Hard Drive help - Does this even exist?

[Timmy C]

I've been looking through this forum on and off for a while but still not sure if what I want exists so maybe someone can set me straight.

Is there such a thing as an external hard drive that I can store all my music on that doesn't require me to fire up my pc and that I can switch on/off from another room? Basically I want a Squeezbox or similar in my downstairs tv room and the hard drive up in the spare bedroom out of the way but I don't want it switched on 24/7 and don't want to have to go upstairs to fire it up on the occasions I want to use the squeezbox instead of my cd player. I don't want to have to run any cables either!

If there is such a thing are they any good or do they have drawbacks to them?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[davepuma]

What you need is a Network Attached Storage (NAS). Take a look at www.ripcaster.co.uk . They should be able to sort you out with a SB and a NAS as part of a bundle deal.

 

[amcluesent]

>do they have drawbacks to them<

I can think of some -

1) Most of the home NAS boxes have a tiddly processor that's barely able to run slimserver. The Thecus was the 1st with any real capabilty.
2) They all use a customised Linux kernel, so getting new releases of slimserver installed isn't too easy and generally relies on the supplier issuing an update when they feel like it.
3) As these NAS use Linux the way you music is stored on disk isn't (easily) readable by Windows, so if the box fails you can't just stick the harddisk into your Windows PC and get your data back

>don't want to have to go upstairs to fire it up<

The NAS designers assume it's on 24/7 - not sure if they implement Wake on LAN (WOL) packets coming from the SB3.

 

[lazymatt]

You could try something like this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97124&TabID=1&source=1&doy=27m8

No idea how good it is (I suspect pretty poor).

There are other units out there, but most only have very basic screens, and really require the TV for navigation as they are designed for video and audio use.

Or you could use a 360/PS3.

Otherwise the NAS solution is a pretty good one. Means you can hide the (usually noisy) hard drive away with your PC and have a good quality unit like the SB3 for your audio streaming duties.