Simple NAS device with just Gigabit Ethernet and USB3 ports?

[htismaqe]

Just curious, why do you think so?

If you have an empty 1-bay NAS with a drive attached via USB or eSATA -- isn't that still NAS?

You're misunderstanding.

The NAS has a drive in it, internally. I mentioned it was diskless because it SHIPS that way - you have to add a drive to it. Versus WD/Seagate/Buffalo or some others that ship with an integrated internal drive.

 

[htismaqe]

Of course, talking about a drive enclosure with eSATA and USB versus a NAS is the epitome of apples to oranges.

I'm doing EXACTLY what you're doing, steve - backing up my NAS to an external drive enclosure. I wasn't ever suggesting that you'd leave the internal bay in the NAS empty, that's just silly.

 

[turnstyle]

I'm doing EXACTLY what you're doing, steve - backing up my NAS to an external drive enclosure. I wasn't ever suggesting that you'd leave the internal bay in the NAS empty, that's just silly.

I think silliness is a function of what you have on-hand...

In my case, I have 2 perfectly good 2TB drives -- but they're physically sealed.

Right now they're attached to a really old PC that I'd like to retire (a roughly 9 year old laptop).

I was thinking it would be nice if I could repurpose the drives I have as NASes.

So if a 1-bay NAS would work WITHOUT an internal drive, and WITH my current drives via USB -- then I wouldn't have to buy an extra pair of 2TB drives (or physically crack open the ones I have).

At some point later I'll have to retire the USB drives, and then it would make sense to put a drive in the NAS bay.

(fwiw, I also kind of like the idea of being able to unplug a drive and take it off-site, which isn't as simple with a naked drive.)

I understand it might sound unusual, but I don't think it's so totally silly...

And I should add: thanks to everybody for chatting about it.

-Scott

 

[stevech]

NAS with external USB as the primary storage, no internal drives... never seen that done.

Never seen a USB enclosure that couldn't be opened to remove the drive. Indeed, I have bought Seagate USB3 drive/enclosure because, due to marketing, it costs less than a bare drive for consumers.
Hard to get the case open without damaging the plastic. But I found on the web a video showing how to do it, with the secret tabs, and so on. I did it to put a 2TB where a 1TB was. This particular USB enclosure has a chipset that properly allows the drive to spin-down with inactivity after 15 minutes or so. Most I tried don't.

 

[htismaqe]

So if a 1-bay NAS would work WITHOUT an internal drive, and WITH my current drives via USB -- then I wouldn't have to buy an extra pair of 2TB drives (or physically crack open the ones I have).

Actually, that is the issue.

I'm not sure you'll find a NAS that will work that way. They all assume that you've got at least 1 internal drive, at least the ones I've worked with.

I guess you could try it - just buy your NAS at Amazon so you can return it easily if it doesn't work.

Never seen a USB enclosure that couldn't be opened to remove the drive. Indeed, I have bought Seagate USB3 drive/enclosure because, due to marketing, it costs less than a bare drive for consumers.
Hard to get the case open without damaging the plastic. But I found on the web a video showing how to do it, with the secret tabs, and so on. I did it to put a 2TB where a 1TB was. This particular USB enclosure has a chipset that properly allows the drive to spin-down with inactivity after 15 minutes or so. Most I tried don't.

Truth.

My Buffalo Linkstation was actually built that way. Unfortunately, when I opened it a couple of the plastic tabs broke off because it just wasn't designed to be opened. There wasn't even a single screw - it was completely held together by plastic tabs.

 

[stevech]

The NASes all (?) need one internal drive on which to put the operating system and NAS feature software.
I doubt they can/would boot from a USB drive.

 

[stevech]

My Buffalo Linkstation was actually built that way. Unfortunately, when I opened it a couple of the plastic tabs broke off because it just wasn't designed to be opened. There wasn't even a single screw - it was completely held together by plastic tabs.

Strong like Buffalo!

 

[azazel1024]

You could always get the lowest cost bare drive you can find and slap it in to the enclosure to load up the storage software and stuff and then attach the actual storage through USB.

