NASLite Network Attached Storage

and would like to reuse for cold storage primarily with old pata drives now that these virtual network filesystems seem to becoming of age.....


The problem? Don't wanna spend any money to do this So if I need to install sata spindles - those expensive addonic ide to sata adapters are out. And while I still have some of those promise sata controllers, their use eliminates my ability to run gigabit to the NASLite.


So I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way I might run gigabit via the usb ports? Know of any adapters which might work?




Recognize this is super slumming here But any tips would be appreciated. It's just hard to get around that single PCI slot without spending money.


Had considered that If I could find a single unloved PC tower with sufficient room to stuff all those drives - problem would be solved. But that would entail purchase of additional PATA controller cards - again defeating the purpose. Those Terminators are old, but they only need ribbons for connections. Their sole deficiency is that fast ethernet limit (perhaps not too bad given the speed of the unit itself

There are USB 2.0 adapters to gigabit ethernet of many types. Mostly from China of course but $6 to $10 each. Try an ebay search on "usb 2.0 to gigabit".

Good luck!

NASLite won't see USB ethernet adapters. You should be able to get some cheap GigE cards somewhere for cheap.

Hi Ralph. Thanks for chiming in.

Just wanted to comment that while I don't really have a handle on how large the market for "slumming" solutions is, the fact remains that "lesser" hardware is deprived of gigabit if/when one installs sata drives. One can either install that PCI sata card or the PCI gigabit card - but not both.

Accordingly, if/when you "refresh" the NAS lite distro....any capabilities you can add to mitigate fast ethernet speeds would be a big plus. In this case, I'm pretty sure these boxes have never really achieved gigabit speeds...but that gigabit always helped. Don't remember any time being disappointed.

And if you ever run across a really cheap replacement board for those old Terminators (say something like a cellphone processor), please announce it here. Those old terminator cases are built pretty well. I for one would be delighted to reuse them.


On a different note, have you been watching the spread of this ransomware? I think a lot of us would like to find a storage solution which can be configured as a WORM (Write Once Read Many). That's complicated to implement right now, so the first fellow who achieves this may do quite well. Particularly if it's something as solid as the NasLite.