NASLite Network Attached Storage

I've been lurking in the forums for a week or so and have decided to buy NASLite+ USB. My first question is, if my machine can't boot from the USB (and the floppy "kicker" does not work either) can I "convert" my license to the CD bootable version of NASLite+?

My second question is about the upgrade policy. From what I understand when version 2 comes out I will have to pay for it but may get a discount if it comes out within 30 days of my initial purchase. Is this correct? What will the price be and/or how much discount will I get? If version 2 comes out in 31 days do I have to pay full price for it?

I am also curious to know why there is no "trial" version available? While most people absolutely rave about NASLite+ I do see that some people have issues. How do most people verify that NASLite+ will actually work before buying the license?

I'll give you answers based on what Tony and Ralph have said in other posts. They can correct me if I give wrong info.

I'll start with your last question. The free floppy verison of NASLite is the "trial" version. This lets you see what NASLite is like and how you interact with it. Due to the space restrictions on a floppy, the performance is less becuase some drivers had to be left out.

For your first question, because you download NASLite+ there is no physical CD to return like you could do if you bought software at a store. So Server Elements has no way to know if you deleted your first copy or are trying to get a "free" licensed version. I know 99.9% of the people would be honest about this, but it's the others who wreck it for everyone. So the policy that Tony and Ralph have stated is there are no "exchanges" from USB to CD or from CD to USB.

On the other hand, if you can't get it to work, there are lots of people on the forums that are willing to offer suggestions and help. As one of those people I would suggest you try loading a DOS boot image on your USB key and see if your computer will boot to DOS using the USB key. User edeng has links to the kicker disks in another post so you could search the forums for that post to try them out.

For your second question, if you buy one Server Elements product you can get discounts on other products. I have _not_ heard anyone say this won't apply to a purchase of version 2. This is typical in the software industry. Existing users pay a smaller fee to upgrade than new users pay for the product. What the "smaller fee" will be has not been announced. I have not heard of any 30 day time limit on the discount. Where did you see that?

smeyer,

Thanks for the quick response. First, I did make a mistake on the time limit. It is 6 months and not 30 days. I saw that by clicking on the "Upgrades and Discounts" link on the main page.

I did try the free version and that seemed to work fine. I understand the various licensing decisions given the number of untrustworthy people out there!

I've just purchased NASLite+ for USB and will give it a whirl this weekend.

Regards.

I have an old Dell GX100 that won't boot from the USB key that I got to work. I built the USB key from the image, then made an image of it that I could burn a bootable CD from. Now just insert the CDROM and boot from that. You still have to have the USB key in the box as the image on the CD goes to the USB key to get the config for your NAS box but it's a work around.

Mike

I bought the USB version and I can't get it to boot from the USB The kicker disk did work fine however

Mike,

Thanks for the response but I want to eliminate the CDROM completely so I can use all 4 IDE channels for drives.

Try a BIOS update and if that doesn't work....... You will have to try a newer board that supports booting off of USB. Thats all I can think, sorry.

Glad the boot disk worked for you though.

Mike

I already looked for a BIOS update but I have the latest available. I am a bit surprised it did not work since there are various USB boot options such as USB-HDD, USB-FDD, USB-LSxxx.

The board is a Syntax S635MP that I picked up several years ago "free AR" so I really can't complain. The case was about $15.00 (and will hold 4 drives), the 64MB flash drive was about $5 and the 256 MB PC2100 RAM was ... well I forget but it could not have been that much. So with the $25 for NASLite+ the box cost me $45 + the cost of the RAM + the drives.

Let's see:
- Quiet? check
- Cheap? check
- Reliable? check
- Fast? check
- Easy to setup? check
- Easy to administer? check

Nope, can't complain

Make sure that the APM on the board for the drive is off so the USB port is always powered. That may be the reason you can't boot the USB port. If it has an option to boot from a USB-HDD then it will work. You have a BIOS setting problem.

Mike

Mike,

I tried turning APM off but that did not help. No worries as far as I am concerned, the kicker disk works fine and it leaves all 4 IDE channels open; three of which are filled and the forth is awating a good deal on a big drive