HDD caddy

digitalfailure

digitalfailure

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Is there such a thing as a Harddrive caddy with network connectivity ?

All the powered caddies I can find are either usb2 or firewire.
 
I've not seen one as you'd need the best part of a PC to go from ethernet packets to a full filesystem (with USB & firewire, the PC does the hard work).

Depending on what you already have and what you are trying to achieve, you might find your router has a USB port that can accept HDDs or alternatively, I use a SATA hot-dock that fits into a 5.25" drive bay and you could share from there (doesn't work when the PC is off but....)
 
I was just thinking of a way of cobbling together a network attached drive for streaming films from. I have a couple of old 3.5" drives doing nothing. I was looking for the network connection to go into my BT hub3.

The hub has a USB, but it appears to be useless
 
If you're on Infinity get an Asus RT-N66U and a couple of USB docks. SMB sharing and DLNA if you want it. Yes, expensive (£110), but does the business with USB ports and a whole host of other things (and is a FAR FAR better router than the HH3....).

If you're on ADSL, you have the choice of an Asus DSL-N55U or the N66U plus a modem (like the BT Voyager 190 - £12 on ebay). Personally, I like the separate router/modem method.

Or you're looking at some form of microserver
 
digitalfailure said:
Is there such a thing as a Harddrive caddy with network connectivity?
Click to expand...

Yes, they're called NSA or SAN - QNAP, Synology, IcyBox, etc, etc.
Check ebay or/and Amazon, all will become clear.
 
PJ S said:
Yes, they're called NSA or SAN - QNAP, Synology, IcyBox, etc, etc.
Check ebay or/and Amazon, all will become clear.
Click to expand...
You mean NAS - yes, would probably be a more integrated and versatile solution (NSA will bring up a whole different subject matter... :D). BTW: you definitely DON'T want a SAN (the difference is a SAN presents the raw disk to the network so the PC provides the filesystem, a NAS presents a filesystem to the network - e.g. SMB or NFS). SANs are specialist bits of kit.

Depends how much money you want to spend, how versatile you want to be and how performant the disks need to be.

Have to say, I discounted a NAS as that's a bit more than "a caddy on the network" and getting rid of the HH3 is one of the first things that would be on top of my list (ISPs are notorious for handing out crud as the modem/router and BT are NO exception there ;))
 
Well, I'm not sure if you can swap the drives - so it may not count as a caddy - but the new (due next week) Seagate Wireless Plus may be of interest. It's a battery-powered 1TB hard drive with its own WiFi.
 
hollis_f said:
Well, I'm not sure if you can swap the drives - so it may not count as a caddy - but the new (due next week) Seagate Wireless Plus may be of interest. It's a battery-powered 1TB hard drive with its own WiFi.
Click to expand...
Now that's a very interesting product if you travel a lot...
 
arad85 said:
Now that's a very interesting product if you travel a lot...
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Oh yes. With 30GB of music, 50GB of movies and 80GB of TV I'm always having to make decisions as to exactly what goes on my iPad when I go away. Now I'll be able to take the whole lot!
 
I wasn't looking for anything as grand as a NAS really, and battery powered is no good either. I was just looking for a way of putting together a media streaming hub. The buffalo 2tb networked drives aren't too badly priced but I wanted to utilise spare 3.5" disks :D
 
arad85 said:
You mean NAS - yes, would probably be a more integrated and versatile solution (NSA will bring up a whole different subject matter... :D)
Click to expand...

Damn farkin' bloody fingers! :bang:
Yes, NAS (network attached storage) was what I meant to write.
 
neil_g said:
Do icybox do anything useful for you?
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That's why I suggested looking on Amazon and eBay, since they're cheaper than the QNAP/Synology/Thecus type, and probably more reliable than LaCie/Netgear/etc.

By introducing an ethernet port into the equation, you jump from a bog standard external drive to a NAS by default.
There's no halfway house - either one or the other.
 
digitalfailure said:
I wasn't looking for anything as grand as a NAS really, and battery powered is no good either. I was just looking for a way of putting together a media streaming hub. The buffalo 2tb networked drives aren't too badly priced but I wanted to utilise spare 3.5" disks :D
Click to expand...

I use a WD my book live 2Tb and it works fine. I also have a Seagate goflex drive for portability. Seagate sell a caddy that allows you to use two goflex drives and one USB drive.
 
Now that's interesting. :D


Wonder how much they are , probably more expensive than an off the shelf nas drive :D
 
digitalfailure said:
Wonder how much they are , probably more expensive than an off the shelf nas drive :D
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Around £100 from a quick google.... You'd probably be better off with a proper NAS. You do have gigabit networking don't you?
 
Are they not doing cheap Microservers any more?
 
arad85 said:
Are they not doing cheap Microservers any more?
Click to expand...

cashback finished end of december. theyre releasing a "new" model (read - revised CPU and price hike) in march apparently. maybe theyll offer cashback on that but cant see it being that good a deal yet.

last ebuyer email said £189 for the one i got.
 
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