So I've been lurking these forums for a while before I made the plunge this morning and bought my first mac! My next step for my home network will be to add a NAS. My intent is to share pictures, music, videos, and backups all on this NAS. I've got a few questions that I'm sure you all will be able to answer for me. I just want to make sure that I will actually be able to do what it is that I want to do.
First, here is the hardware I'm looking at getting: Synology DS211j and two Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5 TB drives running RAID 1.
The NAS will be accessed by my new Mac (and future Macs?) as well as Windows machines. Ideally, I'd like to store all of my music on there in order to stream to all the machines. I have always detested iTunes; I've used Winamp since it was first released in 1997. However, that will no longer be an option for me since Winamp isn't support on Mac. I guess I'm stuck with iTunes...at least with my Mac. The Synology has a built in iTunes server, so I don't really foresee any problems with that, but I'd just like to verify with you folks.
As for my photos, I've been reading a bit about how iPhoto manages things and the difference between a managed and a referenced library. My understanding is basically that I can have all my pictures on the NAS as a referenced library, but a managed library is out of the question, which really negates a lot of the great things you can do with iPhoto. Is there a workaround for this, am I understanding it correctly, or am I off base entirely?
As for the format of the NAS drives, it obviously needs to be accessed by both Windows and Mac machines, so how should I format the drives in order to and ensure compatibility and maximize efficiency?
I know this has been written about pretty extensively on these forums before, but nevertheless I'd like to make sure I get the most up-to-date information available as it pertains to my particular situation. Thanks in advance!
First, here is the hardware I'm looking at getting: Synology DS211j and two Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5 TB drives running RAID 1.
The NAS will be accessed by my new Mac (and future Macs?) as well as Windows machines. Ideally, I'd like to store all of my music on there in order to stream to all the machines. I have always detested iTunes; I've used Winamp since it was first released in 1997. However, that will no longer be an option for me since Winamp isn't support on Mac. I guess I'm stuck with iTunes...at least with my Mac. The Synology has a built in iTunes server, so I don't really foresee any problems with that, but I'd just like to verify with you folks.
As for my photos, I've been reading a bit about how iPhoto manages things and the difference between a managed and a referenced library. My understanding is basically that I can have all my pictures on the NAS as a referenced library, but a managed library is out of the question, which really negates a lot of the great things you can do with iPhoto. Is there a workaround for this, am I understanding it correctly, or am I off base entirely?
As for the format of the NAS drives, it obviously needs to be accessed by both Windows and Mac machines, so how should I format the drives in order to and ensure compatibility and maximize efficiency?
I know this has been written about pretty extensively on these forums before, but nevertheless I'd like to make sure I get the most up-to-date information available as it pertains to my particular situation. Thanks in advance!