TexasRugger;198732 Wrote: > Can anyone walk me through the benefits/drawbacks of NAS vs. a basic USB > external drive? I haven't started to rip my collection yet (just bought > the SB3 a few days ago) and I want to set this up right. I'm really not > interested in the ability to share my music files across any other > computers. However, I am interested in redundancy (RAID), as I don't > want to do this again if a hard drive fails. I'm working with a > Macintosh, BTW. Any pros, cons? Thanks, > > Steve If all you're looking for is external storage and plan to run slimserver off your Mac, and not interested in sharing files off computers, then I'd recommend two external USB drives. The USB drives are simpler, so they're generally less expensive --- sometimes much less expensive --- than NASs.
Why two external USB drives? Because eventually every hard drive will fail, and so you'll need one as a backup. Personally, I think RAID is overrated for applications like storing your music library. It protects well against down time from drive failure, but not against other dangers like human error (accidentally deleting files), theft, fire, flood, stray projectiles, etc. If possible, keep the backup drive off-site, and bring it home as needed to update the backup. I use a NAS for my main music library because it runs slimserver and it's also an integral part of the backup system for the other computers in the house. I keep a USB at the office, and periodically bring it home to sync/backup. -- aubuti ------------------------------------------------------------------------ aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34911 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
