i'm soon to be getting a Mac Mini to be used as a HTPC but due to the small size of the HDD i've decided to go down the NAS route to be able to store all the media and also have it accessible from any of the other computers in the house (iMac, iBook and a windows laptop). does anyone have any recommendations on good NAS drives? Realistically i'm looking at 2tb or more but could only really afford to spend up to £250-300 and also need it to be compatible with both my macs and the family's windows machine which i'm presuming just means formatting it as FAT32 unless there's any alternatives.
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advice on network drive options
- Thread starter steezy1337
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I don't have any specific device recommendations for you, but do have some things for you to think about. First, recognize that if you store everything centrally on the NAS, that you need to also consider backups of that data. Having all that data centralized is great, but it also makes it extremely vulnerable.
Another option that you may not have considered, is just sharing a drive from one of the existing computers. This can be an internal or external drive, or just a partition or even just a folder on one of those computers. Of course, the computer that shares the data has to be turned on in order for that share to be available.
Fortunately when sharing over the network, file system doesn't matter, so you will want to use one that supports files bigger than 4GB (not FAT32). The network protocol takes care of making that file system commonly available.
Another option that you may not have considered, is just sharing a drive from one of the existing computers. This can be an internal or external drive, or just a partition or even just a folder on one of those computers. Of course, the computer that shares the data has to be turned on in order for that share to be available.
Fortunately when sharing over the network, file system doesn't matter, so you will want to use one that supports files bigger than 4GB (not FAT32). The network protocol takes care of making that file system commonly available.
i figured i'd have to have a back up somehow, so i decided that i would use my 1tb HDD that i've got connected to my mac as a backup along with another drive added to that at a future point as i wouldn't need such a large drive for my iMac once all the media is being stored elsewhere.
also the reason i'm wanting to go down the NAS route is that i don't like leaving my mac on 24/7, i usually watch movies etc. at night before i go to sleep so i'd like to have a Mac Mini that will be used solely for this reason so that i can sleep my iMac overnight.