ProDave Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 My computing model is changing. I still have my power hungry, noisy, slow desktop pc but it does not get much use now. I am still revelilng in just how fast and reliable this Zorin laptop is proving to be. So now I have a distributed computing model, it is time I addressed file storage. I would like a file store that is accessible to all computers in the house on the network. It must be low power as it will be always on, and almost certainly should contain a SSD not a mechanical drive. I thought it would be a simple case of buy a network disk caddy, a bit like the cheap USB ones but obviously with a network interface instead, and just put your own disk in it. But everything I have seen so far seems much more complicated often including DVD drives etc So what are others using for this? Next question is how to access the drive? I have a folder on my desktop pc mapped to the network, and the other windows PC's can see that using "map network drive". I am guessing you do something similar for a NAS drive? But how do you do it on linux? I had my desktop PC on earlier so it should have seem my network mapped drive, but no amount of browsing the network on Zorin would find it, so I guess you need a dedicated program? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I've just done this exact thing. The parts I used were these: 1 off Odroid HC1 ( https://www.odroid.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=817 ) 1 off suitable 5V power supply (one can be bought from the link above) 1 off 8GB µSd card 1 off suitable 2.5" HDD, with a SATA interface (or you could choose the Odroid HC2 that takes a 3.5" SATA HDD https://www.odroid.co.uk/ODROID-HC2 ). An Ethernet connection to your home network I loaded this OpenMediaVault ( https://sourceforge.net/projects/openmediavault/files/OMV 4.x for Single Board Computers/ ) to the µSd card. OMV is pretty easy to use, and has a web interface that's used to set it up. Not the most intuitive web interface, as you need to, rather tediously, confirm everything twice, but there are tutorials around on the web and YouTube showing how to set this up. I'm using a 2Gb SSD, as I wanted the NAS to run silently, so that may well reduce the power consumption a bit, but I'm finding that my set up runs fine on a 5V 2A maximum supply (smaller than recommended) and when I measured the supply current it was usually around 700mA to 800mA, so well under 5 W. It seems pretty fast, and is dead easy to use. The open folders I have set up can be accessed by anyone, and I have other folders that are only shared with some users. For example, my car and I are the only users that can transfer data to two folders, one containing my car music collection, the other the video recorded by the car dash cam and sentry cam. My system, has been running for around a month now, and seems to perform faultlessly. It makes no noise at all, and hasn't noticeably altered the house energy consumption, plus it's saved a lot of faffing around transferring files, photos etc around using USB sticks etc. Very handy, as I can now power down my main PC all the time that I'm not using it, yet still have access to what used to reside in shared folders on it. You can try OpenMediaVault by installing it on your Zorin box and allocating it a drive to use (could be a USB drive). Should give you a feel for how it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragg987 Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 If all you are sharing is static files would a cloud service not fit the bill? e.g. free google storage up to 15Gb or £16 per year for 100Gb. The advantage is that data is available from any device anywhere in the world, also backed up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 Some routers have a USB port that you can plug storage into. Have a look at yours. As you are running Linux, you will almost certainly need to install SAMBA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 Lots to go on there. I have installed SAMBA, next time the desktop pc is on I will see if that finds it's shared drive. I wans't expecting to have to build my own server and program it from scratch, I kind of expected an off the shelf cheap consumer solution to be available. I have a BT Hub 4. It has a USB socket. I have plugged a USB memory stick into it. If I interrogate the router, it says USB: No devices detected which I guess means it is expecting to find a computer, not memory? I do not want a cloud solution. Call me old fashioned, but I think this cloud thing is barmy. I do not want to trust all my data so some service that can be accessed anywhere, that might get hacked, that might go bust, that might not be available of there is a network problem, that might seek to earn money from exploiting my data. I am looking for a local solution under my control. More investigating to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 Netgear and Buffalo do OOTB NAS drives. SSD is a really poor choice for NAS, the architecture is wrong for long term storage and you don’t need the speed. Pair of 1Tb drives in full RAID and you have redundancy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliG Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 (edited) Office365 comes with 1TB of cloud storage for free if you have it. Can I try and persuade you on the Cloud. We have just moved to the Cloud at work, a couple of people used to say what you said, but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Why would stuff in your house be safer than stuff managed by a multi billion dollar corporation. People can get into your network and I think their networks may be safer. