My current project is to build a $400 computer. Well, I'm almost there but I'll leave that for another post when it's finished. I've had another computer project floating around for a number of years that I've wanted to do. I'm going to build a NAS (network attached storage) of my own. Currently, all of my files are on a secondary hard drive on my computer with only the irreplaceable files backed up to an external drive. Even then, I haven't updated the backup for a some time and a drive failure would probably destroy some pictures I'd like to keep. I could buy one or more external hard drives, but then I don't like that solution. It's too restrictive and...easy.
Phase one of this project is to build the computer. Nothing fancy, except the number of HDDs (up to 8). Prices for HDDs has been prohibitively high as of late, restraining me from building my machine yet. FreeNAS is some free software that installs onto a thumb drive and lets you run the computer in a corner without a monitor or keyboard. You can access it using your browser for configuration and if all goes right, you can mount the storage it provides as a network drive on the computer, making it appear like your local drive.
The idea with this is that any device on the network can access the files. I can watch movies on my phone, listen to music on all computers (and I have a lot of computers, with more to come), and store and access home videos and photos. True, there are web services that provide some of these things, but this is mine. Faster access, lots more space, and more possibilities. The NAS can also provide protection against hard drive failure. If one breaks, it can be replaced without loss of data.
True backup doesn't put all the eggs in one basket, even with the aforementioned drive protection. What about house fire? Theft? Meteors? Welcome to phase two. Here, multiple machines are created. These machines are then housed with others where they can use them for their own storage. It is then easy enough to have each of them synchronize the data between machines at night (the details are unimportant!). Now, any machine can be lost and the data remains on the survivors. The data can also be encrypted if so desired.
The point being that hard drives fail, computers die, and the internet is slow. Plus with my future computerized house, I'll need to keep my stuff somewhere.
Phase one of this project is to build the computer. Nothing fancy, except the number of HDDs (up to 8). Prices for HDDs has been prohibitively high as of late, restraining me from building my machine yet. FreeNAS is some free software that installs onto a thumb drive and lets you run the computer in a corner without a monitor or keyboard. You can access it using your browser for configuration and if all goes right, you can mount the storage it provides as a network drive on the computer, making it appear like your local drive.
The idea with this is that any device on the network can access the files. I can watch movies on my phone, listen to music on all computers (and I have a lot of computers, with more to come), and store and access home videos and photos. True, there are web services that provide some of these things, but this is mine. Faster access, lots more space, and more possibilities. The NAS can also provide protection against hard drive failure. If one breaks, it can be replaced without loss of data.
True backup doesn't put all the eggs in one basket, even with the aforementioned drive protection. What about house fire? Theft? Meteors? Welcome to phase two. Here, multiple machines are created. These machines are then housed with others where they can use them for their own storage. It is then easy enough to have each of them synchronize the data between machines at night (the details are unimportant!). Now, any machine can be lost and the data remains on the survivors. The data can also be encrypted if so desired.
The point being that hard drives fail, computers die, and the internet is slow. Plus with my future computerized house, I'll need to keep my stuff somewhere.
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