Laptops - External Storage Options

The Lorne Ranger

The Lorne Ranger

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Hey All,

Would appreciate any advice on this subject.

Just bought a new Dell laptop, to replace my desktop, and i'm wondering about external storage options.

the Laptop i'm getting has 320GB storage, but i'm looking at a 1TB external storage option, as i'd like to hold all my music, movies & photo (mosty RAW & some JPEG) files on an external HDD as they take up so much space (Currently over 400GB) on my desktop.

Some folk are saying if i go the USB option, streaming music and movies might be a bit slow and clunky (Laptop wont have firewire connection either)

So i am looking down the route of NAS (Network Storage with Ethernet connection)

Just wondering if anyone has experience on these?

PC world are doing a 1TB WD Shared storage My World Edition for £150, and in the product description, saying it's very simple to set up and use.

So it sounds like what i'm looking for, but i'm just wondering if this is the case, as I wouldn't really believe a word PC world say.

Anyone set one of these up before? I am a relative novice at this sort of network stuff, and assuming that the network storage is just essentially an external HDD with the ethernet cable option.

Cheers,

Scott
 
I think if you are going to get a NAS to hold all your media, then it would be a good idea to build your own, as you can setup Raid 1 so that if one drive fails you will not loose all your data. Also you should realise that no matter how fast your network access is, it will be slower then connecting a drive directly to your notebook via USB.
 
I use an Apple Time Capsule for NAS and onsite backup, it works fine, but as with anything over a network it can be slow to transfer large amounts of data. Will your laptop be wired to the network?
 
neil_g said:
i stream music and films off my USB drive(s) and have never had a stuttering issue.
Click to expand...

Yep, no issues here either. I think someone was either telling porkies, their computer was not set up properly or they have no idea what they are talking about.

USB will be a hell of a lot faster than a NAS solution, and eSATA will be faster than USB (when transfering lots of files, otherwise there won't be much difference).

I would buy either an external enclosure and a HDD or get one of WD's Mybooks, with RAID storage. :)
 
i know i keep harping on about this but even with RAID mirroring please please please have a 2nd copy of your data stored on another device. RAID is not indestructible, it can destroy all of your data across all disks in some circumstances etc etc.
 
Thanks for all your comments Guy's.

Heidfirst - No my new lappy hasn't got esata.


neil_g - Exactly the sort of answer i'm looking for! (y)

As long as there's no issues playing large MKV (4GB+) etc, i'm happy to go with an external HDD, plus it's cheaper than the NAS option.

That's probably gonna save me about £100

any particular external HDD brand better than other's?

Narrowed it down between WD & Seagate external HDD's.

Cheers again!

Scott
 
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