NAS drive

[jmo21]

I'm looking to pick up a NAS drive for storing all my stuff on the network, streaming to DNLA enabled TV.

I've also seen a couple of Buffalo ones that have built in torrent servers.

Anyone got any recommendations or ones to avoid?

TIA!

[VectraMan]

My Buffalo NAS thrashed the disk constantly, even when empty, and within the first 24 hours overheated and wiped its own BIOS. To be fair having reflashed it with one of the hacked BIOSs without the media stuff, it's been perfectly reliable as a file server ever since. It's the media serving part that appears to be the problem.

So personally I'd avoid Buffalo.

[Platypus]

I have 3 Buffalo NAS devices (no Torrent facility AFAIK).

Nevertheless, I'm not wild about them either, so I'd probably advise you look elsewhere too.

I always have the feeling they're on the brink of failure: with one, I think there's a bad area on the disc (it seems fine now I have a junk file occupying the space). Another went on a wild beeping trip the other day after rebooting, but was fine after a further reboot.

[Fred Bloggs]

+1 I'd not buy Buffalo again either.

[lilelvis2000]

Take an old PC you no longer use or get a second-hand one. Put FreeNAS on it. Job done.

[VectraMan]

Take an old PC you no longer use or get a second-hand one. Put FreeNAS on it. Job done.

People always say that, but chances are an old PC will be a) bulky, b) noisy, c) use much more power than a NAS, and d) have a small hard disk by today's standards.

[birdy-numnum]

I use a Freecom LAN NAS.

Only downside is that it can only work on the network if it is formatted as FAT32. Downside to that is the 4Gb file limit.

[Platypus]

Take an old PC you no longer use or get a second-hand one. Put FreeNAS on it. Job done.

Never heard of it. Looked it up - looks good! Thanks for the tip!

[jmo21]

thanks for all the advice folks.

Yeah, the whole point of the NAS is so I don't need to leave a PC plugged in all the time.

[voodooflux]

I'm pretty happy with my QNAP box - well worth a look.