Does anyone have a Mac?

Leopard

Stick with Apple kit if you're going to use a networked Ethernet hard drive with Macs.

Most of the others (except LaCie's) can't handle Apple File Protocol properly.

Rather than use an NAS, I put four 500 GB drives into an old Mirrored-Door Apple G4 Power Mac and we run it 24/7 as a file and printer server. That does understand Apple File Protocol! It even runs happily on OS 10.5.4. Cheap solution and works a treat.

Cloudane

Is it *really* a cheap solution running a high end workstation 24/7 though? If I ran even my iMac 24 hours a day it'd cost something in the region of £15/month in electricity, which would soon add up to pay for something more specialised and less power consuming.

Leopard

TiTheRev wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, would this do the same job?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB321LL/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/airport_wireless&mco=MTA5NDUw

There's a problem with those Airport Express devices; they tend to die suddenly after about a year if you leave them on. It's to do with having mains electrical power so close to the radio circuitry inside them, as I understand it.

I do have one but I turn the power socket it's plugged into off unless I'm actively using it (so mine's survived three years, so far).

They're best used as a temporary wireless network extension device - as a slave to an Apple Airport Extreme (or Time Capsule) - and for sending music to your Hi-Fi wirelessly, by Air Tunes.

Never had any problem with my Airport Extreme - it comes with an independent power supply unit and runs off low voltage.

Cloudane wrote: »

Is it *really* a cheap solution running a high end workstation 24/7 though? If I ran even my iMac 24 hours a day it'd cost something in the region of £15/month in electricity, which would soon add up to pay for something more specialised and less power consuming.

Well spotted! :T

Yes, it does consume power, but I bought the Power Mac - specifically for this purpose - for just £100 last year (from somebody quite nearby, who was selling it on eBay) and was pleased to find it had the full 2 GB of RAM installed.

The thing to remember is that it runs four hard drives off one power supply and some of them are our various Time Machine drives.

We call it "The Big Mac". :rolleyes:

If we didn't all keep different hours we could schedule it to sleep. Energy Saver does spin down the drives when they're nor being actively used.

It's linked by Gigabit Ethernet to our router and we back the Power Mac itself up to an external 2 TB drive, regularly, via its Firewire 800 port.

Eventually the Power Mac and its 500 GB PATA drives will die. But by then a Mac Pro should have become sensibly cheap. It's a tolerable expense in the meantime and as a solution it works well. It also hosts and networks two printers by USB.

Cloudane

Ah cool, hoped you wouldn't take offense at my challenge of whether it's actually worthwhile

Yeah that's a great price for a second hand G4! They're actually still very capable machines, and tend to hold their value pretty well on eBay.

TiTheRev

The frustration continues...

After 2 days Panic-free it freaks out again last night??? So, that's with an entirely re-booted system, HD wiped and OS X installed from disc, nothing else? It's been through two Hardware tests and passed both, so what else is there to check/change?

HELP! Pllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease...

Cloudane

If you've already eliminated RAM (the usual cause, and sometimes bad RAM still passes the hardware test) there isn't a lot more you can do other than getting ye to a genius bar - or a third party repair shop if it's out of warranty.

TiTheRev

What are they worth on the open market? I am sorely tempted to get it fixed, sell up and buy new again. If they're not worth more than about £200 i may just sell as is though...

TiTheRev

Oh, and im not 100% sure ive eliminated the RAM, I bought an extra 1GB but it's got 512 built in which I cant remove. Would the 1GB stick bypass the 512 if it were playing up?

M4RKM

Leopard wrote: »

There's a problem with those Airport Express devices; they tend to die suddenly after about a year if you leave them on. It's to do with having mains electrical power so close to the radio circuitry inside them, as I understand it.

Totally totally disagree.. I've had an airport express for over 2 years now, and it is still working perfectly fine, and i've had no problems with it... this is with it plugged in, turned on 24/7

M

almillar

This could also still be a hard drive on the blink. If a part of the drive is a bit muckde up it could happen at seemingly random times. It's gotta be worth trying another HD in there for £20 off eBay. Maybe. But 1st - is that 'built in' memory not just under the keyboard? In which case you can happily just swap it out for the other?
Alan