[Discuss] Second NAS dead, tossing money at Apple

[dougsweetser at gmail.com (Doug)]

I had a Netgear ReadyNAS. It had about 500 avi's for the families
video library.  I reported that failure here, but I am getting old
enough that I forgot the details.  I initially thought the video
collection was lost, but when I figure out how to mount the drive in
Linux (it was not trivial since they used an odd block size), I was
able to make a back up of the collection.  Since the drive was still
readable, I blame the ReadyNAS hardware for flaking out.

The replace was a MyBookLive in January.  I liked that I could log in
and look around, even install software if I felt like it.  The
MyBookLive could be easily mounted from my MyBookPro, and movies watch
from there with vlc.

Things started to go a little flaky.  There used to be a web
interface, but I was not able to reach it any more.  I didn't know how
to diagnose or fix the problem, so I just ignored it.  Who needs a web
interface anyway?

I decided to get a Sonos, a way to play music but use one's phone as a
controller.  It works so long as there is a samba share somewhere on
the local network with music on it.  The MyBookLive didn't appear to
be running samba.  I bet it would have been trivial to turn on from
the web interface.  I went over with ssh and started trying to add a
samba server.  The first few efforts did work.  I found a web site
that said "Here is the way to add to a MyBookLive."  I tried like a
dumb monkey at the keyboard to add stuff as instructed.  Once out of
frustration I did do the "unplug" to reboot trick.  I don't like
devices that skip the on/off switch.  I told the MyBookLive to
reboot...that was the last I heard from the box.  It goes from solid
blue, to solid green, to blinking green.  The blinking means it is
doing something to the drives, and i can hear it thinking.  The
problem is that I cannot ssh in any more.  I go to my router's web
page, and it says there is no MyBookLive on the network.  I should
confess that I gave up on the drive and did the factory reset,
apparently to little success.

As I wrote this, it has calmed down, blinking once every 15-30
seconds, little sound of drives at work.  I may crack open the device,
hook it up to my linux box, and see what linux thinks of the drive.
Or not, I have wasted too much time on this device already.

Since I work near the Burlington Mall, all it takes is more money to
get the Apple solution known as Time Capsule.  It was a bigger device
than I needed (2TB), and more money than I wanted to pay, but that was
to be expected.  The Sonos played nicely with the iTunes on the Time
Capsule so long as the name was short and sweet (I called it "nas").
About 15 hours were needed to get the avi's over to my Apple "nas".  I
can play them off the iBook using vlc.  This feels like a little
progress.  I have also put iPhoto out on the nas so as soon as I
upload photos, the misses can see the result.  I will try to back that
up 1x month, perhaps to the drive from the MyBookLive if it is good.

Let's hope the Time Capsule has a longer shelf life.  The video library has
has 2 hard disk back up, so I can recover again if need be.

Doug