Network Attached Storage

[Intern]

Hi, I was wondering about making a Network Attached Storage(NAS). Its the device where you can connect the harddrive to a router, and al computers in that network have access to without any drivers. Just wondering if anyone has had experience with one or know places to buy one from.

Thanks

[man_utd]

Well, are you looking for more of a SAN, or what? What are you trying to store, and what are your needs?

[Intern]

I'll most likely be using it to store video files, like my brothers short films and my anime.
I don't really know what you meant by SAN. As for size, I need something meaty. Somwhere around the 250+gb.

[JCLW]

Do you want it to be redundant? ie: Do want multiple drives set up so that if one fails you won't lose any data?

[man_utd]

SAN=Storage Area Network, which is usually hard drives. Mot people who do NAS use it for backup with CD towers.

[Intern]

Ah, so I am looking for SAN then, it doesnt have to be redundant. Just need a hardrive-like device that cna plug into a network and be able to be accessed by all the computers there. And that can easily be disconnected.

[JCLW]

How about a regular hard disk in a USB enclosure? Just share it on whatever computer its plugged into.

[man_utd]

sdaf, actually you were right, NAS is a subset of SAN, but what you would like is NAS. Currently I'm looking for a linux based software for it, since the other options are quite expensive.

[Intern]

How about a regular hard disk in a USB enclosure? Just share it on whatever computer its plugged into.

That's what I was thinking too but that would mean the computer with the harddrive enclosure has to be on 24/7. What I'm looking for is something that is connected to the router so It can be accessed just by connecting to the network. Hopefully the costs won't be too much.

[thinksnow]

Count me in on this, too. I was going to set up a Server 2000 or 2003 tonight, but if I could get a linux SAN/NAS setup instead, that'd be much more what I need to feed my htpc front-ends.

[dark_15]

Is this what you are looking for?

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/storage.php

As long as you are not trying to connect to a domain, they're pretty solid.

[thinksnow]

I'm not the OP, but I'd rather have something I can build myself...I've certainly got the equipment for it.

[Intern]

Nice that is exactly what I'm looking for, and the pricing is not too bad considering how useful it is to me. I'm with thinksnow about building it as well.

[DaWiper]

Am I missing something? Why get something like that when all you need is a spare rig, a couple of harddrives and a linux distro running samba. That way you have a network storage available to anyone and speed enough to watch your movies on the fly from the server. I use a old pII-300 as a file server. I can play my music and watch my movies from all the other machines on the network regardless of their OS.

[rxtrom]

Has anyone ever built something to house HDs and connect them to a cheap server computer.
The computer i was thinking of using for my File server does not have enough space in the case for 8+ hds
Rather than buying a case just for the hds I wanted to make something with fans for the HDs.
Anyone have experiece with that, what was the result of the thread starter?

[thor17usa]

Your best best might be to get a cheap case with like a 450W or 500W PSU. You can easily find cheap cases that hold like 10 or more drives; that's what I did for my server. Then I just loaded it up with 7 hard drives and a cd-rom (just for loading the OS) and I was all setup. I have over 500GB in my server right now, but I am use that I will start trading in my smaller drives for larger ones.

Checkout newegg.com for some cheap cases. Just make sure it has good airflow from the front and out the case, especially if your are going to be loading in a lot of drives like me.