At the end of last year, I set out to back up my computers and create a centralized location for music. I ended up picking up the very excellent SimpleNET network adapter. That network adapter is great: it’s basically a tiny Linux box (even has SSH!), so you can either simply plug drives in and manage it via the web interface, or you can ssh in, set up cron jobs, etc., etc. All for ~$80. It’s really cool.
The problem is that I also picked up a Toshiba external HDD to plug into this beast. The Toshiba drive exposes not *one* but *two* volumes. These two volumes are not two partitions: they are two distinct volumes. One is a “Virtual CD” riddled with Windows software, and there’s no way to get rid of it. A few hours of searching the Internet and hacking on the thing later, I finally gave up and ran it back to Best Buy.
I then picked up an HP SimpleSave, which has better reviews (especially from Linux users). Of course, the one I grabbed has a bent USB connection, so it was utterly worthless. Exchanged it for a new one at Best Buy, plugged it in, and life is good.
Comments
- January 11, 2010, Stefan A. wrote: Just took a look at the specs of the SimpleNET Nas. Do you know if it is possible to do RAID 1 with the two connected harddrives?
- January 11, 2010, Chris Conway wrote: I've got a similar issue with an IOCELL flash drive (a fixed, read-only volume called CASTELLA). Very annoying. I think you might be able to remove the volume in Windows.
- January 11, 2010, Robert Fischer wrote: @Chris Yeah, I got that recommendation from some online forum. Tried to remove it via my wife's Vista, and that failed. Also tried to use software from the Toshiba website, and that failed (claimed to not find a VirtualCD volume). As far as I'm concerned, it's not worth my effort, and I want to punish Toshiba by returning their product to Best Buy and picking something up from their competitor. The HP SimpleSave drive I picked up worked right out of the box: just plugged it in and went. @Stefan A No obvious way to set up RAID 1 via the web interface.
This post was by Robert Fischer, written on January 11, 2010.
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