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are not going bust. They aren't selling the data you store in the Cloud, that would be corporate suicide. It is not social media. Finally the US Department of Defence uses an Amazon Cloud System now, if it is good enough for them it is good enough for me. I looked into a NAS a while back but they are surprisingly expensive and not simple to manage. If your local storage breaks and you have not invested in a more expensive RAID system them you will lose everything. This is not a problem in the cloud. Connection issues is a fair worry if your internet connection is problematic. I doubt this is an issue for most people. A lot depends on what you want to put on the storage. I used to think I would build a NAS storage system for video and music, but frankly the availability of cheap streaming services makes this a waste of time. Now you might want to store some pictures and files. I really do think the cloud is the best solution for this as you will be able to easily access it from multiple devices. You can also access it whilst not at home. One last thing, do you actually need it. A lazy way of sharing files is just to email them to yourself. I backed up my laptop hard drive onto One Drive by copying all the files there a while back just in case it broke. But files that I regularly need I just email to myself, then I can access them anywhere that I have email. Edited January 21, 2020 by AliG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 2 minutes ago, AliG said: Microsoft, Google and Amazon are not going bust. True, but they may discontinue the service at short notice. I use some cloud services, usually for transferring large files. I zip and encrypt the data. What would be nice is a method that allows me to create an encrypted folder that I have full access to, and can sent a link to others to view, or download, a file. It is the encryption that seems to be problematic as it would need two passwords, mine and the recipients. There must be a way of doing it as it is basically the same as PGP that my email uses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 I guess the ultimate lazy way to store files is just buy a large USB memory stick. I thought this would be simple and cheap. I am not after a corporate file server, just one drive that can be accessed from any device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I have a Buffalo 1 TB network drive. It just plugs into a LAN port on the router. Try rebooting the BT Hub with the storage connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 My Netgear router has a USB port for a shared access drive. Works OK, but will not run a USB HDD - it crashes the router after a few minutes, perhaps because the USB HDD needs too much current, and the router just can't handle it. With a normal USB stick plugged in, and the shared drive set up in the router settings, it seems to work OK, but also seems pretty slow for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSniff Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 (edited) We have been running a NAS with two 1TB disks for a few years now. It wasn't cheap (but is the lowest cost Synology) but was a cost effective way of having a networked Time Machine disk for Mac backups as well as centralised file storage and music server. (I had been using an old computer with extra storage running headless but running a dedicated NAS just proved easier and the router we had at the time did not have a NAS server built in). I guess that a USB 3.0 desktop drive (with its own power supply) would be the minimum spec plugged into a router. We do also use cloud storage as backup for some key documents: these are saved as password protected zip files: not foolproof, but better than nothing - and slightly more efficient on storage as well. Edited January 21, 2020 by MrSniff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I have a BT Home Hub 4. Zorin laptop sees a USB stick fine if plugged into the router. Start/Home/Other Locations/Windows Network/Home/BTHUB4/USB4.... Sees all the files, plays videos. That's on Zorin OS 12 Just tried it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliG Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 OK if you just want cheap storage on the network, you probably want a USB SSD, not a memory stick. Memory sticks are quite unreliable when used heavily. Something like this is still cheap, £39 for 240GB. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Integral-240GB-Portable-Drive-External/dp/B06XSZYB5R/ref=sr_1_9?adgrpid=53292702855&gclid=CjwKCAiA35rxBRAWEiwADqB372hXhhYFXjb6Z1zQZb_120ojVcM_DNWLdsIRmCqyVw3GnyTCuVGcpBoCxaMQAvD_BwE&hvadid=259065928940&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1007326&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=10388665846543852233&hvtargid=aud-857384558340%3Akwd-297346692125&keywords=usb+ssd&qid=1579635859&sr=8-9 You then connect it to your router's USB port. You then should be able to see it using your router's IP address. You can then map this to a network drive. It may be that you need to turn on the functionality in your router's controls. In case this doesn't work you could just use any memory stick you have lying around to try it out before investing in something else. Here is a video of how to do it on a BT Smarthub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWp9ldR3q4 Internet reports suggest that this function via the router may be slow and unreliable. But it all depends on how much data you need to move and it