Cheap NAS

Hardware Hub Storage
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TLDR - Want to use tablet connected to external HDD for wireless network share locally

This one may seem odd but here is my plan:
Use my POS tablet (Zenithink C71A-8GB) which is rooted and purchase an OTG adapter to connect it to my external (3.5", powered by wall) and use them together for a simple local sharing device. I don't need much throughput. If it can give me speeds of 10MBps that would probably be fine. At most I would be streaming a 1080p video and uploading files to it at the same time, with the uploading from one machine and streaming to another. It has wireless-n and USB 2.0 and can be powered by a 5V adapter which I have, in case it cannot charge over OTG. It CAN charge when sending data so I don't know why it wouldn't be able to but that should be covered either way.
I have it rooted as mentioned and have installed Paragon NTFS for read/write access.

Question - Does anyone know what program I could use for SAMBA with access to the NTFS drive OR can I somehow install SAMBA and NTFS drivers directly to the Android OS? It is running 4.1 or 4.2, I forget without turning it on which.

Before you say it - yes, I know that it will be slow, yes, I know that I can use an old computer or attach a drive to one that I am using now...but where's the fun in that? Also, I want it to be low-power and something that I can hopefully throw in a corner somewhere and leave until the drive rusts.........so yes, I am aware that there are other options, but this would cost me about $5 for the OTG adapter and the rest I already have so, I would like to try.

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Best cheap nas is old pc with add-in sata cards (possibly also wifi card if wanted)
Will be a lot faster and more reliable than a tablet

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yes i realize that would be better but I would like to see if this is feasible and if so, what the actual performance is (or "feels like" for that matter). Reliability is a bit of a concern but if it doesn't work then I am only out $5 as mentioned, but I really would like to know on Android what the best way to do it is...and doing it this way means less e-waste and $-waste so I like that.

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I got an HP ex495 for 20 bucks off Craigslist and it works decently. Noise is a bit much for me, but I don't mind that much since it's stuck in a closet. Not sure what that will do for it's longevity, but it's already old. Really liked mucking about with Freenas.

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I used to have a samba app on my phone, shouldn't be too hard to find one. You'll be lucky to get that 10MBps, especially over WiFi (and only if that's 300mbps and not 150) but good luck

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which app? the only one that i have found is Samba Filesharing for Android which works for the TF card but since i dont have the OTG adapter yet i am unsure about an external NTFS drive

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sure agreed, that would work and freenas is great, but i am looking for a solution using what i already have (aside from the OTG adapter which i can put to use elsewhere anyway)...but yes, i completely acknowledge that there are easier solutions out there.,...that said i wouldnt typically ask level1 if the solution were simple id just ask google, know what i mean?

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not sure about samba but 7zipper has a ftp server in it

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NTFS is out of question for Android because you'll need a version of Android compiled for your device with NTFS drivers. Also NTFS is really really taxing on the CPU so you'll get a lower throughput so maybe move to something like FAT or exFAT for example. Beware that OTG is an hardware ability of your device and it's not only about software so check if your device supports it before doing anything else.
You can't charge while using the OTG connection because you're not only transfering data when you connect an OTG device but you're giving it power too. For example if you connect a simple USB drive you're giving it 5V and x amount of mA to make it accessible.
If you're streaming AND transfering files you'll surely get choppy video or your transfers will crash. I had this issue with my Raspberry Pi with a 100Mbit connection but a crappy HDD.

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How do the Paragon drivers for NTFS work?
The problem with switching from NTFS is that it's a 2TB drive that's 60% full, and I would just hate to have to transfer to another device, reformat, and then transfer back, but if i have to I suppose I could

As for it being taxing on the CPU....damnit....

Which Raspberry Pi were you using? My next thought was to use a 3 for the same thing and yes, use wired ethernet
Anyway I am curious if you were using the 3 or an earlier version and if you think the 3 would have better throughput if so
Thanks

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I've never used Paragon for NTFS.
I'm using the Raspberry Pi 2 and for streaming from my old and crappy HDD ext3 formatted it's perfect. I've streamed all kind of movies and worked flawlessly. With NTFS you won't get the full 11MB/s you would with ext but it's good enough. The Pi 3 it's even better with it's 64bit CPU and higher clock. Also do keep in mind that all the USB ports on the Pi and the eth are on the same bus.

