[nila]

Hi all,
I currently have a Raspberry Pi 2 connecting to my NAS drive. It's a WD World Edition (early model) 3TB NAS hard drive. This lets me plug it into the network and have all my files accessible over the network.
I filled it up some time ago so now have a 2Tb WD Passport plugged into the USB drive on it which has also now filled. Sadly it only has 1 USB drive so I am now out of options to add more storage to it.
I really like using just 2.5" external hard drives for the storage as it means I can simply unplug it and take it with me when I go travelling.

I'm just looking for suggestions really as to what recommended options are for a cheap/small NAS solution. I dont need RAID at all and just literally want my drives accessible over the network - would happily just buy another 2Tb Passport to increase capacity.

Is the Raspberry Pi (1 or 2) able to have a external drive connected to it and share it? I have an old Raspberry Pi 1 that I could happily use for a NAS if it'd work.

[speedwell68]

Yeah you can plug any drive into an RPI and share it, however the drives will need an extra PSU. I use a powered hub and an Y cable.

[nila]

Thanks for the reply.
I've just been reading up on this and the articles I've read suggest the performance using a Raspberry Pi is quite poor (due to 100Mb/s and also the USB connection).

Just wondering if this is true and how people find it, especially with a Pi 2?

I started looking at other options and found the PogoPlug v4 which sounds perfect. It'll just sit on my network and let me plug in up to 4 USB drives and start sharing them.... perfect I thought. Until I started reading it more and then it appears that you have to use their custom software to access the drives and copy files across. The article claims the performance is not good when using direct samba and has bugs.

Anyone have any first hand experience with this?
Anyone used or recommend any other USB NAS hub type devices that work well with Samba sharing?

[Steve_uk]

Yeah as speedwell says they work fine and auto mounts.
I have one of them external kind that has 2 USB cables on it I plug one into the Pi and the other into my SKY HD box next to it which gives it the power

[nila]

How good do you find the performance?

[Steve_uk]

How good do you find the performance?

I can't really say as I only use my USB to store my fanart and thumbnails i keep the videos and music on my network.
Fanart appears quickly though lol