 

[htismaqe]

Strong like Buffalo!

It wasn't designed to be opened by the user.

It was designed to be a file and media sharing network device and it did so reliably for over 4 years.

There's absolutely no reason to continue to disparage Buffalo NAS' just because you have a different preference.

 

[ml70]

Is there such a thing as a simple NAS device with just Gigabit Ethernet and USB3 ports (or, less-preferentially, USB2)? Meaning: not an enclosure for a drive, but more like an adapter that puts a USB drive on the LAN.

Get a router with USB3, buy a powered USB3 hub, attach as many 2.5" pocket disks as you want. Or if you're willing to use 3.5" drives, buy 2 pcs WD 6 TB Mybook usb3 drives, thats 12TB right there as most routers have 1 x usb3 and 1xusb2. Or a usb3 hub and powered 3.5" drives.

 

[stevech]

Just don't buy a bunch of TB for which there is not an equal sized backup drive.

 

[htismaqe]

Just don't buy a bunch of TB for which there is not an equal sized backup drive.

Agreed. Make sure you have the correct amount of backup capacity. You will need it at some point.

Losing data (especially stuff like family photos) because of a poor backup strategy is one of the most frustrating things you might ever encounter.

 

[azazel1024]

If router storage ever is a thing to look at, keep in mind, most have odd limitations on what they can support in terms of number of disks, capacity of those disks, etc, etc.

One of the reasons I'd never consider router based storage for anything other than "casual" storage.

 

[stevech]

Agreed. Make sure you have the correct amount of backup capacity. You will need it at some point.

Losing data (especially stuff like family photos) because of a poor backup strategy is one of the most frustrating things you might ever encounter.

True story: Friend of ours just lost all 15 years of family digital photos.
Why?
She bought a USB drive and put them all on the USB drive. Thinking it was safer than keeping them on the internal drive of the Mac.

But no backup. She didn't know. (she should have asked a geek).

She is distraught that the USB drive hard-failed in less than a year and all is lost. A $$$$$ data recovery services said send is the drive and $$$ and there's a slim chance we can get the data. If not, charge is the same. ( I assume they'd clean-room remove the platters, etc).
She also probably didn't know that disks don't like to be jostled while spinning.

Backup.
3-2-1 strategy.

 

[claykin]

Reputable data recovery services will charge only a fraction of their recovery fees if unsuccessful. If her data is that important, its worth a try. If the disk spins up, I'd recommend trying Spinrite. You'd be amazed how many unreadable drives I've recovered after running Spinrite.

 

[azazel1024]

And considering USB, often enough it is a dead USB controller and not a dead HDD controller, motor, platters or heads. I'd yank the drive and try it in a computer first.

At any rate, yeah, backups are vital.

 

[htismaqe]

And considering USB, often enough it is a dead USB controller and not a dead HDD controller, motor, platters or heads. I'd yank the drive and try it in a computer first.

At any rate, yeah, backups are vital.

That's true of any purpose-built SATA device really. My 1TB Buffalo NAS was reporting read errors on the internal integrated drive several times a minute. I tried resetting to factory defaults, etc. and it made no difference.

I bought a ZyXEL diskless NAS and a 1TB drive to replace it but when they arrived, I realized that the ZyXEL was designed for full-height (1") drives and I had to send the HDD I bought back.

I figured since I had a couple of days to kill, I would put in the 1TB drive from my USB enclosure (I had been using it to backup the Buffalo) into the ZyXEL and fire it up. I tore the integrated 1TB drive out of the Buffalo and put it into two different enclosures and tried it formatted EXT3 and NTFS. I never did get it to produce anymore errors and it passes all S.M.A.R.T. and other tests.

I ended up using it as my backup drive and keeping the other drive in my ZyXEL. I ended up not having to buy any drives at all, just the new ZyXEL NAS. It's been running just fine for about a week.

I can only assume that the Buffalo SATA interface, rather than the drive itself, was the issue.