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network drive?

C

css136

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 10, 2008
51
0
Hi everyone,

I am looking to buy a harddrive that I can share over a network. I don't want the harddrive to be attached to any specific computer, since this would require that computer to be on the network at all times.

What i am looking for is just something to share things over (eg music, movies, applications). Anybody connected to the network can mount the drive and then access it as if they were physically connected to it.

The thing I am worried about is transfer speed since I've used a USB drive before and transfer speeds are rather slow. Would it be faster to use a drive that connects directly to a router (rather than one that connects to a router through USB?)

Then finally I don't want this to be very expensive (of course)... it would be cool if I could run linux or mac osx on it. And then of course it would be nice if I could use part of it as backup. I think 1 TB capacity would be enough and I am looking to spend 100-200 USD.

Is there anything like this that's available right now? It would be useful if, e.g. when any computer downloads a media file (like mp3) they can just save it straight to the harddrive, so that we have 1 central storage place for our music libraries, etc.

Thanks for the help! I've done some reading on this already but I am still not sure what is the best solution.
 
Then, a little more complicated.. would it be possible to get this running with XGRID, so that I can run applications directly on the harddrive and have the processes distributed across the computers that are connected to the network? This would be really cool but I'm afraid it would be too complicated, so I might just go for the storage solution right now... thanks :)
 
css136 said:
Then, a little more complicated.. would it be possible to get this running with XGRID, so that I can run applications directly on the harddrive and have the processes distributed across the computers that are connected to the network? This would be really cool but I'm afraid it would be too complicated, so I might just go for the storage solution right now... thanks :)
Click to expand...

It sounds like what you want to do here requires a computer. Harddrive that hook up to a router are not really computers they are NAS.

I have a usb drive connected to my Airport extreme base station. The speed in not great but it does work for itunes. Anything NS is going to be slow that what you trade off for the connivence.
Good Luck Let us know what you decide on.
 
Hi everyone, thanks for the suggestions. You are right - Network Attached Storage is exactly what I am looking for (the xgrid idea will just have to wait, lol)

I think I will end up going with something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165075

dual 500GB drives + the option to attach a USB drive, gigabit ethernet connection, and its not USB so I think transfer speeds will be faster.

If i had an extra computer lying around, I think I would consider making it into some kind of server (so I could actually run applications on the machine)-- but with this setup, I am perfectly happy.

If anybody finds this thread in a google search, I should just mention that one other solution I came across is a Network Attached Enclosure. It is a little more flexible (and more expensive)- but some of them have built-in FTP servers, which might be what you are looking for. For the models I looked at, you will need to buy additional drives. (Also, I read that some ISPs don't like you running a server from your house? So you might want to check into this)

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I appreciate it :)
 
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