Griff Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I'm looking for a NAS drive for home use for storage and backups. I'm told a lot of the cheaper ones, despite their large disk size, are formatted in FAT32 and don't take kindly to reformatting to NTFS (lose their NAS capabilities etc). Has anyone got a NAS at home running an NTFS file system? Recommendations or "must avoid" appreciated... Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 Since I put on a bit of weight I think my trousers are formatted in "FAT32", I think the clothing manufacturers code it as "32S or "32R". Certainly I find that the old "30R" file storage system lacks sufficent capacity these days. 😳 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I use one of these Linksys NAS. It uses it's own format and is fine with Windoze and Mac OS X. Alicat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberts Wallet Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I have the Netgear SC101 which I'm very happy with now I have the latest drivers etc. It has its own file system and each pc that uses the drive required software installing. The drive is then seen as a local drive. It can have two drives installed (any size) and does mirroring so all you data is backed up etc. Gareth Blue and Carbon 6 Speed Supersport here Edited by - Gareth Harrold on 4 Jul 2007 19:45:37 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davef Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I prefered the Linksys NSLU2 over Netgear one, simply as the NSLU2 uses standard protocol (SMB/CIFS over TCP/IP) and doesn't require specific drivers installed on the client machines - thus it can be used by any OS that supports the protocol (eh which is just about all nowadays). Another plus, if you're so inclined, is that it can be hacked to run Linux..... Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesElliott Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 Has anyone found a good enclosure that takes SATA 2 drives? Preferably available without drives. These are IDE and custom protocols, not my sort of thing Charles --- My SuperGraduates 2006 diary My SuperGraduates 2005 diary, My Caterham Academy 2004 build and race diary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davef Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 NAS taking SATA. Not sure how much. Alternatively you can build your own. e.g. a mini itx case, mother board and a couple of drives, running Linux. Small, low power consumption, runs which ever protocols you want. Dave Edited by - davef on 4 Jul 2007 21:03:36 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griff Posted July 4, 2007 Author Share Posted July 4, 2007 Good food for thought. I have a spare Maxtor 80GB drive which I can raid for the disk on the SC101 or use as is on the NSLU2. Cheers all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alextangent Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 If you're enough of a techie and can handle Solaris running Samba, take a cheapo box and run ZFS as the file system. Unburstable; will remain consistent even if the box powers off during I/O, and if you run RAID-Z on two or more disks you can even destroy a disk without data loss. Alex McDonald A loud 1700 SS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griff Posted July 5, 2007 Author Share Posted July 5, 2007 Thanks Alex - my techie abilities with computers stretch to basic networking with Windows. I might manage the odd firmware upgrade but the rest is another language I leave to others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberts Wallet Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 According to my PC the Netgear drive is ZFS Gareth Blue and Carbon 6 Speed Supersport here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alextangent Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 The Netgear is running z-san (the protocol) and z-fs (the filesystem) from zetera; it's a proprietary and different file system from Sun's ZFS. As confusing as owning a 7. 😬 ZFS (SUN's fs) is much better than any other solution out there for home use. For instance, Mac OSX is due to have ZFS as its default file system. Described here for the propeller heads. But, if you don't want to run Solaris or a Mac, a bit difficult... NAS running NTFS drives (to answer your original question) is not common for home use, as it normally needs a Windows box to support the drives in that format (NTFS is Microsoft's proprietary), and to be quite honest, Windows/NTFS isn't really that great a combination for home use; do you really want to pay for and run what is effectively a server just to get some Windows file shares? I'd go down the route of the Netgear or somesuch if your tech ability is low; but be aware of the limitations; read the reviews like this one. They're not really NAS boxes, btw, more like mini-SANs as most of them present what look like drives to your system, rather than file shares. Not all of them like all drives either, so check before you buy what drives you are going pop into these boxes. Disclaimer; I work in the storage industry. Alex McDonald A loud 1700 SS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesElliott Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 Yes, I'm enough of a techie and can handle Solaris running Samba - but I've yet to find a nice enclosure and I don't want another 'PC' in the room. Charles --- My SuperGraduates 2006 diary My SuperGraduates 2005 diary, My Caterham Academy 2004 build and race diary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom_C Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 How about one of these Charles? here I've just built a HTPC round one, and with an upgraded CPU cooler it really isn't noticably loud, and looks like a bit of hifi gear. Only snag I've found is that the mobo I chose puts the CPU very close to the case side, so the upgraded cooler clashed with the exhaust fan. BTW please give generously to Bundle's Big Charity Walk for Asthma research here Ta. Cheers Tom FH54WLX see here - UPDATED again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesElliott Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 Mmm, I've been looking at this here Charles --- My SuperGraduates 2006 diary My SuperGraduates 2005 diary, My Caterham Academy 2004 build and race diary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Ford Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 Just how many terrabytes do you need, Charlie? You trying to store uncompressed versions of every race video you've ever shot or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesElliott Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 I probably need about 1Tb right now, but I want the scope to expand. RAID isn't of amazing interest but a chassis with two drives limits the scope for upgrades etc. Four drives makes things a lot more flexible. I already have ~800Gb of data (yes, a lot of race videos!) I'd actually prefer to buy chassis only and add my own drives - and the one I linked to offers that. Charles --- My SuperGraduates 2006 diary My SuperGraduates 2005 diary, My Caterham Academy 2004 build and race diary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gridgway Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 I have the Peter Carmichael built NAS - it's excellent. He should be along soon! Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesElliott Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Where are you Peter? Charles --- My SuperGraduates 2006 diary My SuperGraduates 2005 diary, My Caterham Academy 2004 build and race diary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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