Network Hard Drive?

[slvr_phoenix]

Is there just a nice simple device just like an external USB hard drive enclosure, but to share that drive on a network?

It just seems silly to get a network to USB device for multiple drives, an external USB enclosure, and a hard drive when all I want is one hard drive drive to be shared on my network.

I just want a nice, small, tidy little enclosure that I can tuck away. Plus it'd be nice not to pay for the mutliple connection devices just to run the one hard drive.

<pre><b><font color=red>"Build a man a fire and he's warm for the rest of the evening.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Steve Taylor</font color=red></b></pre><p>

 

[folken]

Toms just did a review of portable hard drives a little while ago and one of them had a built in 10/100 nic and file server. There are lots of options though, just look up Network Attached Storage (NAS) in google or at your favorite online retailer.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Thank you for the reply.

Toms just did a review of portable hard drives a little while ago and one of them had a built in 10/100 nic and file server.

Over the weekend I found a nice little wireless/wired device from Asus. I would bet this is the one that THG reviewed as it seems to have gotten a lot of reviews lately. It had three problems however. (In order of importance.) 1) It only works with 2.5" notebook drives, which are darned expensive for high capacity. 2) It exists more on paper than it does in any actual retail channel. 3) I don't need the wireless capabilities.

There are lots of options though, just look up Network Attached Storage (NAS) in google or at your favorite online retailer.

I don't need a $4000 NAS solution. I could build an entire PC for cheaper than that. I just want to share one standard 3.5" IDE hard drive in a SOHO environment.

Is it really such a rare device of just a simple standard USB external 3.5" IDE hard drive enclosure with built in ethernet that shares the contents of the entire drive over the network using standard Windows sharing? Such devices for printers are quite common and affordable. I would have thought that such a device for a hard drive would have been just as simple.

<pre><b><font color=red>"Build a man a fire and he's warm for the rest of the evening.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Steve Taylor</font color=red></b></pre><p>

 

[folken]

No no I'm not talking a huge $4k NAS unit. There are tons of little home NAS solutions just like there are tons of little home routers. Linksys has one that you can plug any usb hard drive into. The little home ones are very cheap.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Linksys has one that you can plug any usb hard drive into.

Yes, I've seen those from Linksys and D-Link. But as I already said "It just seems silly to get a network to USB device for multiple drives, an external USB enclosure, and a hard drive when all I want is one hard drive drive to be shared on my network."

I just want a device designed for a single hard drive. The extra $$$, power lead, cabling, and space used to bridge the network to USB to IDE instead of network to IDE is silly.

Just as the cost of pre-made external USB drives is silly when you can buy a drive and an enclosure and put one together yourself in just minutes for a much lower price.

I mean even an extra $30 saved for not having to add the USB bridge between the network and the drive can mean a lot to increase the capacity of the drive. Plus I'd prefer it to take up as little space as possible.

Is there no such thing as a simple and cost-effective solution?

<pre><b><font color=red>"Build a man a fire and he's warm for the rest of the evening.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Steve Taylor</font color=red></b></pre><p>

 

[folken]

Is there no such thing as a simple and cost-effective solution?

No, there are tons of them. All it takes is a quick little web search on google or something to find them. Nearly every manufacturer of network equipment makes them. Tomsnetworking has done reviews of lots of them. Just go to your favorite online retailer and search for NAS or network hard drive. I'm sure you will get results. My favorite online retailer is Newegg.com, they have a bunch of them for sale.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

No, there are tons of them.

Tons of them? I cannot even find a single 3.5" IDE to ethernet enclosure that does not come pre-built with far too short of a warranty on a severely over-priced hard drive.

My favorite online retailer is Newegg.com, they have a bunch of them for sale.

They're my favorite too, but I still don't see any there. Point out even one on Newegg that is a 3.5" (standard desktop) IDE to ethernet enclosure that I can plug a hard drive of my choosing into so that I can have a drive warranty such as Seagate's 5 years and not pay the insanely high prices (sometimes well over 200% markup) of the pre-built kits.

I ask again, is there no such thing as a simple and cost-effective solution?"

<pre><b><font color=red>"Build a man a fire and he's warm for the rest of the evening.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Steve Taylor</font color=red></b></pre><p>

 

[folken]

How about this?
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-155-407&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-155-407&depa=0</A>

or

<A HREF="http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10502197&kbid=1091" target="_new">http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10502197&kbid=1091</A>



<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

The price of the Ximeta enclosure from Newegg is a bit high. They want $145 for it, when one could just as easily get a $80 2-port ethernet to USB server and a $30 USB drive enclosure to save $35. That $35 difference could make a considerable impact on the hard drive selection. And their description of the NDAS operation makes it sound like something different from what I want.

The Argosy enclosure however sounds like exactly what I want. I don't know how you managed to find it. It only has a total of 11 hits on Google and all of them point back to the PC-Micro as the only retail seller. :O Too bad no one has a decent review of it though. :\ I may have to take the risk anyway.

Thank you very much.

I hate to pester you so, but are these the only such devices that you could find? It really seems strange to me that just a simple 3.5" IDE to network share server enclosure is so hard to find. And their prices still seem outrageous. I mean for the same prices as that Argosy enclosure I can get a printer server 4-port wired+wireless WAN\LAN broadband router with a builtin hardware firewall! You would think that compared to that a simple 3.5" LAN drive share enclosure should be nothing. Oh well. Maybe they're just so expensive because no one is making them?

<pre>I just want to say <font color=red>I wuv you</font color=red>.
And I mean it fwom the <font color=red>bottom of my hawt</font color=red>.</pre><p>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

**ROFL**

Even <A HREF="http://www.argosy.com.tw/product/Exthdd.htm" target="_new">Argosy's own website</A> doesn't list their own HD-363N model! It must be something very new.

<pre>I just want to say <font color=red>I wuv you</font color=red>.
And I mean it fwom the <font color=red>bottom of my hawt</font color=red>.</pre><p>

 

[folken]

That $145 enclosure on newegg is actually a 2 pack. That is why it is $145. Why they don't sell them for $72 or so apiece I don't know.

How large of hard drive are you planning on getting? Getting one of those network enclosures w/ a hard drive already in them isn't that much more expensive than a regular external hard drive or even buying a separate hard drive and enclosure. Adding network capability just adds that much more. I know the warrantys arn't to high but oh well. After a year 250gb or whatever might not be enough for ya and you will end up upgrading it anyway. Or just get one of the small ones (80gb or so) and replace the hd. 80gb wouldn't make a very good network storage drive but it would be a plenty good drive to put windows, games, etc on.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>