Computers & Electronics

Any suggestion on how to set up storage solution?

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  • Mar 29th, 2015 9:31 am
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Jr. Member
Jan 21, 2014
128 posts
3 upvotes
Toronto

Any suggestion on how to set up storage solution?

My mom currently has an external hard drive connected to her computer, but it looks like it's about to fail.

I think I should get a new storage solution, and I would like some recommendations about how to structure it.

My mom is the one who needs the most storage, to save photos, videos and music. The rest of the family members don't need storage as much, and internal storage on the computer of each is usually enough. So I think just picking up a 1TB external hdd and replace the current failing one would be enough as a bare minimum solution.
But if it doesn't cost to much extra, I would like to set it up so that the storage space can be accessed by everyone, including by mobile devices.

I've been hearing about NAS for a while, but haven't really done a lot of research about it. Is this something I should look into?

Help would be appreciated, and if there are any more details I can provided about our situation that could help you help me, I'd be happy to provide them.
6 replies
Deal Addict
May 26, 2002
1908 posts
491 upvotes
From the sounds of it you needs are minimal. I would suggest a WD My Cloud drive, maybe a 2TB one. It doesn't cost much more then the regular external drive (maybe $20 premium) but gives you NAS like functionality and access to your data remotely. Since there's no redundant drives you should backup the data periodically and the My Cloud allows that. You can plug in a regular external USB drive to it and set it to take snapshots every week (or whatever you schedule). There's limitations to what you can do but for simplicity and costs it's hard to beat.

-LeeBear
Sr. Member
Aug 21, 2012
824 posts
104 upvotes
You could use an Odroid c1 or Banana Pi as a NAS. It has gigabit ethernet, so you just need a usb to sata converter and a power converter for sata drives, then plug it all in beside your router.


The only thing faster than this is an ARM box with USB 3.0 support, which is tough to find at a reasonable cost below 150$. This NAS setup should let you stream movies from it as well if you set up a upnp or samba server, and file sharing is easy.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Banana-P ... 21341.html
http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products ... 1351880955
Sr. Member
Jan 15, 2010
568 posts
199 upvotes
Toronto
I also recommend adding an online backup solution into yoru mix. If your situation has a lot of critical documents, having it automatically backed up to something like crashplan will save you from hard drive crashes, viruses, accidental deletions of critical data, fires, floods, power surges, etc. For the 60$ a year cost its worth having your data safe.
Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2004
38392 posts
12012 upvotes
East Gwillimbury
I am a big proponent for NAS solutions.

But in your case, it maybe a bit over kill

Sounds like you need a better back up solution over all. If your mother loses her hard drive, all the pictures she has will be lost forever.

If your budget permits, a NAS is definitely the way to go, but it is still no substitute for a good backup plan.
Deal Fanatic
Dec 12, 2009
6145 posts
3614 upvotes
Toronto
If you are considering a NAS, many of us picked up the Lenovo ix2 = 2 x 2TB drives for $180. https://www.mikescomputershop.com/product/1346605
Or the ix4 = 4 x 2 TB drives for $370. https://www.mikescomputershop.com/product/1346610
Sign up for their email and get a $5 off coupon, both have free shipping.
Sale originally posted here: mikes-computer-me-lenovo-storcenter-ix2 ... d-1666555/
Both are capable of RAID for some protection of your data, further backups are still recommended. There is a thread on these 2 units here: iomega-emc-lenovo-ix2-ix4-nas-thread-1679563/

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