UNITI and external hard drive

Posted by: phk on 10 August 2011

Hello,

 

I am the happy owner a Uniti. I am currently streaming from my computer (WIndows based PC) using foobar and  UpnP, which works very well. However, my hard drive is almost full (music, pictures...) and I consider different options. I know that most people are using NAS, but I am not sure I would use more than 10% than what they can do.(I have no TV, no other users for sharing purposes....) ; one option would be to put my music on external drives and connect it directly to the Uniti.

 

I tried to connect my external USB drives to the USB input of the Uniti, but it does not read anything.

 

My first question is : Is there a way to connect an external USB drive to the Uniti ? This would be the easiest solution.

 

Also, it seems there are systems (Addonics, NAS Dongle, Linksys NSLU 2...) which transform easily the external drive into a simple NAS.

 

My second question is : has someone experienced this ? Does it work with the Uniti ?

 

Thanks for your advices.

 

Philippe

Posted on: 10 August 2011 by RaceTripper

Why don't you connect the external hard drive to your computer instead of directly to the Uniti, and stream from there?

 

I have a laptop with limited space, but when it's home, I dock it to an external monitor, keyboard, and external drive. All my media is on that external drive, including a library of FLAC music files I stream to the Uniti.

Posted on: 10 August 2011 by Manu

Navigation with a USB connected HD will be a nightmare.

 

Go the NAS way, this is by far the best way, with a double bay unit, so it does the back up automatically.

Transfer all your music, movies, pictures to it. You do not need to buy 4TB disks if you do not have a lot of stuff, but whatever size you get, you know it will soon be full...

Posted on: 11 August 2011 by phk

Thanks for your replies.

Race Tripper, the idea is brand new for me and seems very attractive ; but I don't understand exactly how you stream from the external drive directly to the Uniti ? There is no UpNp server on the drive... Can you describe exactly how the drive is set-up and connected to the laptop (USB connection ?)

 

Thanks

 

Philippe

 

Posted on: 11 August 2011 by aysil

Philippe,

 

Your computer will recognize your external drive the same way it recognizes its own internal drives. Your Foobar will stream from this external drive the same way it does from the internal drive. You may just need to configure Foobar as to which drives/folder to include in its library.

Posted on: 11 August 2011 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by Manu:

Navigation with a USB connected HD will be a nightmare.

 

...

Care to explain why?

 

I have a 4TB external with all my FLAC music files for streaming to my Qute (it's Firewire 800, not USB, but that doesn't matter). It doesn't work any differently than if I had used my internal drive. In fact, my iTunes music and video library is also on that external drive. I don't stream my iTunes library, but if I did, it would be absolutely no different than having it on my internal.

 

In the end, it's not the file system and organization that affects how navigation through a music library works, it's the UPnP software that serves it.

 

NAS is a good suggestion for some, but it's an additional expense. And for those who aren't technically inclined or computer literate, that could be the nightmare, trying to get it all setup and working.