might work very well for your needs. Again see how you get on with a small USB stick first. The main risk is that doing this if the SSD breaks the data on it will be lost, but this is no different to how most people use their laptops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 One step forwards,one backwards. My router does not like a Linux file system. Tried a different USB stick with an NTFS file system and it likes that. Windows desktop pc can see and read the files on the USB stick over the network. No luck with Zorin. Samba cannot find anything on the network. Simply browsing the network with file manager finds "Windows Network" which it says is empty. Looking as @Onoff suggests for Start/Home/Other Locations/Windows Network/Home/BTHUB4/USB4.... I don't know how to do that. I can't even find start? I can find Home which contains the name of my local SDD and finds it's file system but no mention of "other locations"???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 We have an old WD My Book. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Digital_My_Book Works but perhaps a bit too basic for some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 13 minutes ago, ProDave said: One step forwards,one backwards. My router does not like a Linux file system. Tried a different USB stick with an NTFS file system and it likes that. Windows desktop pc can see and read the files on the USB stick over the network. No luck with Zorin. Samba cannot find anything on the network. Simply browsing the network with file manager finds "Windows Network" which it says is empty. Looking as @Onoff suggests for Start/Home/Other Locations/Windows Network/Home/BTHUB4/USB4.... I don't know how to do that. I can't even find start? I can find Home which contains the name of my local SDD and finds it's file system but no mention of "other locations"???? This is a later Zorin you have than 12? When I say start I mean the bfo Z, bottom left where Windows Start is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 Zorin 15 I get a totally different view to what you describe. When I select home I have Device, which drills down to the entire file system. Places which lists common folders on this computer, and Network which offers Brows Network, finds "windows network" which it then declares to be empty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamSee Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I use the Synology diskstation for this sort of thing. Loaded up with a bunch of SSDs, easy to set a raid system for redundancy in the case of a drive failure and can install a "cloud station" for access while out and about. Probably the most user friendly system around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onoff Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 (edited) https://askubuntu.com/questions/1114991/ubuntu-18-04-does-not-see-windows-network/ (Zorin 15 is based on Ubuntu 18.04) Edited January 21, 2020 by Onoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 That still mentions files -> Other Locations. I don't have this "other locations" EDIT: Bingo. Making progress. By entering smb://192.168.1.254/usb1/ (the IP address of the router and a bit of guesswork) gets me access to the USB stick in the router. How can I automate that / make it a permanent link? EDIT 2: Now I have "found" my USB stick it seems to remember it when I close and re open file manager. Further more, if I go to save in Libre Office, it is listed there too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 22, 2020 Author Share Posted January 22, 2020 Okay, got this remote disk access sorted. It did not remember my manually entered disk address after a re boot. But I found you can make a shortcut to it in file manager which it saves in "places" so now I have easy access to the USB storage plugged into the router. So now the question boils down to do I get a large USB stick? Or do I get a USB disk caddy and put either an SSD or HDD in it? I guess an HDD would probably be too much power to just plug into the router and would need a separate power supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 12 minutes ago, ProDave said: So now the question boils down to do I get a large USB stick? Or do I get a USB disk caddy and put either an SSD or HDD in it? what are you storing ..??? As I said above, SSD is really not what you need here, there is no benefit. Cheap laptop hard drive and that’s it really, caddy from Amazon or eBay and you have a HDD that will give you 300Gb for £30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 22, 2020 Author Share Posted January 22, 2020 It's basically a place to put all documents so I can access them from any computer. I will probably put all the pictures from various cameras in one place as well. Leaning towards SSD was for low power. As long as the chosen HDD spins down when idle then I don't see HDD as a bad choice. I already have an HDD in a caddy that we use as backup storage so I will plug that in later and give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 26 minutes ago, ProDave said: So now the question boils down to do I get a large USB stick? Or do I get a USB disk caddy and put either an SSD or HDD in it? I got some USB adaptors that let me plug 4 USB devices into a single socket. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-in-1-Micro-USB-Male-to-Micro-USB-Female-and-3-USB-2-0-Female-Host-OTG-Adapter/301755853448 Then you can get some cheap USB memory sticks Can set it up to do backups as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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