NASLite Network Attached Storage

I was waiting for NASLite-2 HDD to come out for a long time and now it's out. I wanted it to boot on a old small NAS server. Ether a Netgear ND508 box or a Intel Business Storage Station. Could put on of the 500 GB drives in them. But I like it to be small and NASLite-2 HDD will not boot in them!

I been looking on line for some small PC that would be good to use that will cost about $150 or less. I been looking for Mini-ITX board with no fans with a CPU all ready be nice with ram all ready too. Then would need a power supply. I like to get a small one were you can power it with a brick type power supply. I would make my own case around it. But it seems hard to find a system like that. With NASLite-2 HDD it don't have to have a fast CPU or a lot of ram. That's what the 2 NAS servers I wanted to run it on are. Small, slow, low ram, Bick power supply. But they will not boot NASLite-2 HDD in them.

Any one know were people can get a mother board like this? I guess for a slow CPU and little ram could get one for less then $150.

This ASUS is good

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6856110056

That looks good. But I wish they had it smaller. I don't want it to take up a lot of space and it be nice to have no fans.

The new hard drives they have out now don't use a lot of power or make a lot of heat. I am thinking if I can find a good small board make a case with a screen for the top just to have it vent some with out any fan to get dust and make sound.

I looked for a long time on the web. I order one and hope it works real good for NASLite-2 HDD.

I got it at http://mini-box.com a "VIA EPIA-5000AG Mini-ITX Motherboard,VIA C3 533MHz Fanless Processor" for $108.99, and a
"picoPSU-120 Power Kit" for $54.95. Shipping was $8.86 so it came to $172.80! But I think it will make a very nice small NASLite-2 HDD box.

When I get it and put it all together I will try and post some photos of it up here. I am think of hacking up the Storage Station case to install it in there. But I just my get some sheet metal and make my own small case for it.

I all ready have a PC100 64 MB ram that should work in it.

small,low power,cheap,boot without keyboard or mouse
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/1500/hp-evectra.html

Did you ever achieve getting NASLite running on a Netgear ND508? I ask as I just have, and wondered if anyone needed to know how. The posting is quite old now so I doubt the information would still be relevent, but thought I'd offer it

Cheers,
Graham

I'll be interested in the details...

No never got NASLite-2 HDD to boot in the Netgear. Only one I found was Trustix Linux will boot in it. I have to install it on a system with the same type chipset and ethernet card as the Netgear. It came out with a old FreeBSD on it.

Maybe NASLite M2 will boot in it. When it comes out I will test that. That would be very nice to have it running on the Netgear ND508 or ND520.

GrahamNR172 I just reread your message. So you got NASLite-2 HDD to boot in the ND508? How? I love to have it work in that. Can you post how you did it. A step-by-step way would be very nice.

-Raymond Day

I got it working! On a Netgear ND520!

Because GrahamNR172 said he got it working I worked on it again.

Last time I did not put in the License and I did not know you had to to get on it.

I looked at the HD LED and it was flashing some. But did not look like it was working by it and it does not do any beeps. It does have a PC speaker too.

I have not did the Unlock yet. I like to get this on the 320GB I had in there now that has Trustix Linux. I just tested this on a 160gb.

Here is some info. on it from the NASLite screens.







It's a little hard to set this up. But I found a old PC with a VIA chip set and a nic card with a RealTek chip on it.

It's neat it boots in it.

I wish could make a DD copy of it that would work for others. But have to put the License code in just to get telnet or http working. Maybe on NASLite M2 you can just get telnet working to set up the License and Unlock code. That way could make a DD copy that all could easy install it on a hard drive and put it in a Netgear ND508 or ND520.

-Raymond Day

Basically what I did was mount the 250Gb drive in my PC, a Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo with VIA chipset. I added a BenQ Network card with RTL8139D chipset and did an install. On the first boot it failed, so I booted from the CD again and did the (upgrade?) option, I forget what it was called, but you propbably know what I mean. Rebooted again and it booted fine. Worth noting that the OS complains about the 8139D network card saying I need a 8139C or earlier, but you can ignore that.

After that I input my license number, set up the general network settings then shutdown.

I then transferred the disk into the Netgear case and powered up. I was convinced it had failed as the HDD light only really flickered very briefly. However, I could Telnet in, so it had booted afterall! On the whole, you have to ignore the lights on the netgear as they just don't work, pretty much as expected. For example, the FDX light doesn't glow, even though it actually connects at full duplex.

From there I did the rest of the setup with Telnet and web interface, did the activation etc and the device has been working very sweetly ever since.

Worth noting that when you power-down from the Telnet screen, the device doesn't actually power off, but you will hear the hard disk spin-down after 10 to 15 seconds, and at that point you can press and hold the power switch to turn it off.

One thing you will have to do: The standard memory in the Netgear is only 16Mb so you will need to upgrade that. NASLite will use all the memory you put in once it starts sharing data out, so don't be shy. It will use pretty much ANY PC100 or PC133 memory which is very cheap on Ebay. I tried high and low density and both worked. Mine now has a single 256Mb PC133 in and not had any glitches at all.

If any of that is as clear as mud, then I'd be happy to sit down and do an install and document it accurately as I go along.

For those interested, a UK seller has a few of the ND508 and 520 devices on ebay at the moment, 20 and 29 pounds respectively. I bought one and they are new unused in the original box! Well worth the money for a robust (if a tad noisey!) bit of kit.

Graham

I am coping the data off the 320GB hard drive I want to install this on. I don't know if it's the netgear or not but it says it will take till about 6 am tomorrow till it's done copying the data.

Maybe NASLite-2 HDD will be faster. I doing it with WinSCP and it says it's going about 750 KiB/s To a windows XP home hard drive. That is the one I am on now typeing this. A Atom CPU one. Very small and low power.

Then I will copy that data back, only it will be on a NASlite-2 HDD in the Netgear!

I have 2 Netgears. The other one I unsolder the solder the holes for the other ram. Then solder a sockit in it. I have two 256MB rams in there so it see's 512MB of ram.

It was hard, and took a lot of time to unsolder over a 100 holes but it works.

I all so put other fans in it that I don't hardly hear. Put a slow down resitor on the CPU Fan. It hardly makes any sound at all now.

I still have the VIA chip set PC apart waiting for this to copy the data over before I put the 320GB hard drive in it to install NASLite-2 HDD.

I only have one 256MB ram in this one going to run NASLite-2 HDD on. It should work good I think.

I know about the power down. I wait till I hear the hard drive park sound then hold the power switch in till it powers down. It's the same with Trustix Linux too. Same with the LED's only the power and hard drive LED still work.

I guess you just have to find a Linux that don't use on board video. Then it should work in the Netgear ND508/ND520. That's how Trustix is. So is NASLite

-Raymond Day

an interesting topic - have been following it and found the items on ebay in the UK what is the difference between the 508 and the 520 apart from hard drive size - both are useless so is there any good reason to buy the 520 as it is more expensive in the uk and a new harddrive wold be beeded for both

would anybody post a photo of it with the top removed [cannot find one] and am a little nervous about desoldering as raymond has done - would like to see whats in there and think about other ways

take it it has a mac address [must have] has anybody tried the WOL command on it - i dont need 24/7 so being able to wake it up and turn it off remotly would be a plus

thanks for any info

The unit is only a 100Mbps so the utility of it is questionable to my way of thinking, a decent backup device perhaps.

As far as the RAM upgrade by de-soldering from one board and installing it in another, sounds like a whole lot of work to me for little gain. That and the fact that you could end up doing damage to the RAM or the MB of the target device in the process.

WoL, there is no support for that in NL so that is a no go.

If you got the time and are board go for it but I wouldn't waste allot of money on it.

Mike

First off, there isn't any requirement for soldering or de-soldering. What Raymond has done is add another memory slot to the existing one, that's all. It's jujst one of those things that really clever geeks do when too much spare time presents itself

Here's a picture as requested of the inside of the device. You are right in that there is no difference between the nd508 and nd520 beyond the hard disk size and badge on the front. Yes, it has a MAC address (noted on a sticker on the underside of the machine).

Mike is correct that it's only 100Mbps so obviously it'll never be as useful as something running on a gig network, but then for most of us this is just an exercise in giving old kit a whole new lease of life.



Cheers,
Graham

In the case of the pic I see that the memory is simply a DIMM so the change out should take like 5 seconds. It should require no soldering at all.

If you have one then by all means re-purpose it with NL if you can but I wouldn't recommend going out an buying one.

Mike