Are either of these NAS scenarios even possible?

[RoyalScam]

Hello!

My NAS needs are meager. I have a portable 4TB USB drive that stores all of my FLAC music files (which is all I care to access, no video). Previously, it was connected to a USB port on a router for a down-and-dirty NAS. I accessed this music on my Onkyo receiver, which has network capabilities. I also have an 8TB USB LaCie hard drive which is partitioned, and serves as a backup drive for my two Mac computers (clones, using Carbon Copy Cloner) and the 4TB music drive on separate partitions. (All are formatted for Mac OS Extended Journaled file system)

I've since moved, and now use the FiOS G1100 router, which doesn't allow for USB NAS sharing. I'd like to share my music once again to the Onkyo, and also make it easier to access the 8TB backup drive without having to physically move it around to back everything up.

Would it be possible to either:

A. Get a single bay NAS, fill it with an 8TB drive (maybe even pry the one in my LaCie enclosure out and use that one), wire it to a LAN port on my G1100, connect the 4TB USB drive to a port on it and have it be visible on my network as it used to be? And would all of the partitions on my 8TB drive be available as well, so I could continue to clone the Macs incrementally over the network?

B. Get a dual bay NAS, fill it with a new 4TB drive just for the music (which I'll copy over from the USB drive) in one bay, and an 8TB drive in the other bay which could serve as the backup drive as described above?

C. Another, better and/or simpler option?

I'm not looking for RAID, or even necessarily JBOD...I just want two distinct drives (one for music, one for total backup) to mount and be fully accessible over my Mac-formatted network.

Thanks in advance for your time and help.

 

[RoyalScam]

Nobody, eh?

 

[System Error Message]

perhaps because you're a royal scam . Only a tiny portion of the community here actually gives advice and helps and we have our real lives to deal with. I do it because i find it amusing.

WD and seagate have the most basic NAS that comes with a drive and a USB port or 2 to attach more hard drives. Its a cut above router based NAS but still far below what can be achieved with other solutions but is an inexpensive and user friendly solution, they do come with their issues though.

You should also mention budget. If you have enough budget, synology has their own routers too and some decent NAS. Just because your ISP gave you a router doesnt mean you must use it as you can always use a different one.

One low budget option would be to make your own NAS. Get your own hardware, maybe even some arm boards (raspberry pi NICs are very limited in speeds so this is a no), and set them up.

 

[thiggins]

There used to be devices that would share USB drives on a network. But the reviews for the few that Amazon still sells are not encouraging. I would not recommend that method.

Your best bet is to get an entry-level single-drive NAS and copy files to it. You won't be able to put either of your USB drives into the NAS and have them work because NASes use a different filesystem.

However, as long as your existing drives are formatted FAT, NTFS or EXT3/4, you should be able to plug them into the NAS USB ports and access them over the network. If your USB drives are formatted for the MacOS filesystem, NASes won't mount them.

If you get a NAS with two USB ports, you can use one external drive for file storage and the other for backup.
Cheapest 1 bays from Synology and QNAP are
Synology DS115J 2 USB 2.0 ports
QNAP TS-128A 2 USB 2.0 / 1 USB 3.0

 

[TonyH]

Nobody, eh?

NAS has an own OS.