NAS question
Author
Discussion

LeoSayer

Original Poster:

7,660 posts

266 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
quotequote all
Probably a stupid one....obviously they are designed to work through ethernet, but is it possible to read files from a NAS via a USB port if it has one?

I would want to connect my WDTV media player to the NAS, if and when I buy one.

peterh2

539 posts

253 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
quotequote all
The WDTV media player has a network port? Just use that?

LeoSayer

Original Poster:

7,660 posts

266 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
quotequote all
peterh2 said:
The WDTV media player has a network port? Just use that?
No it's USB only.

igiveup

2,875 posts

304 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
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TheGroover

1,039 posts

297 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
quotequote all
Just be aware that some NAS boxes will require the hard drive that you connect via it's USB ports to be formatted in a specific way, which may not be NTFS or FAT.


Edited by TheGroover on Wednesday 24th February 20:26

LeoSayer

Original Poster:

7,660 posts

266 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
quotequote all
igiveup said:
Hmmm, not sure. It says the USB support is for USB HDD and flash drives, Printers and UPS monitoring and auto shutdown. No mention of accessing files via USB like you would do from a USB HDD.

igiveup

2,875 posts

304 months

LeoSayer

Original Poster:

7,660 posts

266 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
quotequote all
igiveup said:
Thanks. This is the one that worries me:

» Can I attach the ReadyNAS to a USB port on the PC?
The ReadyNAS will not work as a target USB device.

bogie

16,871 posts

294 months

Wednesday 24th February 2010
quotequote all
most of consumer NAS are not USB target devices

they have USB ports so you can connect a drive to copy and from them, but not direct attach the NAS to a PC

there is a box called a Drobo, which is a 2 unit solution, basically a USB hard drive, that you buy the network module for, so you can use it in both modes

most consumer NAS are linux based and have an EXT file system, so if you connect a USB drive to copy to/from the NAS, that is windows formatted in NTFS or FAT32, then it can be much slower than normal