Networked Attached Storage vs. External Hard Drives Network Hard Drive Review. Hard drives have traditionally been pretty dumb devicesfor the most part, they neither know nor care about the machine they are attached to. For both internal and external drives, the setup is generally plain and simple Plug your drive in, wait for the driver to install andvoilmore capacity. Advertisement Continue Reading Below. Calculate Code Dvr Free Download. A dumb drive is actually great if all you want is extra storage or a place to back up data from a single PC. But say you have multiple computers in the house, or a gaming system, or a networked security camera, or a huge music and movie collection that youd like to stream out to a variety of portable devices. Thats when you want a hard drive with a braina network attached storage NAS drive. I/31VxNKFPCOL._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg' alt='Buffalo Hard Drive Usb Driver' title='Buffalo Hard Drive Usb Driver' />Sometimes a USB key just isnt roomy enough. We describe the portable hard drive specs and features that matter most, and name five of our favorite models. Compare read and write speed of USB Flash drives. DriverTuner was created to save your time resolving driver problems by providing you with a single, automatic tool. Fix External USB Hard Disk drive not detecting not working properly problem in Windows 8, 7, Vista XP. Buffalo Hard Drive Usb Driver' title='Buffalo Hard Drive Usb Driver' />Which Is Better Network Storage or External Hard Drive Networkattached storage devices are accessible, versatile and easytouse. But theyre not always better. Scroll each table horizontally to see more information Laptops, Tablets and Smartphones Mobile Device 802. NAS drives arent hooked directly to any one computer. Instead, they connect to a router via Ethernet or Wi Fi and are visible to any computer connected to that network. Because they are tied to the network, rather than to any one computer, NAS drives continue to be available even when your computers are turned off. They are, in fact, little computers in their own right, delivering most of the functionality of a business style server with a more consumer friendly interface and a more wallet friendly price. They will, however, tend to set you back a bit more than your average external hard drive. A variety of manufacturers such as Iomega, Western Digital, Seagate, Buffalo and D Link make these devices expect a 1 TB NAS drive to cost between 1. A comparable capacity USB desktop drive will cost between 8. That extra cash, however, buys you plenty of flexibility and functionality. Back It Up. Because they operate over your network, NAS drives centralize backup for all the computers in the house. You can use the software that comes with the NAS or use the automated backup functionality built into Microsoft Windows or Time Machine in Mac OS X. If you buy the right drive and configure it properly, you can effectively design a foolproof double backup system that ensures youll never lose your data. Start by buying a two bay NASyou can buy diskless NAS enclosures cheaply and add your own drives or buy a NAS with drives included. Youll want at least double the storage you need to back up all the computers on your network. NAS drives can be outfitted to staggering capacitiesa four bay device can hold up to 8 TB. Like most computers, NAS drives allow you to set up your drives in a RAID redundant array of independent disks configuration that mirrors your data across drives. If one fails, the other maintains your files and repopulates them to a replacement drive. Configuring RAID on a computer is geeky stuff, but most NAS drives walk you through the process in plain English when you set them up. The downside is that you are effectively paying for twice the storage capacity you can actually use, but the peace of mind is bulletproof. Advertisement Continue Reading Below. Serve It Up. Network Hubs. Not everybody wants to buy a new network attached storage NAS driveespecially those whove invested in a USB backup drive. The good news is that devices such as the Pogoplug, Seagate Free. Agent Go. Flex and Iomega i. Connect allow you to turn USB drives into networked drives. Pogoplug and Seagates Go. Flex require an Ethernet connection. Iomegas i. Connect can work via Wi Fi or Ethernet. If NAS devices were just about backup, theyd be the equivalent of buying a single, really good insurance policy for all your datapractical, but hardly exciting. What makes NAS drives truly fascinating devices is everything they do besides backup. Because they are always on and always connected to your network, NAS devices can function as a central repository for data you use on a variety of devices. That means music, movies, photos and documents no longer need to be redundantly stored on multiple computers throughout the home. NAS devices show up automatically in the Network section of either Windows Explorer or Mac OS X Finderalternatively, they can be mapped as lettered drives in Windows or dragged to the Dock in OS X. Its an efficient place to store your data. If multiple people on the network use a file from multiple locations say, the family budget spreadsheet, then by keeping that file on the NAS device, you avoid conflicting files. Got files that you want to keep privateNAS drives allow each member of the household to set up an accountyou can choose what to keep private and what to make available to other users. And NAS drives are especially friendly to media files. Many NAS devices can function as networked i. Tunes serversjust drag your music collection into the music folder on the networked drive, and all that music shows up automatically in the i. Tunes software on all the computers on your network. Most NAS drives also conform to the Universal Plug and Play UPn. P and Digital Living Network Alliance DLNA standards, which allow NAS drives to function as media servers for all sorts of compliant devicesgame consoles, set top boxes such as Western Digitals WD TV and Iomegas Screen. Play, as well as network connected home theater equipment and HDTVs. For those who use peer to peer file sharing well assume what youre sharing is legal, NAS drives can also manage torrent downloads even when your computer is off. And heres another trick up the NASs sleeve Many of these devices have dedicated USB ports. Plug in an extra external drive and it shows up on the network. Plug in a printer and it can be configured as a network printer that all of your computers can use. Log In Surprisingly, NAS devices, once hooked into your home network, are at their most useful when youre away from home. Almost all NAS drives can be set up to let you log in remotely over the Internet and access your content through either a Web browser or dedicated software. This can be a trickier proposition on some drives than others, requiring you to open up a port on your router and set up a variety of security procedures. Many newer NAS drives make the process much easier by using third party interfaces such as Pogoplug and Twonky. Pogoplug also has a dedicated i. Phone app to allow access from your phone Twonky has an app available for Android devices. NAS devices not only make your data more secure they can also do the same for your home. Some NAS drives can automatically record footage from networked home security cameras. Using camera systems from companies such as Cisco and D Link, you can record directly to a section of your NAS device, then log in remotely through a password protected Web page to view footage on your smartphone. Lets see a USB drive do that.