Which usb 3.0 personal cloud do you recommend / use?

[Elho]

Here is the thing:

I have an external usb 3.0 harddisk drive that I use for backups and for Time Machine.

My partner also has an apple configuration but doesn't do backups (yet).

I want to use the external harddrive as our family cloud storage device, accessible from everywhere, easy to browse and share files with each other. The idea is that also both of us will use the HD as a Time Machine solution.

I was already looking at Pogoplugs Office solution (for 5 users) but are there any other solutions that we could use? It must have one or two USB 3.0 ports.

I think a real NAS would be overkill...

Thanks!

 

[magicMac]

the AirPort TimeCapsule allows backups to take place over the internet by enabling the "backtomymac" VPN function on it. you can add multiple appleIDs for backtomymac and if you have a good download speed at home (80Mbps+) then this could work quite well. However i've tried it and unless you have a really good upload speed on public wifi or other remote location, the actual backup process can be really slow even just for 100MB or so - seems to take a particularly long time to mount the time machine "sparsebundle" file.

If you want to carry on using the USB hard drive, you could plug it into an AirPort Extreme and do the same as above, but unfortunately apple haven't updated the airport base stations to support USB3.0 yet so there is a bottleneck there (60MByte/s theortical; 50MByte/s actual), although the internet connection is sure to be a bigger bottleneck (10MByte/s for 80Mbps download) plus any AFP and TCP overhead/window-size-increase for each file transfer.

Hope this helps a bit

Jonny

 

[Weaselboy]

I want to use the external harddrive as our family cloud storage device, accessible from everywhere, easy to browse and share files with each other. The idea is that also both of us will use the HD as a Time Machine solution.

Just leave the drive where it is attached to the Mini then install OS X Server ($20) on the Mini to add networked Time Machine support and you are all set.

Best thing is this is officially supported by Apple, so you don't have to worry about a software update breaking compatibility like with other solutions such as a NAS.

 

[Elho]

that's a good one!! thanks!

 

[blanka]

Buy an 1300U or Q1900 board (around 70 bucks including processor), install Debian linux and owncloud.org on it. Don't know why to use USB 3, the boards have USB3, you can also decase the drive and attach the drive to the board over SATA 6. You can also install owncloud on the Mini.

 

[Elho]

I could install owncloud on a raspberry pi or just on my mac mini too if i download the server software?

 

[DancyMunchkin]

I could install owncloud on a raspberry pi or just on my mac mini too if i download the server software?

If you install OSX Server you don't need owncloud or raspberry pi.

 

[Elho]

If you install OSX Server you don't need owncloud or raspberry pi.

Haha you are right... What was I thinking.

I found a way to install owncloud on a raspberry pi on instructables, seems like a fun little project.

Thanks for all the help

 

[talmy]

Just pointing out that a USB2 drive will saturate any Wifi, so you don't really need USB3. Of course with USB3 becoming the standard this is only a consideration if you have USB2 drives/equipment -- there is no need to upgrade.