HDX & External Hard Drive?

Graeme,

   I have the same HDX and store all my music on NAS drive with usb drive back ups as well.

I used to have music on the HDX itself as well, but as the music library grew i decided to move everything to the NAS.

I have occasionally plugged usb drives into front of HDX, once when i had a network issue and could not access the NAS.

I do not recall any sonic benefits from this, and did not have the benefits of the HDX music search, etc.

Paul

Thanks Paul.  I'm getting near full too and I have a 3TB back-up NAS but it looks like I'll have to buy another NAS to stream from then. G

Graeme, looks like we have similar issues.

My NAS was filling a while ago, so i decided to go big and hopefully only change once. I have a 12Tb NAS with 6 drives, currently holds around 6000 albums in wav frmat, and still loads of space

Just a thought is that if you store WAV you could also have the option of converting to Flac and doubling your storage capacity

I can only offer experience on a NAS. I have not used an external HDD plugged into the HDX.

Internal HDD versus NAS - no difference. I actually thought the files streamed back off the NAS sounded better.But since this will be likely considered ridiculous, I'll stick with "no difference".

In addition I have also used a variety of USB sticks plugged into the HDX.

USB stick versus internal HDD - no difference.

USB stick versus NAS - no difference.

For what that's worth.

If you connect an USB disk to HDX directly, does it always spin or does it spin  only when playing music?

I should imagine on the basis an hdx is in essence a computer it will be pooling the usb drive once in a while to check its still there. therefore the drive wil pretty much always be active.

Thanks Garyi, so a common USB drive is really not the best idea here... the gear is not build for 24x7:-)

ralf

You can do as you please but the HDX is designed essentially to work around network protocols, at which it excels.

Could you unpack that a bit for me as a non-techie please Harry?

Thanks

G

What harry is saying is get a nas. It really designed for that. People fannying around with usb sticks and drives have somewhat missed the point.

Thanks - I have one as back-up which is 3TB.  I originally thought I could use the spare capacity in that to mirror my back up in another folder and stream from there - but it seems I must get another NAS.

G

Not at all. Simply set up another share on the nas you have, call it music, put music in there and the hdx will pick it up Automagically. Its the whole point of the hdx/serve.

No chance of me ever getting technical. Gary sumed it up rather bluntly yet succinctly.

The  HDX’s  raison d'etre is that it’s a network player. USB drives galore can be plugged in. Some may exhibit issues with going to sleep or various foibles of compatibility. It can get clunky but it works and musical enjoyment is assured.

But shove in a network cable and it comes into its own. Providing the network is stable, it’s a fit and forget solution  and the possibilities broaden out into a new vista. I started out with a wireless bridge in the lounge with HDX and NAS plugged in.  Although they work using network protocols they were essentially hard wired together and this worked very well for me. Latterly I pulled the floors up upstairs and ran a cable through. This has been of benefit to all my other network enabled devices in the lounge but it hasn’t affected the music – which was working fine anyway. Network refreshes are faster (a lot faster) but that’s about it.

If you have your HDX working in parallel with a NAS , the only thing necessary for capacity expansion is sliding in bigger discs. It’s easy. As is backing up your music collection and storing it remotely.  I run two NASs but I only use one of them for music.  You can have as many music shares on the NAS as you want. It doesn’t bother the HDX and it might be argued that having a number of shares on the NAS makes maintenance and troubleshooting easier.  

Not that I’ve spent much time scratching my head or grinding my teeth. The only issues for me have been with HiRes files, stored in their own shares, the larger collections by artist (as in music-hryes, music-rushhr etc.).  From time to time some tracks don’t show, commonly the first or last tracks in a list. Transferring (after checking the file size and correcting if necessary) again or restarting the system always cures it but nothing ripped by the HDX has ever exhibited this behaviour.

Sticking with CD quality rips would have resulted in zero issues. But that’s missing the point and missing out on the (sometimes) fabulous material increasing available at higher than CD quality.  And it’s a very minor foible.

I suppose that what I’m trying to say, as has been said already, is that whilst the HDX is versatile and musical, seemingly unaffected by the location of what is being played through it, placing it on a network, with or without a NAS – if it has internal HDDs, will be the first and last step needed to just use it and forget it. Because of its network capabilities, if more storage is required than available within, one NAS will accommodate all requirements and there will be no difference in musical enjoyment.

My HDX left the factory with two 500GB discs on board. It didn’t take me long to establish that for me, storing music on a NAS was preferable. So it subsequently went back for a conversion to SSD. Had I known the SSD version was in the wings when (after two years cogitating and intermittent auditioning) I bought my HDX, I would have waited and saved myself the conversion cost.

Ah ha! ......So I can use the same NAS to stream from.  Brilliant - I needed to know because it's a 17hour transfer to copy all the backed-up files onto a new shared folder and I didn't want to start it if it were a fruitless excercise.

This is great - my capacity has doubled again! 

Thanks folks,

G

Graeme,

   All the above is valid, but do note that if you use the same NAS for your music and also a back up file, thus will give you protection of files, but here is still a risk of the drive failure, which would result in you losing the main and back up data!

Would still recommend a separate back up.

Just think, if you have a 1000 albums at a tenner a CD, thats ten grands worth of music you need to protect against loss. Worth getting a separate back up !

Al the best with it.

As per C's post above, one or two NAS back ups in addition to any mirroring within the NAS is essential. I have had a ReadyNAS Duo box go pop on me. I use QNAP now. It's not a case of sliding your data disc into another box because the box will format the disc and get it ready for data storage and mirroring. A NAS will come complete with an off board USB back up facility and its easy. Just plug it in or in some cases, plug it in and press a button. Whenever I make a change to my misuc collection I do a back up to a 2GB USB disc.This lives in a metal cabinet in my office. I'm going to buy another disc for a second back up which will live in the shed at the bottom of the garden.

Too much mucking about? Depends on how you have classically safeguarded your computer data. I have done routine backups for years. It’s just common sense housekeeping. Like not leaving your LPs unsleeved and laying about. Keeping fingerprints off them and avoiding scratches.  Ditto CDs. Putting cassettes back in their cases and keeping everything out of sun light. Demagging tape heads and cleaning the transports. Zapping LPs with anti static guns.  Fettling arms and head shells for correct bias, VTA etc.

Nothing’s changed. 

Presumbly regards you initial question you may well have a spare usb hd knocking about, in which case copy your files onto there.

not sure how much you were transferring but 17 hours of transfer time would imply a lot, wouldnt want to have to rip all that again.

About 1000 CD's!. All transferred by this morning.

I'll probably get a USB HD for a 'just in case' further back up. G