NASLite Network Attached Storage

Hey all,

Preparing to make my purchase and can't decide which platform to go with can you list some pro's and con's?

Thanks

Hi Rammer,

Buy both, you purchase the first one at the full price, but the second will be discounted. I can't rememeber the savings though.

it depends on the hardware you have, I use the USB version in a few machines one server supports booting from the USB pen and the other two don't and need a kicker floppy. this is down to the board design.
The USB does not use a ide channel like the CDD version but as V2 supports lots of devices taking up one ide is not to much of a problem.

There are some usb pens that don't boot and some usb interfaces cause a bit of trouble.

I have one setup with usb Naslite on a Compact Flash card in the Card Reader which looks kinda neat.

what ever you choose I am sure you will be pleased with the software.

I've got the same contemplation...

I originally tried with the FDD version but I could never get the image onto the floppy successfully.

Anyway, I want to use v2, so that's OK...

I'm just a little confused with how the USB version works with a kicker (as I can't boot from USB).

I downloaded the kickers from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lou.greyfaulk/ and as mentioned on the site, the CD version went far too quickly, but the floppy version found my USB drive fine (I even copied files to it, etc just to make sure).

Now, my computer does not support booting from the USB Drive, so I'm assuming that if I want to purchase the NASlite USB version I'd need a kicker. What I don't understand is how that works: I'm guessing that the kicker will be a bootable FD in the FDD that (at least starts to) boot and somehow transfers the booting to the USB Drive?

So that means I'd require a FD and a USB stick installed all the time? Although the FD could be removed after boot?

I understand that USB sticks have a read/write life of xxx times (can't remember). Has that been an issue?

Another dumb question: Does the NASlite USB CDRom simply install the software onto the [Bootable] USB Drive? Then the CDRom can be put away? Maybe until the USB Drive fails?

Thanks,

Hi scribbly,

The USB Naslite CD version, contains a kicker floppy image to make a kicker and also files that when the CD is booted will transfer the various naslite files to your USB pen, then you put away the CD and just boot with the USB if supported by the Motherboard. if the motherboard wont boot the USB then you will need to use a kicker to help it along, the kicker simply loads a USB device driver so that the motherboard can see it then once detected it hands over the rest of the boot process to the USB pen.

Be aware that even with a kicker you can still encounter problems like the usb not being detected, this is why there are a few other versions of the kicker, one may work where another maynot.

The good news it that your usb pen is detected. you can always try the HP format tool at http://www.freenas.info and see if that boots up your pen.

once your server is booted up you can remove both the kicker and usb pen,

note, the USB version can be made on any pc, say for instance your server dont have a CD rom drive!

I wouldnt worry about the life of a USB pen, remember you DON'T need one with massive storage! a 32MB pen will be fine, you can even use a old mp3 player, CF card (Compact Flash)

But here is some info on USB life cycle
http://www.getusb.info/what-is-the-life ... lash-drive
I havent had a pen die on me yet, I also have a small number of CF Cards 32mb ones, off ebay for a pound.

If you are worried that you may encounter problems with using the USB version then remember there is the CD version.

Hi gaiden:

Thanks for your excellent reply!



Ah, yes: makes perfect sense! Thanks for your explanation.



As I used one of the kickers from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lou.greyfaulk/ I assume that the USB Drive is not too much of an issue (although I'll probably be buying one just for the NASlite Server, as I used my work USB-Drive (1Gb, which would be a waste).

I was a bit confused with the HP Format tool though: it'd be making a Windows bootable USB-Drive? But I thought that the kicker wasn't Windows (Linux?)?? Or is this just to determine that the proposed NASlite server can boot from the USB-Drive?



Thanks for the info: interesting reading!



I'm not worried: the USB Drive was detected by one of the kickers... should I be worried?? Oh, no! I'm feeling worried now!!!

That does raise the questions of which would be better though. I've assumed that the dramas with the Floppy version is that FDDs die, though as USBs don't have moving parts they have a longer longevity and robustness?? For example: my current desktop doesn't have a FDD.

Thanks

Hi,

I mentioned the HP format tool because it creates a bootable usb, and is a good way of seeing if a pen will boot at all.

Some users have reported that the pen is detected by the kicker but still wont boot. this is rare. at the end of the day the only real way is to try it,

FDD do die but to be honest its not used that much its just the media is more prone to problems and is more expensive then a usb pen.

Remember if you need to use a kicker the USB pen needs to be configured as a SUPERFLOPPY in the naslite usb setup. one of two options.