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that actually gets into something else that i was thinking so i am glad that you mentioned that...
the RPi3 is faster and should be better than 2 and is USB 2.0 (good enough) but shares eth/USB as you mentioned
I also have an old original xbox that I did the softmod on and I was thinking about just installing linux then samba and ntfs drivers and converting one or two of the controller ports to usb, connecting the HDD and using that as a NAS BUT it is only USB 1.1 so i am totally unsure if that would give me decent speed compared to the Pi3 with 2.0 but shared with eth...something that I may just try out at some point for the hell of it.
that said, WAAAAAY higher power consumption which for a NAS box is just a total waste
I may be mistaken but is there a 64-bit OS available for the Pi3 yet? I know that it will come around in the future but the last time i used a Pi3 there wasn't much support yet
I may just go that route and trash the tablet...I just hate to give up and waste a tablet thats probably good for SOMETHING even if it is slow and old.....

edit: yes I know that i can add a second internal HDD to the xbox but it would be IDE whereas with USB I could use more current gear and still put in an IDE drive if I wanted to at some point for a small capacity bump...the biggest IDE drive that I have currently is only 500GB and might be bricked but it's been so long since I have even used it that i don't know but i suppose that is an option just, less capacity

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There are other devices out there besides the Pi with a dedicated Ethernet port. The NanoPi Neo2 from Friendly Elec (formerly Friendly Arm) recently came out with an Allwinner H5 processor and gigabit LAN. It is pretty new, so it might take a few weeks for them or Armbian to work over the kernel and fix bugs.

Since you don't really need the gigabit LAN, there are other boards with multiple native USB ports and native fast Ethernet that would work fine. The H3 boards from Friendly Elec, Orange Pi, and others would probably do well. They are really cheap too. There are some boards coming out for those devices that turn them into a tiny NAS with low power and little or no noise. The Friendly ELec NAS dock was just released. Orange pi has a similar NAS board as well, but I haven't seen a case for that one yet.

Formatting the drive you have and getting it to work on the tablet could also potentially work, but it seems complicated to get it to run 24/7. The Wikipedia page was written a little weird and kind of goes around the idea of if it is possible to exchange data and charge the device. One part of it is having a hub with a 5th wire to allow it to change roles between master and slave modes.

It seems if the hub had an intelligent way to switch to master mode and charge the device when data isn't being accessed by the tablet, and then reversing roles when it needs to get data off of the hub that it could work. Unfortunately it seems like making a setup like this would cost more than the small ARM powered mini NAS. The USB-PD spec should fix this in the future, but that doesn't help you with your current tablet.

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If I recall correctly there are a few 64bit distro out there for the Raspberry Pi that you can take advantage of. You may even get a gigabit USB adapter to speed up the LAN connection, but you have to be ubarcareful since the Pi is really picky when it comes to additional hardware, including external HDDs.

@KleerKut Yeah, there are way better single board computers out there but the community support that gets a Raspberry Pi is so much wider than any other board and saves most of the time that you might spend troubleshooting an issue on another board. That being said is always Linux so the issues and workaround are often the same for all the distros but still I feel the support for the hardware is a good trade for some performance.

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Yes, I usually mention the Pi as the best board because of the community behind it. The H5 processor has multiple USB 2.0 lanes vs the Pi, plus the gigabit LAN which specifically pushes it far enough ahead of the Pi that for NAS purposes it makes any potential setup issues worth the hassle to me.

I'm not the only one. One of the guys working on Armbian also mentions it a few times in the comments over on CNX-Software. Of course I didn't go there first today like I usually do, and completely blew past the new Orange Pi Prime H5 board that dropped today with 2GB DDR3 (in the link above). I was kicking myself for not buying a board on sale last week, and now I don't feel bad about it anymore. I'm going to order one to use as a backup server for my security system.

With Orange Pi you are relying on Armbian for support. Some others like Friendly Elec and Olimex aren't as large as R Pi, but still decent support. If Olimex had what I was looking for I would choose them first because of how they open source their stuff, give back to the community, and pull back the curtain to talk about things behind the scenes of a business trying to build new electronics. They have one of the best blogs out there if you are interested in that sort of stuff.

