PC to Mac Laptop - File Server?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
J

jgold47

Honorable
Sep 12, 2014
9
0
10,510
Hope this is in the right place.

I have a PC tower running W10. I pretty much only use it for music/movie storage (via itunes) and web surfing. my wife has her own laptop that she uses for similar purposes. I'd like to reclaim my desktop (physically!), and downsize into a single macbook.

I have all of my media on a single 1tb HDD.

I'd also like to implement some sort of a backup system.

my question is - is there a device (like a standalone file server/nas) that I could put my HDD in, have it connected to the network, and still allow me to access all of the files, and act as a backup machine etc...without having to keep the PC tower running?

as I'm articulating this outloud, I'm thinking its easier than I thought, but wanted to get your thoughts.

 
Solution
kanewolf
Here is an example of a NAS like you would probably want -- https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/33160-synology-ds218j-ds218play-diskstations-reviewed I would recommend you go check out the on-line hardware simulator that Synlogy has -- https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/live_demo That lets you see all the functions that you get for the money.

I recommend purchasing a NAS chassis and separate drives. They are intended for flexibility of disk size,etc. You could purchase a pair of 2TB disks and in the future say "I want to swap for 6TB.". A NAS chassis would allow that. A prebuilt NAS may not.

The W10 desktop could be used as network storage. But, the NAS appliance has functionality built-in that you may have to add...
Sort by date Sort by votes
kanewolf

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
May 29, 2013
37,411
3,306
156,790
A NAS could do it. But, if you chose that, I would recommend you purchase new disks and a USB enclosure for your existing disk. Why? The performance on a NAS is much better when you let it format the disks in the native linux format. Then use the USB ports that NAS have to copy the data from your existing disk on the the RAID 1 internal volume on the NAS. You can then back-up data on the NAS to your newly formatted (old) internal disk.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

jgold47

Honorable
Sep 12, 2014
9
0
10,510


So the NAS can act as an addressable file server, etc...with a drive letter etc...

I can do the external to NAS thing, thats not an issue.

Is it better to buy a fully loaded NAS or get one without drives?

Lastly, I suppose the obvious question is why not just turn the W10 PC into a NAS? is the power savings, etc... that much more significant with a NAS?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
kanewolf

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
May 29, 2013
37,411
3,306
156,790
Here is an example of a NAS like you would probably want -- https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/33160-synology-ds218j-ds218play-diskstations-reviewed I would recommend you go check out the on-line hardware simulator that Synlogy has -- https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/live_demo That lets you see all the functions that you get for the money.

I recommend purchasing a NAS chassis and separate drives. They are intended for flexibility of disk size,etc. You could purchase a pair of 2TB disks and in the future say "I want to swap for 6TB.". A NAS chassis would allow that. A prebuilt NAS may not.

The W10 desktop could be used as network storage. But, the NAS appliance has functionality built-in that you may have to add to W10.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom