Converters... Trying to make my own NAS.

TechJunky

Does anyone know where I can get a SATA to RJ45 bridge adapter/converter? I am basically wanting to turn a Sata drive into a portable NAS.

I tried googling, but I want to purchase from a reliable vendor.

Thanks!

Silentsoul

http://www.directron.com/me747gk.html
http://www.greennet.ca/product_info.php?products_id=356221&currency=USD&ref=3

Something like these?

TechJunky

Yes, something like the first one.

Perfect.

Just out of curiousity... has anyone tried to save their vmware images to a usb hard drive and run the images directly off of the drive?

I am thinking it is the drive I am using thats so slow. It seems like it is caching all the time.

I am going to look at the drive and let you know what they are shipping with the 500GB Mybooks.

"ok, it is a WD500AACS. So it is the green version of the western digital hard drive. It fluxuates from 5400rpm to 7200rpm. For running a vmware machine it really isnt ideal. I can tell a HUGE difference from when I first start up the machine and from when I am using it. I am pretty sure it is in 5400rpm mode most of the time.

I will be looking to replace it with a 7200rpm model.

dynamik

It looks like you may be able to adjust that: http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=238757#238757

Those little NASes typically have poor performance. Does that matter to you? Do you have an old machine lying around? You should just install FreeNAS or OpenFiler and make your own little NAS. They have some impressive features, are free, and are quite easy to setup. Just something to think about.

TechJunky

Well, the reason I didn't want to go with OpenFiler or something equivalant is because I dont have any extra hardware laying around and this is for learning/testbed purposes only. All I am looking to do is install a bunch of vmware images on my network drive so I can take it with me if needed at work or use at home.

I will not be using it for backup features at all. Everything on the drive will be considered developement and can be toasted at any time.

Also, I am trying to keep it on a shoe string budget.

I almost decided to get a true NAS for about $400, but I thought that was a little much considering I can buy a new pc for less than that. I am looking to spend around another $100 bucks.

dynamik

Wow, I totally missed the VM part. Sorry. I do that with a crappy little WD Passport.

http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29734

Just get an external enclosure and don't worry about the NAS features.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000092&Description=usb%20enclosure&bop=And&Order=RATING

Narrow it down to your drive size and interface.

TechJunky

Funny you say that. I was thinking the same exact thing. I went out and purchased a My Book and the response times are horrible. I will use a screen capture tool and create a short video of how slow the vmware box is... Maybe its just the image, I haven't tried to load another one.. But I can hear the drive cache, spin etc. It is very noisy. I even took the drive out of the My book and hooked it directly to my motherboard.

I used the converter tool and converted a physical box and then placed the vmware image on my hard drive and took it home to work on my home PC.

It was SLOW. P133 slow.

I have a Quad Core Q6600 3GB 800mhz ram blah blah blah. The box screems. So its not my machine, its got to either be the vmware image or the drive, but I am leaning towards the drive. I have seen reviews of other people complaining about the speed on the 1T drives, I thought it wouldnt be a problem with the 500GB, guess I was wrong.

TechJunky

Ok, so it was still running dog slow. I decided to convert the drive to ntfs with the...

convert f: /fs:ntfs command. I rebooted and loaded a new image on the hard disk and viola!

Seems to be working great once the drive spins up.

I am going to unhook the drive from the sata on the motherboard and put it back in the my book case and see if I can get the same results.