I'm sure the Pi will function, but I have never tried to stream full HD on my network as I don't have any screens with that high of resolution. You might be well served to check out that large Pi community and see what experiences others have had before you throw down cash. I know a Pi can play HD video well, but really don't have a clue how it would respond trying to move data back and forth between a drive and LAN.

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anyone have experience with the latte panda? ive heard some good things and it seems like its a decent runner up in terms of comm support, but perhaps my perception is biased by the few youtube channels i watch :frowning:

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I think looking at RPI-like boards might not be the best option for a NAS. I had a 2TB external drive and a RPI 1 as my NAS for awhile, but that 6-7 MB/s transfer speed got old pretty fast. It works, but if you want to try out Plex, Syncthing, Resilio sync, or any other more advanced applications, the RPI will be slower than christmas. It's not what those CPUs were designed for, even if they're halfway decent at being a ghetto NAS.

The Xbox might actually have comparable power to a RPI, and hooking drives up to it would be annoying. It's also nearly 20 years old, reliability and software support is probably going to be sketchy at best.

Do you have an old computer or router floating around? If you flash DDWRT on a router with a USB port, it has Samba built in and you can disable the router parts of it, or replace your router with it. It won't be too fast or support other software. WAN access might not be doable. If you have a router on hand, it could be your ghetto NAS.

If you have an old computer, put Debian on a USB stick or hard drive, and now it's a raspberry pi with brass balls. Yes, it won't be power efficient, but it will actually do the things you want now, and leave some room to grow. Look up your power company and calculate the cost of running 70-100 Watts 24/7. In Ontario, Canada it's about $1CAD/Watt for an entire year. My Haswell-based server with an 80Plus Gold PSU pulls 35 Watts at idle with 2x3.5" HDDs in it, a ghetto PC is a far more economical option.

With a normal computer though, you have far better options for expansion, upgrades, and other functionality. Plex is pretty cool if you keep a media library. I use it for my music and movies, and my friends love to mooch off it. Syncthing or Resilio sync will make your NAS a cloud storage replacement. Want a minecraft, or other game server? Core 2 Duos can do it okay if you fiddle with the settings. You can also add more hard drives to a computer as your storage needs increase. You can use the computer as a normal linux machine too, it doesn't have to be banished to the closet. NTFS isn't a problem, but if you're okay with formatting your drives, ZFSonLinux is amazingly powerful, and allows you to expand in the future.

If cost is a priority for you, running an old computer that you or a family member might have sitting in their basement is the cheapest option, byfar. The long-term electricity costs might be high, but if you aren't getting much out of your ghetto server PC, you can unplug it at any time. If the computer has a wakeup time in the BIOS, you can set the machine to start up at 8am, then put "poweroff" in the crontab at 1am. The machine will shut down at night when you're not using it and wake up in the morning, saving you power for all the time it was off.

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Thank you, these are great suggestions too...i had not considered using a router for it but i had thought about using an extra computer
in fact i have an old Compaq laptop that would be easy to setup and use, repair if need be, and would be total overkill and because it is a laptop i believe it would be fairly efficient too

i believe an RPi3 would far outperform the RPi2 regardless of 32-bit or 64-bit but i only have a fair amount of experience with the 3 and so i wouldn't have a good frame of reference for comparison

But i guess that all leads me to the last point here which i may have eluded to but didn't outright say....i LOVE all of the options folks are giving but i intend to use one of the lesser common solutions, not because it is a BETTER solution, but rather because it is a more difficult one, a challenge....now please dont take that the wrong way, i may very well give in and use the old lappy, but i enjoy the challenge almost more than the end result and tbh thats why i came here for my advice...the atmosphere here is welcoming and appreciated...this all may sound silly to some people and thats OK...i might be walking in the footsteps of giants still but learning this type of stuff is inspiring as hell

but again thank you for the advice and i may well end up going this route but i am REALLY curious to see if the tablet thing is even viable
for that matter i may try tablet, RPi3, xbox, and compare all to the lappy to see what the actual variance in throughput is....that is if i can work out the kinks

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I'd suggest just skipping the home server meme and put whatever extra storage you want in your computer, share it up, and be done.

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I use syncthing to sync and back up my files on all my devices. No reason you can't set it up on something you know will work, then try some of the other options for fun. That way if something goes wrong, your data is safe.

Or do what @NetBandit said if it fits what you want out of it

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