For a while now, I’ve been on the lookout for a simple network attached storage solution that would allow me to a) backup our laptops and b) share stuff around the house. Of course, I don’t just want a NAS box – I want a NAS box that can do raid 1 and give me a mirror to protect against a disk dying (which it will eventually).
Unfortunately, this seems to be a set of features that restricts my choice somewhat 
. At first glance, the Netgear SC101 appeared to be exactly what I wanted. A bit of digging revealed that this has to have some special software installed on the client PC which is less than ideal and even worse, no Mac support. Rules that out then.
Next choice was the Buffalo Terrastation. sounds just the thing but a tad more than I wanted to pay…
I could run an old PC with some flavour of *nix on it but making one that is quiet and uses minimal power gets pricey. It’s also a bit too close to the day job – I can’t be arsed with looking after a server at home as well.
Finally, I gave in and dropped the requirement for Raid1. This gives me a bit of a bigger choice (although still not great) and having found a deal that seemed a good price I ordered a Lacie 250GB Ethernet Disk Mini from savastore.co.uk. Or at least, I thought I had.
I thought I didn’t have an account with them so created a new one and placed the order. I got a code to track my order and told that I’d get a confirmation email. no email arrived so I’ve just spent a while looking into this. It seems that I did have an account – I was just using the wrong password. I now have two accounts. One of which I can login to and see a history showing that over 3 years ago I ordered a CD burner from them (I remember now 
). Unfortunately, this doesn’t show my new order which I assume is in some rather odd state now :-/
Of course, by the time I’d worked out what was happening they were closed for the night so I’ll have to give them a ring in the morning. Lets find out if their customer service is as lean as their prices…