Networked Storage Options
For a while I’ve been looking for a network-attached hard drive: something that the notebook or desktop computer can access, as a place to share and backup files. There are many single-drive NAS devices available for low-cost, but they offer no data redundancy (ADS NAS drive kit). There are also several products that offer drive redundancy through RAID 1 or 5, but they’re quite expensive (Buffalo TeraStation). For general documents—but especially photos—I want a RAID system that will offer redundancy.
I recently stumbled across a product that might be a good mid-way point: the Netgear Storage Central SC101. It’s a network-attached storage device with spots for two drives, offering mirrored redundancy. It’s not too expensive, and it gets generally favorable reviews. It might be a good solution. Are there any direct competitors to this product?
Comment from martin rudolfson on October 12, 2007 at 7:17 AM
Hi! I was in a similar situation, but luck handed an Apple Cube my way. An external FWdrive case, that has to be hidden. And heres the thing. The silent cube sits proudly and looking cool. In our living room, not hidden at all. (but the external HD box is) I was a bit hesitant to get started. Thinking learning *nix-style, but... It turned out thet OSX has all of these servises like raid and such built in checkbox style. I control it through VNC and SSH. No other istallations have I done besides what came with an OSX install I bought second hand. Yet we find ever more uses for it. It Plays music to our stereo, it has been tested to play Film-dvds and it works though its position is not ideal for putting disks in and out. Even tried it to netboot a friends powerbook. Took half a days following of web-tutorials. No install needed.
Jolly Good!
MR