NAS Recommendations

[ed]

Simon, if they are standard 2.5" disks could you put them in a usb caddy.?. Im guessing they will be formatted ext3/4 so your netbook should be able to read them.

If they are 2.5" I have a spare caddy if you want to try.

[simon]

Thanks Ed, funnily enough I'd just been thinking about a caddy 10 minutes ago. I think I might have one somewhere, might take some finding though.

It was a good while ago I built the NAS now and I can't remember how they were formatted. Need to do a bit more research. Nothing's easy!

[Nick]

Once you have them in a caddy you should be able to read the partition table which should show you the format.

[shane]

If you’re going down the USB route, does your router have a USB socket? My bog-standard EE smart hub ( re-branded BT Hub 6) has a 500gb Toshiba USB portable hard drive plugged in the back of it which is accessible to the whole network and serves as the library for all my downloads and rips for Roon. Works a treat.

[simon]

I couldn't find the caddy, but they're 3.5" discs so I've bought another one, thanks for the offer though ed. I've bought a cheaper 220j NAS too. I'm not a power user and can repent at leisure...

Interesting idea Shane but I want to keep the backup (albeit RAID).

[The Stratmangler]

My Zyxel NSA310 NAS is so obsolete it's not even on the obsolete list too.
That said, it's still running fine, and has had several HDD upgrades in its lifetime because it was running short on drive space.
It ran LMS up until 2017, and Spotify buggered about and changed the way they they delivered the service, and as a result I was forced to initially run LMS on a Windows machine, and ultimately ended up getting the RasPi and running LMS on that.

I think I've had the NAS for 10 or so years.

[ed]

My Zyxel NSA310 NAS is so obsolete it's not even on the obsolete list too.
That said, it's still running fine, and has had several HDD upgrades in its lifetime because it was running short on drive space.
It ran LMS up until 2017, and Spotify buggered about and changed the way they they delivered the service, and as a result I was forced to initially run LMS on a Windows machine, and ultimately ended up getting the RasPi and running LMS on that.

I think I've had the NAS for 10 or so years.

ditto, except mine is a 325V2 which I installed in 2013 ish. I too switched LMS to a RasPi.
I was vaguely thinking of updating but the NAS market has thinned considerably since I last looked and the prices hiked......
I've retreated thinking if it aint broke don't fix it.
I do an incremental about once a month so I'm not too concerned about a harware meltdowm....For some reason I've never considered raid on a NAS unit.

I was going to suggest Simon look at the zyxel replacements but it looks like their latest is now about 6 years old, and anyway, he's sorted now.

[simon]

Yeah there doesn't seem to be too many options for NAS now. Perhaps free cloud provision has had an affect?

So presumably you chaps are accessing from Linux?

[The Stratmangler]

Yeah there doesn't seem to be too many options for NAS now. Perhaps free cloud provision has had an affect?

So presumably you chaps are accessing from Linux?

In both cases we're using piCorePlayer on Raspberry Pis, so yes, it is a Linux distro that's been tweaked for LMS, and to provide server and client capabilities, and capable of supporting attached USB storage if necessary.

I mount my existing NAS to LMS.
I'm not sure what Ed does.

[simon]

I wasn't very clear, how do you access to say put new music on, rather than LMS? Or to back it up? I guess a Linux box would do it, but mine's old and slow. Perhaps something light like Puppy Linux (if that's still a thing) would do the job?

But we use the NAS as a central file "server" for the Windows computers hence the need for a new one.

[Nick]

A copy of Linux on any old PC will work fine as a NAS. Mount as many disks as you want/can fit. You can use Samba to provide access to windows machines and just about any other protocol you can think of. You can use rsync to transfer copies between machines. I use rsync from the server machine that runs this site wherever it is, to a machine inside the network at home via a ssh tunnel and rsync. Keeps it all backed up once a day.

[Nick]

To add, you can roll your own with a standard Linux distrib of your choice, or use something like this ailed at providing all the services you are likely to need.

https://www.openmediavault.org/

[simon]

Bit late now but thanks . Quite interesting actually, I'm way behind the times now. I'd need to relearn Linux though. Might have to to sort this out anyway.

[ed]

I mount my existing NAS to LMS.
I'm not sure what Ed does.

exactly that...

I rip CDs to a windows desktop connected to the network using this:
https://www.poikosoft.com/music-converter

I then just copy the rip to the NAS in flac format

I bought it about 15 years ago and haven't had a single problem. Looking at their website it looks like it might be free now.

I access LMS and squeezelite from the Pi touchscreen but the same interface is avaiable on any m/c connected to the network via web page using local URL.

[jack]

Bit late to the party, but Synology all the way.

Yes, you can roll your own with TrueNAS/Freenas/whatever but it can be a pain to maintain.

If you have an old nas case to butcher, it could be fun.

I use all Synology now. It's great.