External Storage

[Supergrover]

Okay it looks like I am in the market for a external hdd to store my images and mp3's. Movies I burn to disc, so what would work best for me, it would have to be hooked into my home network, 3 computers,and @ least 500g I would say. After I forgot to get some of the old ladys images off my hdd before I formated I have been told "this better not happen agin or else" I dont really want to find out what else means. ;)
Total nuub on external storage here my answer is usally to bag another drive but there has to be something that would fit me to a T here.
Point me in a direction here boys.
Thanks Grover

[enaberif]

vantec + 500gb hard drive shared from a computer

[sswilson]

Vantec has a network external drive case that might fit the bill.

Not a full NAS, but it sounds like you just need a drive that will plug into the router.

If you have some old gear kicking around, you could build yourself a cheap linux file server, but that's a bit of overkill for what you need.

[Supergrover]

This was what I was thinking actually but since I have never had a huge need for it , I never really researched them. I want to keep it pretty simple as then the wife can acsess it np.
I am asuming that I would be able to transfer directly from my camara to the drive with out any rigamroll

[3oh6]

yeah, i would recommend getting a basic NAS and plugging it into your network. there isn't a whole lot more to it than that. you can then access the drive through the network neighborhood or if there is a specific folder on the drive you want accessed extremely easy, map it as a drive on which ever machine will be using it.

for example. create a 'photos' folder on the drive and map it to the computer your camera dumps to. then it simply looks like another hard drive with whatever drive letter you chose it to have. doesn't get much easier than that. HTH

[Supergrover]

Originally Posted by 3oh6

yeah, i would recommend getting a basic NAS and plugging it into your network. there isn't a whole lot more to it than that. you can then access the drive through the network neighborhood or if there is a specific folder on the drive you want accessed extremely easy, map it as a drive on which ever machine will be using it.

for example. create a 'photos' folder on the drive and map it to the computer your camera dumps to. then it simply looks like another hard drive with whatever drive letter you chose it to have. doesn't get much easier than that. HTH

Cool didnt know if it need some sort of 3rd party software, it just setsup like a networked drive then, thats easy as pie, i had a 80g in her rig setup like that for awhile until it moved to greener pasture's

[pscout]

I like raid 1 or 5 for such stuff.

I have a constantly growing "D" data drive which i have moved from raid 1 on last rig to raid 5 now.

Data drives don't get formated around here ... only c: drives.

If you store everything on a single drive and it fails, you might find out what else means! So if you go the NAS route don't forget raid.

[JD]

I've been meaning to do something like this for ages, but never had any extra cash to do it.

Definitely get something with RAID1. Only way to be sure that the data isn't going anywhere for a while.

Those new Windows Home Servers or whatever look interesting. Not sure if it's out yet though.

[Supergrover]

Originally Posted by pscout

I like raid 1 or 5 for such stuff.

I have a constantly growing "D" data drive which i have moved from raid 1 on last rig to raid 5 now.

Data drives don't get formated around here ... only c: drives.

If you store everything on a single drive and it fails, you might find out what else means! So if you go the NAS route don't forget raid.

Very very good point.

[Supergrover]

So here is what I am thinking now:

Pick up another 320g and a 500g hdd, I already have a 320g in my rig, use the 500g for my rig and put the 2x320g into a raid 1 setup, I have more than enough room in my rig for the 2 extra drives, but the thing that concerns me about this setup is I am reading that if I use my mobo raid controllers that if the mobo dies I wont be able to acsess my data, is this correct?
If so then a raid controller card would be nessasery right? And on those I am @ a loss.