Network Drive or External Drive?

I was considering to post this in the computer support section, but this is not a question of tech support. it's just a question related to storage.

Further to the above disclaimer, I would like to know whether it's worth getting a Network Drive (NAS) such as My Book World Edition (mainly for backup but also for file sharing) or just stick to the old External Drive that we know and love.

The reason that I am skeptical about this is that network drives need some "care" - ie they re not plug and play like external drives.

Their benefit is obviously that you can access their files from any PC on the LAN.

Additionally, i am unwilling to use bundled remote access software such as Mionet etc because they block all the useful media types (this is to prevent their legal backside) - so I will be resorting to mapping the network drive on my Windows laptops around the house. Security isn't really a concern either. How easy is it to map the drive and have it ready like all other drives when the computer is booted and ready? (I want my parents to have a seamless experience just as they would using an external drive- I want all the tech details to be transparent to the end user and integrated into the Explorer environment just like usual drives)

Having never owned or used a network drive however, I d like your views and experience on the matter and if possible within the day since it's pretty urgent.

Cheers

PS: types of files unsupported by the provided software (ie you can't store or draw these types of files) found here: http://www.senvid.net/unsupported/unsupported.jsp

 

I actually bought a network WD drive a couple of days ago (allthough I didnt have the time yet to play with it) you can skip the whole mio crap, after connecting it to your network I checked what IP it got from my DHCP server, logged in via the webinterface with the default login admin/123456 and created the shares (CIF)
From windows machines its easy to access them remotely and map them.
You can also use alternative firmware that will give you ssh access to the WD so that you have the freedom to install whatever you need/want as it's linux based.

Besides that cool ssh option the only good thing compared to USB drives it that my main pc/file server doesnt have to be on to access the files which is pretty easy and spares a noise making pc somewhere that I always kept on as you never know when you need your files

 

Had bad luck w/ a NAS. Go USB.

 

What happened?

 

where can one get the alternative firmware? also, what is ssh? (some sort of secure transfer protocol I assume, but I am a linux/network amateur)

 

ssh = secure telnet, so basically you get access to the embedded linux running on the WD so it will give you the freedom to install whatever and have more control.

I can look up the link if you want for the alternative firmware, but if you don't feel comfortable using *nix I would recommend not to try it as its easy to brick the WD as you have to edit some scripts as well.

 

SSH is "Secure SHell". It's a way of logging in to a system remotely to give you control of it.

I went the NAS route when I needed more storage - although it was technically just a Linux machine I threw together that housed eight hard drives and did nothing but share its data over the LAN.

I had been looking at increasing my storage with the Western Digital MyBooks, but, whilst they seem okay, they don't seem very cost effective (then again, I've never seen NAS that is...).

A few weeks ago I bought four 1 TB Western Digital USB drives for £85 each and have not looked back. When I need more space, I'll definitely be going the USB route again.

 

is it possible to control the My Book World Edition drive through standard windows network drive mapping without modifying the firmware then?

 

I've looked into the network ones but like Aypok points out, they tend not to represent value for money. Given how easy it is to set up file sharing via Windows over a network, I'm not sure why anyone should pay over the odds for such boxes.

 

yes it is.

and like discussed above, the value for your money is basically only that you can access the files from any windows machine without having another machine powered on for it.
if you only have 1 machine then usb would be obvious, more machines its nice to have it and to not have a dedicated machine always powered on just to be able to access the files you need.

 

NAS recommended. If you have to go external, then I'd suggest eSATA or at the very least Firewire. USB is good, but like what was said in an older thread, USB uses a higher CPU overhead and transfer rates a lower than it would be on either firewire, eSATA, or via ethernet.

 

Tried to connect to it via Linux (samba) and it gave absolutely awful results. There's a couple of NAS devices out there that offer native NFS, but they is pricey.

 

Anyone know if this one is good?

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=525

I was planning on getting the 250GB model.

 

finally went with a much cheaper USB based solution for the parents. I got a 750GB Maxtor OneTouch 4.

What concerns me however is that it makes a deep/bass clanking noise when accessing the drive - although everywhere I ve read on the internets they say that it's "silent".

could anyone comfort me? I m well within warranty but still!

 

Depends how loud it is, but if you're hearing a clanking noise I'd send it back either way, to be honest. Magnetic drives will make some noise as the heads go back and forth, and a little "clickity clickity" isn't unusual when there's heavy access, but you shouldn't really be able to discern individual loud clicks.

 

Can't say I am a fan of half-ass consumer NAS units. Better off creating a shared area on an old PC.

 

the clicks are *quite* loud (subjectively speaking, i m sitting right next to the thing after all) but the drive is brand new. It feels like a deep "rumble" click as if tapping the table - no screeching, or any other high-pitched type of noise, just a bass, heavy clicking access sound that occurs at every single drive access (Either read or write)

 

I know the kind of sound you mean, I've heard HDDs with a similar issue. Kind of a "tick-tick" every second or so of access. Send it back.

 

Usually it's an indication the harddisk is going to die soon

 

alrighty then, I ll do that tomorrow. damnit!