Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Network Hard Drive

Feb 7, 2011 7:05AM PST

I've been using an old desktop to store my music files (approx. 100GB) and have it on my network to share with my other computers, as well as my entertainment system. I would like to get away from using the desktop and use a network hard drive to save some energy, not to mention get rid of a tower.

I've looking at getting a drive to connect to my current router via ethernet. I've also considered buying a newer router that lets me plug in a hard drive using USB.

Looking for thoughts/recommendations on which is the better way to go. Thanks for any input!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Having seen this disaster before.
Feb 7, 2011 7:22AM PST

The idea of "storing" such on one machine is just a bad idea. That is, this forum is full of folk trying to recover from storing things on one machine.

Ok, once we get past the same old traps you could find some box/device/thing that you plug a drive into and on the other side is ethernet.

Example at http://www.geeks.com/products_sc.asp?cat=644
(see the network to USB drive adapters.)
Bob

- Collapse -
yes, but
Feb 7, 2011 7:39AM PST

I have backups of all the data on the current drive and am looking at a new external drive. I will copy info from old drive to new drive, which means I'll have yet another backup.

I'm not too concerned that ""storing" such on one machine is just a bad idea". I'm trying to get opinions on how people prefer to connect their external storage to their networks. I'm basically trying to determine if it's worthwhile to invest in an external drive that connects via USB or Ethernet.

- Collapse -
Been there, done that.
Feb 7, 2011 12:56PM PST

I'm back to using a small server. To get the speed back we use a netbook. It's all of 7 Watts most of the time so no big waste of power.
Bob