External HD with Ethernet

[Cyradix]

I was looking for a good external 1TB HD with ethernet, but after reading some reviews it seems they are all crap??

The Western Digital My Book World Edition is said to be slow and very loud (loud fan)
The Maxtor ones seem to have disk failures a lot and have very bad Vista support
THe LaCie models seem be be slow and have a crappy interface

Are there no quiet reliable models??

 

[Jonty]

Hi Cyradix

I remember looking a while back, and Western Digital and Seagate seemed to be the best, but I wasn't concentrating on ethernet models because the choice is limited. I'd probably so go for the My Book; you can always return it if you're unhappy with the noise. If ethernet isn't crucial, you'll have a lot more choice.

Kind regards

 

[inactionman]

I've used Buffalo Linkstations in the past, they are pretty good:

Buffalo Technology - Products - LinkStation™

Else you can get something like a D-Link DNS-323 and put your own drives in, that's what I did:

D-Link United Kingdom

As you can get 1Tb samsung's for under £100 I'd suggest the later.

 

[Dark Orb Choir]

be very weary of keeping it turned on all the time, the Lacie 1TB drives we got at work all of them failed within 6 months

 

[Cyradix]

That D-link seems nice. From what I've just read you can "hack" it and add lots of options...

Thanks!

 

[bigfunkymonkey]

I had the WD one you mention and the write and read speeds were absolutely terrible. I couldnt really find something which got solid reviews online so ended up buying a cheap and nastey pc, sticking a raid card and a couple of 1TB hard disks in it. Solved pretty much all the problems and allows for future scaling, couldnt be happier.

 

[inactionman]

Yeah, the DNS-323 runs Linux and is definitely hackable.

 

[Ominous]

I use a usb external MediaLAN hard drive case (can use ethernet instead of usb) with a Yamaha hard drive of 250GB capacity. The hard drive is running at 7,200 rpm and is virtually silent. Great piece of kit as I can download any video directly to the drive and the MediaLAN's software can run them. Simple matter of unplugging the kit and moving it downstairs to watch the video on the tv if I want. Other times I just use it like an hard drive. So cheap now too - I think they are about £40 from Maplins for the MediaLAN and they nearly always have bargain hard drive offers. I bought mine off them very cheaply, though I can't remember why it was so cheap. Probably get a bargain deal with them with a large hard drive as well.

 

[Embattle]

I've been looking around recently just because I intend to start digitizing a lot of old photos, music, etc with the intention to make them more accessable to others around the house, although this process will be done over time I've considered the following products:

Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A3 Harmony Home Server - This has now been replaced by the newer version in the link that uses the new Intel Atom processor.

QNAP TS-209 Turbo Station - Like the D-Link DNS-323 solution suggested, there are some different models in the here too such as the TS-209 II.

Maxtor Shared Storage II Dual Drive - Don't mistake this model with the cheaper single drive model, this version comes in 2x500GB (1TB) and 2x1TB (2TB) versions.

I'm looking at these because I want to use RAID 1 with all the various media I intend to store on it, then there are other considerations such as being able to easily access that media via different locations and via different machines.

Now if you just want a basic box to stick unimportant stuff on then I reckon your best bet is actually the Maxtor Shard Storage II 1TB which you can pick up for around £160, it isn't the fastest in the world but its no slouch either and as for realiability it is no worse than any other HD when you really get down to it.

As for the Western Digital My Book World Edition it isn't shit or anything it just seems to have some rather annoying issues which results in the competition being a better choice.

 

[Ch3tan]

The WD My book just doesn't use the speed available. Was really dissapointed that the reviews I read before I bought it had not pointed out how slow it was. I would have been better off saving money and just getting the USB version.

 

[bigfunkymonkey]

The WD My book just doesn't use the speed available. Was really dissapointed that the reviews I read before I bought it had not pointed out how slow it was. I would have been better off saving money and just getting the USB version.

I hear ya brother, exact same scenario with me, I took a loss and sold mine, we live and learn. Ebay is the answer.

 

[xane]

I've been running a Maxtor 300Gb NAS drive for well over 2 years now and never had any trouble, all my music library is stored on it and the speed is certainly suitable for streaming to a Player on Windows, or my Sonos.

I've also been able to get older IDE drives, put them in a USB caddy and connect them to the back of the Maxtor, works perfectly fine.

 

[Cadelin]

Sorry for the slight thread necromancy but I was looking to get something similar.

Having a disk that can just be plugged into the router for everyone on the network to use seems like such a good idea yet it seems so hard to get especially when you compare them to getting just a usb harddrive. I notice some people also complain about performance of these things?

The setup where I currently live has a wireless router with 3 laptops (2 are MacBooks and the other has Linux on it) all connecting wirelessly. I assume plugging a harddrive into one of the spare ethernet ports on the router would be the best for shared storage. Would it allow for direct playing of music/videos from this disk?

Are there any good models about at the moment? I think 500 GB should be plenty and I was hoping to spend under £100 while getting something reliable and if rugged enough to be transported around occasionally. Are there better options? I notice that some routers are coming with usb connections etc these days to allow you to plug drives/printers into the router directly? Is there anything to look out for to make sure its future proof?