Cheap Network Storage Alternatives

Cheap Network Storage Alternatives - Number 1: NAS Dongle + Drive Caddy

You can pick up a NAS Dongle on Ebay for about £20, you can then use any old USB storage to to attached to it.

A NAS dongle allows you to connect a ethernet cable to you USB drive via the means of voodoo magic, contained in the little box pictured above. Check all the cable come with the dongle, and you can read a NAS Dongle review here, along with a snippet of setup info.

If you havn't alreadt got one, you will need a Harddrive Caddy, SATA or IDE to suite you drive.

If you have an old hard drive from a computer then you are quids in if not get a secound hand one off ebay.

For this setup based on a 150GB drive, you are looking at around £60 - 70 cheaper if you use your own drive.

Cheap Network Storage Alternatives - Number 2: Use a small PC

A small form factor can be used to make an inexpensive, very self managing network storage solution. Most of these small PCs only come with one bay for a hardrive, you will need an extra

Rack which you can swap in to the DVD / CD drive after you have insalled windows. The beauty of this is you can then keep a double back up of all your really important stuff like photos, and office documents to protect against drive failiure.

For info on how to set up a PC to use for NAS, then please click the link.

The PC to build this system cost £20, it is low spec but that doesn't matter, the caddy was £5, and thats really all you need. The drives may cost a bit if you don't already have them.

This set up might cost £100 - 120 all in, whcih is really cheap when you compare it with all in dedicated NAS solutions.

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