Which NAS to buy out of these two?

[Ross Stone]

Ok, I am needing to increase my storage by an additional 1TB, and I have got the list down to 2 possible solutions. Any ideas over which one would be better?

2 x 500GB LaCie NAS Mini
Link: here at £244.86 so £489.72 (no delivery as scan/hexus offer)
+ £10 cheaper and faster shipping
+ more portable with usb to pc support
- 4Gb file size limit

1 x Buffalo HD-H1.0TGL/R5-1 Terastation (1TB)
Link: here at £499.99 no delivery charge
+ raid availible
- more expensive
- 4Gb file size limit

I am more tempted to buy the Terastation as it has raid, which will be useful. Both have FTP support, so I can access files across the web. I prefer to shop with scan, as they have good support, shame they don't stock the buffalo terastation. Odd that? I think the raid, and option to replace broken drives, and the fact that data will be ok with raid makes the buffalo terastation stand out as a better choice.

Anyway, any input about things I should know about both of them, or if people have incountered problems with them, then please let me know. Don't want to spend £500 only to find the other option would have been better.

[shaithis]

The Terra looks to offer better expandability later, also you might want to check the performance of the solutions as a raid system could push much higher reads.

[Stoo]

Buffalo tbh, lacie's don't have that brilliant a rep for reliability.

[oclocker]

Gigabit Buffalo vs 100mbs Lacie - abs no contest - 100mbps NAS is less useful than a pot can be eaten at least chocolate teapot IMHO as the Teapot is edible

[Ross Stone]

Thanks all. Ok, well the Buffalo has it as it does indeed look alot better. However, I have just noted a issue...

I thought that having a 4Gb limit on file sizes would not be an issue, but I actually have files bigger than 4Gb. Quite a few of them it seems too.

What can I do to get round this without spending stupid amounts of money? Any ideas? Anyone know if there is a update for the Buffalo, or if I can use NTFS instead of FAT32, after doing an update or something?

Thanks

[nichomach]

The only way that you're going to get NTFS on a NAS box is if it's running something like Windows Storage Server. And that gets rather pricier than what you've been looking at.

[Funkstar]

if any NAS product is useing FAT32 as a file system then drop it like it's hot (thats what the kids on the streets are saying...word!).

If it's the OS is a linux then it should really be running something like EXT2 or a derivative of that.

For a device that can have multiple access from different clients you really want something a bit more robust than FAT

[Ross Stone]

Did some google searches, will post incase anyone else wondered...

Acording to the LaCie NAS Mini FAQ you can format it to use Extend 3 (Same as EXT3 I guess?), which then allows me to get past the 4Gb limit at the cost of not being able to use USB, so I would only be able to use it as a NAS. Thats fine there.

Page 34 of the terastation manual says that it uses a file system called XFS instead of FAT32 to get round the 4Gb limit. Apparently the maximum file size is around 16TB from what I could learn from google searching, so its ok after all. Yay!

So I will get a Buffalo Terastation and use the XFS file system. Sweet!

Thanks for the imput

[oclocker]

You could always get the lacie - hack it for >4gb files - start that 10gb file transfer and go away for long dirty weekend. Upon return there is a probability the lacie will have all your file & the weekend wasn't wasted? Or just get the buffalo and do something with the PC over weekend (not as much fun TBH)..

ie why the hell are they selling NAS with 100mbps connections - madness.

Gbit cards under a tenner netgear hubs for 25 quid - makes mw wonder why anyone stays with 100mbps

[nichomach]

Well, according to the Amazon specs, the Buffalo IS gigabit equipped.

[Ross Stone]

You could always get the lacie - hack it for >4gb files - start that 10gb file transfer and go away for long dirty weekend. Upon return there is a probability the lacie will have all your file & the weekend wasn't wasted? Or just get the buffalo and do something with the PC over weekend (not as much fun TBH)..

ie why the hell are they selling NAS with 100mbps connections - madness.

Gbit cards under a tenner netgear hubs for 25 quid - makes mw wonder why anyone stays with 100mbps

Point taken, lol. Gonna have to get another one of those gb modules for my netgear switch though.

[undergroove]

Buffalo tbh, lacie's don't have that brilliant a rep for reliability.

Having had several Lacie Biggerdisk Extreme 1tb drives die on me, I can absolutely confirm and agree with that statement.

EDIT: also bought my Ma a Buffalo Linkstation to dump her digi photos on.... lovely piece of kit and was pretty cheap at Amazon.co.uk

[cotswoldcs]

Buffalo is in a different league - a much better choice.

[oclocker]

Well, according to the Amazon specs, the Buffalo IS gigabit equipped.

Correct - and your point is?

[nichomach]

ie why the hell are they selling NAS with 100mbps connections - madness.

I was assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that your comment was levelled at both NAS devices. If I was incorrect in that assumption, sorry.

[oclocker]

No worries - aimed at the majority of manufacturers TBH