NAS via HDD connected to PC or HDD connected to the router

0

Hardware I am working with

I would like to access the 2TB Seagate drive from within and outside the network. I am also considering running Syncany as my self-hosted syncing platform.

My question

Would it be better to:

a) plug the Seagate HDD directly into the router?

-=OR=-

b) plug the Seagate HDD into the laptop (which is in turn plugged into the router)?

I am asking in terms of performance, pros, and cons. I'm aware of general differences between using a laptop and router. Please compare read/write speed values based on component chipsets.

Raj

Posted 2015-07-18T12:25:54.767

Reputation: 290

Is the laptop stationary or mobile? I'd just go with b but keep a mirror backup at home if it's mobile. It's just a lot simpler. – Larssend – 2015-07-18T13:25:42.353

1The laptop is stationary. – Raj – 2015-07-19T01:09:36.537

HDD directly to Router – Dave – 2015-07-21T08:13:24.347

In my experience external hard drives are extremely unreliable and have a high rate of failure. You are also creating a single point of failure as you likely only have one drive. To do a NAS properly you should get a dedicated NAS solution. My experience has been with Synology and it has been the optimal way to go. You connect via ethernet instead of USB and you can get a two drive box so that you can set up a raid, that way if a drive goes bad, the raid can recover the data. You can use the Seagate as a back up device to the NAS box. – AMR – 2015-07-23T03:10:57.513

Why would people downvote without any mention of an issue with the question? – Raj – 2015-07-24T07:07:20.610

@AMR, so you find USB the point of failure? Meaning either of my intended solutions would be substandard? – Raj – 2015-07-24T07:10:53.280

Router-hosted NAS services have always had issues with CPU-limited performance. Personally I'd go hardcore and run an iSCSI or USBoIP target on the router, use that to mount the HDD on the laptop, and perform the actual NAS'ing on the laptop. That way the router doesn't have to handle the (relatively) CPU intensive SMB/NFS/AFS/etc. – qasdfdsaq – 2015-07-24T11:32:45.443

@Raj. I wasn't trying to say that USB is your point of failure. Anecdotally I have found that External USB HDD's are highly prone to catastrophic failure. I have four Western Digital drives sitting in a cupboard that all failed and you can no longer access any of the data and are bricked as they cannot even be reformatted. I tried Seagate, and use it to back up my NAS, but while I can still access the data, the backup no longer goes to completion, even though I have reformatted the drive on a number of occasions. So personally I have been burned. – AMR – 2015-07-24T12:52:14.433

My mention of a single point of failure has to do with the fact that you have a single drive. If you have even a two disk NAS set up as a RAID, the if one of the drives goes bad, you can swap in another and the raid should be able to recover, And while relying on RAID alone is not advisable, as you should also back up your data as well. I guess the real question you have to ask yourself is how valuable is your data to you. – AMR – 2015-07-24T12:59:14.613

Answers

1

If you connect the hard drive to the router:

  • Storage performance (read/write speeds) may be limited by the CPU power of the router. For your router, this appears to be about 60MB/s read and 35MB/s write (review).
  • You will be able to connect using only the protocols supported by your router
  • You won't need to install or manage any server software on your laptop
  • Netgear's proprietary software could add value (using ReadyCloud to configure external access)

If you connect the hard drive to your laptop:

  • Storage access will consume CPU cycles on your laptop, but access to the storage will be as fast as the device or USB 2.0 connection allows, which is 30 MB/s read, 15 MB/s write (Wikipedia)
  • You can configure whatever services you would like for the device (SMB, FTP, etc)
  • You lose a USB port on your laptop

Mikel Rychliski

Posted 2015-07-18T12:25:54.767

Reputation: 341

0

If you're connecting it to the router:

  • The NAS will be accessible 24/7
  • You're only bottleneck is the routers speed whereas if it was connected to the laptop, the laptop's NIC speed would also be a factor
  • The router is designed to shave high volume of data whereas the laptop isn't
  • Most routers can configure the NAS via it's web interface

If you're connecting to the laptop:

  • The laptop would have to be on 24/7 which it isn't designed to do
  • If the laptop needs to be restarted, the NAS is unalienable for that time
  • More complicated to manage across devices
  • Need to share your computer login details to gain access to it which poses a security risk

TechKno

Posted 2015-07-18T12:25:54.767

Reputation: 98

-1

  • a) means it might have performance issues as usb can interfere with wireless
  • b) this will work if you dont mind slower speed, if you are using wireless for the other devices, its baiscly as fast as wireless goes anyway

nwgat

Posted 2015-07-18T12:25:54.767

Reputation: 961

USB cannot interfere with wireless – qasdfdsaq – 2015-07-24T11:28:50.283

well intel says otherwise http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/universal-serial-bus/usb3-frequency-interference-paper.html

– nwgat – 2015-07-24T15:06:49.687

You don't seem to have read or understood the paper you are referring to. Their research shows no real world impact in the B/G band 2.4Ghz and no interference whatsoever in the A/AC band at 5Ghz. And if you believe the (broken) signal readouts from Intel's own wireless cards, even at 2.4Ghz it's four times weaker than undetectable. – qasdfdsaq – 2015-07-24T15:21:34.077

Asked: 2015-07-18T12:25:54.767

Viewed: 2 364 times

Active: 2015-07-29T16:22:57.117