Cheap NAs solutions

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a nice simple and cheap way to setup a NAS on my home
network. Ideally 'd like 2 little boxes to plug into the network, each of
which will take a pair of 300 gig IDE hard drives. Each box would use these
disks to poduce a single 600 gig volume, accessible over the network without
installing any additional software on the PC's. One of these boxes would be
used as the main file server, and the second would automaticlaly mirror
itself from the main box. This would give me 600 gig of network accessible
disk space, backed up automatically to an identical box.

Can anyone offer any decent solutions for this? I've already got the hard
drives, all I need is the boxes to put them in. I'm hoping to pay lessthan
£200 in total for this.

Thanks for your help!

Simon Finnigan wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
> I'm looking for a nice simple and cheap way to setup a NAS on my home
> network. Ideally 'd like 2 little boxes to plug into the network, each of
> which will take a pair of 300 gig IDE hard drives. Each box would use these
> disks to poduce a single 600 gig volume, accessible over the network without
> installing any additional software on the PC's. One of these boxes would be
> used as the main file server, and the second would automaticlaly mirror
> itself from the main box. This would give me 600 gig of network accessible
> disk space, backed up automatically to an identical box.
>
> Can anyone offer any decent solutions for this? I've already got the hard
> drives, all I need is the boxes to put them in. I'm hoping to pay lessthan
> £200 in total for this.
>
> Thanks for your help!

Simon,

Have a look at span.co.uk - I use them a lot for all sorts of storage
stuff.


Odie
--
Retrodata
www.retrodata.co.uk
Globally Local Data Recovery Experts

Look at the Buffalo LinkStation range.
I have a 300GB version (now discontinued, but other sizes avaialable). You
can either use two of these or add a usb disk to expand the LinkSation
capacity or give an autoback-up capability. See their website. They also
have other ranges that may better
suit.

As to price I think that you will be paying double your target price.

Chris

"Simon Finnigan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi everyone,
> I'm looking for a nice simple and cheap way to setup a NAS on my home
> network. Ideally 'd like 2 little boxes to plug into the network, each of
> which will take a pair of 300 gig IDE hard drives. Each box would use
these
> disks to poduce a single 600 gig volume, accessible over the network
without
> installing any additional software on the PC's. One of these boxes would
be
> used as the main file server, and the second would automaticlaly mirror
> itself from the main box. This would give me 600 gig of network
accessible
> disk space, backed up automatically to an identical box.
>
> Can anyone offer any decent solutions for this? I've already got the hard
> drives, all I need is the boxes to put them in. I'm hoping to pay
lessthan
> £200 in total for this.
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>

"Odie Ferrous" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Simon Finnigan wrote:
> Have a look at span.co.uk - I use them a lot for all sorts of storage
stuff.
Do you have a valid url, please. www.span.co.uk is inaccessible and google
shows no span.co.uk

Chris

Simon Finnigan wrote:
>
> Can anyone offer any decent solutions for this? I've already got the hard
> drives, all I need is the boxes to put them in. I'm hoping to pay lessthan
> £200 in total for this.

Linksys NSLU2 ->
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satel...VisitorWrapper

or http://tinyurl.com/b22gt if you prefer

You'll have to put your drives into USB2 external enclosures.

Might be better to put together a small PC then.

£200 is more than is needed for a Linux based storage server (since he
already has the hard drives).

Kind Regards

Malte


Chris Watts wrote:
> Look at the Buffalo LinkStation range.
> I have a 300GB version (now discontinued, but other sizes avaialable). You
> can either use two of these or add a usb disk to expand the LinkSation
> capacity or give an autoback-up capability. See their website. They also
> have other ranges that may better
> suit.
>
> As to price I think that you will be paying double your target price.
>
> Chris
>
> "Simon Finnigan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>Hi everyone,
>>I'm looking for a nice simple and cheap way to setup a NAS on my home
>>network. Ideally 'd like 2 little boxes to plug into the network, each of
>>which will take a pair of 300 gig IDE hard drives. Each box would use
>
> these
>
>>disks to poduce a single 600 gig volume, accessible over the network
>
> without
>
>>installing any additional software on the PC's. One of these boxes would
>
> be
>
>>used as the main file server, and the second would automaticlaly mirror
>>itself from the main box. This would give me 600 gig of network
>
> accessible
>
>>disk space, backed up automatically to an identical box.
>>
>>Can anyone offer any decent solutions for this? I've already got the hard
>>drives, all I need is the boxes to put them in. I'm hoping to pay
>
> lessthan
>
>>£200 in total for this.
>>
>>Thanks for your help!
>>
>>
>
>
>

Simon Finnigan wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> I'm looking for a nice simple and cheap way to setup a NAS on my home
> network. Ideally 'd like 2 little boxes to plug into the network, each of
> which will take a pair of 300 gig IDE hard drives. Each box would use these
> disks to poduce a single 600 gig volume, accessible over the network without
> installing any additional software on the PC's. One of these boxes would be
> used as the main file server, and the second would automaticlaly mirror
> itself from the main box. This would give me 600 gig of network accessible
> disk space, backed up automatically to an identical box.
>
> Can anyone offer any decent solutions for this? I've already got the hard
> drives, all I need is the boxes to put them in. I'm hoping to pay lessthan
> £200 in total for this.
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>
Netgear Storage Central SC101
about £60, holds 2 drives
<http://www.netgear.co.uk/digital_home_sc101.php>

--
Adrian C

"peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Linksys NSLU2 ->
> http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satel...VisitorWrapper
>
> or http://tinyurl.com/b22gt if you prefer
>
> You'll have to put your drives into USB2 external enclosures.

I've ordered two Netgear SC101's, but these might be a better solution
features wise, although they'd take up a lot more space. I've already got
all the external USB2 boxes that I'd need. Has anyone used a pair of these
to mirror data between the units automatically? Using an SC101 I'd have to
get a PC to do the backup, and I'd prefer it to be done entirely
automatically.

I suppose the big problem with these is the fact that each one would need 3
plugs, rather than the single plug solution of the SC101.

Does anyone know if there is a cheaper version that uses USB flash sticks
only? I'd have a use for a little network box with up to a gig of disk
space. I've already got an unused 1gig USB flash stick, which connected to
something similar to this would be an ideal mini FTP server. It'd be on a
different network though, so no chance of doubling one of these up.

Has anyone got experience of both the NSLU2 and the SC101, who can reccomend
one or the other?

Thanks!

"Chris Watts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:dmffg5$shb$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Look at the Buffalo LinkStation range.
> I have a 300GB version (now discontinued, but other sizes avaialable).
> You
> can either use two of these or add a usb disk to expand the LinkSation
> capacity or give an autoback-up capability. See their website. They also
> have other ranges that may better
> suit.
>
> As to price I think that you will be paying double your target price.

I've already been offeredtwo different solutions that some in well under
£200 in total :-)

"Simon Finnigan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Chris Watts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:dmffg5$shb$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Look at the Buffalo LinkStation range.
> > I have a 300GB version (now discontinued, but other sizes avaialable).
> > You
> > can either use two of these or add a usb disk to expand the LinkSation
> > capacity or give an autoback-up capability. See their website. They
also
> > have other ranges that may better
> > suit.
> >
> > As to price I think that you will be paying double your target price.
>
> I've already been offeredtwo different solutions that some in well under
> £200 in total :-)
I should have read your post better. :-(
I didn't realise that you already have the disks and so included prices for
them.

Chris