PCA Forums

Anyone know of a good 3.5" HDD network Enclosure?
I would like to have a HDD on the network with 10/100 (or 1000) connection without a computer.
Most I have found require a special format or are FAT32. Doesnt FAT32 have a limit to the partition?
I do not want a special format (Such as the Linksys) for obvious reasons...like puting it in a computer without losing data.

Thanks

Would be nice if it would double as a USB2.0 HDD

pretty sure you need a little bit of hardware to make the drive recognize the network - network attached storage i think it is called - we have one at work and it has some kind of rudimentary os for the network - you can take a usb 2.0 enclosure and plug it in to any computer and the access it on the local network

D-Link and Maxtor make one. They are simple to use, and are for home network systems.

I recently found they make network to usb2.0 storage adapters. You can buy them built into switches/routers or as add-ons which would allow for usb2 and NAS. I havent seen any hardware that does NAS and usb(those other ones only use the usb for extra drives)
Fat32 has a limit of 4gig files

So there are routers/switches that have a USB2.0 port I could plug a USB2.0 HDD into and view it on the network????

That would be better then what I was asking about ... any specifics?

there is this


It is a USB 2 to network adapter.

So you take a USB 2 drive and plug it in and it is on the network



Easily Add Storage Space to Your Network

Now you can quickly and easily add gigabytes of storage space onto your network with the Network Storage Link from Linksys. This tiny network appliance connects USB 2.0 hard drives directly to your Ethernet network. You can connect up to two stand-alone USB disk drives of any size, and access them from anywhere on your network. You can even plug a USB flash disk into the Network Storage Link, for a convenient way of accessing your portable data files. The Network Storage Link can also be set up so that your storage devices are accessible from the Internet -- files can be easily downloaded via your web browser. Your files can be available publicly, or create password-protected accounts for authorized users.

Installation of the Network Storage Link is simple -- just plug it directly into your 10/100 Ethernet network, and attach your USB 2.0 hard drives or flash disk. It can self-configure to your network via DHCP or you can use the built-in utility to manually configure it. With the speedy USB 2.0 interface, you'll get quick response times with even your largest files.

The Network Storage Link features built-in disk utilities, accessible through your web browser. You can format new disk drives, and scan drives for errors. The built-in backup program lets you schedule full, incremental, or synchronization backups of your network drives to the Network Storage Link, or vice versa. It will even send you an email message when a hard drive gets nearly full, completely full, or has an error.

The Network Storage Link is a fast, simple, flexible and economical way to add storage to your network.


# Connects USB 1.1 or 2.0 disk drives and flash disks directly to your network
# Share music, video, or data files with managed access by user name or group
# Integrated file server -- access your files from the Internet
# Built-in disk utilities -- format, backup, and scandisk

That is a great idea but they blow it here:

IMPORTANT: The Storage Links format is NOT compatible with Windows. You cannot swap USB hard drives between Windows systems and the Storage Link.

Why would anyone produce a product so nifty but the HDD can only be utilitized on this unit and not on a computer.

that is really lame......


Now I wonder if the d-link ones posted above have the same problem

I read through the manual for this one and couldn't find anything about the problem that linksys one has

well, that isn't to bad.....

not too bad, with the exception of a 120Gig limit. I am using a 250Gig HDD.

well, yeah. but 2 120's on that thing is 240! so almost the 250