drive is in excess of $300.00 and that is without the HDDs.
2) None of them can obviously support NTFS write.
Since I am primarily an NTFS user at home, like most people , I cringe at the thought of formatting my drives as EXT3 / XFS or any other form of NFS.
Should something go wrong, it would be a humungous pain trying to recover data from non-NTFS / FAT file systems (considering I'm not a Linux user).
What else can I do?
1) Go with FreeNAS (Cheaper alternative to buying a $300 box, but then again no NTFS write support)
2) Set aside an old PC running XP and have it serve as a NTFS-NAS (Unfortunately it's BIG, Clunky and takes up too much power for my taste. The whole point of a Home NAS is that it is inconspicuous and isn't a monster power drain.)
So here are my final thoughts for which I need your help and feasibility suggestions.
1) Buy an old laptop, instal XP on it and hook up a bunch of Drives to it.
2) Some sort of a thin client casing which can house all the drives + decent cooling solution.
3) Is there any minimal install of XP that you are all aware of that can be installed on some sort of a micro device with USB ports and a gigabit lan adapter?
Looking forward to your insights.
Also, how badly is an HDDs life affected if it is running 24/7?
Are power management features available on external drives that work via USB? I have a Vantec Nextar Drive Dock and the HDD's never power down on that. Come to think of it, I've never had an external casing that has had the ability to power down a drive after extended periods of inactivity.
