External Hard Drives and Squeeze Box

[msshap]

Does anyone know if the squeezebox will recognize a 250gb hard drive plugged into my PC. That's where all of my mp3's are stored and I'm about to buy the squeeze box. Also, does anyone have good experience searching via the remote through libraries with more than 200gb's of music? Curious of everyone's opinions as I've been informed that some competing products cant support harddrives that big or are clunky for libraries that big.

[ceejay]

Plenty of people around here with bigger libraries and discs than that. You should have no problem.

Slimserver (which is what will be reading the disc, not the SB itself) is pretty scaleable...

Ceejay

[davep]

Absolutely no problem reading large external hard drives - I have a 400Gb and 2 x 250Gb plugged into my PC via USB and Firewire. As long as your PC can see the drive then SlimServer will be able to see it and scan it.

Searching is not affected by the drive size or speed - when you access music lists via the web or Squeezebox interface you are not actually looking at the disk itself but at an SQL database containing details of all of your tracks. This SQL database is very fast and, in the case where an external HDD is used to store music, is normally not even on that drive but on your C: drive along with the SlimServer program.

davep

[50ft jesus]

I am thinking of putting all of my mp3's onto an external hard drive and sitting it on my network (wired and wireless). What I would like to know is will the SB3 be able to access the hard drive without a p.c. running?
If the SB3 reads the SQL database of my music can this database be stored on the external hard drive?
Does the SB3 have any intelligence for creating playlists, or would I need to start the p.c. to create the playlist and ensuring that the SQL database is upto date the SB3 will then see the playlist?
I basically what to have the facility to be able to play any of mp3's without having a p.c. on.
Cheers

[mherger]

> I am thinking of putting all of my mp3's onto an external hard drive and
> sitting it on my network (wired and wireless). What I would like to
> know is will the SB3 be able to access the hard drive without a p.c.
> running?

SB3 won't do anything without a server. Now you have two possibilities:

- keep your PC running, accessing the collection stored on an external
device

- buy a NAS capable of running slimserver independantly

In the latter case Slimserver would run on your disk system (which is
basically an optimized computer).

> If the SB3 reads the SQL database of my music can this database be
> stored on the external hard drive?

The SB3 can do no such thing as accessing files or databases. It can read
streams and play them.

--

Michael

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Help translate SlimServer by using the
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[50ft jesus]

Thanks for the quick reply Michael.
Is there a recommended NAS that will work with a SB3? Something like this, perhaps? http://www.netgear.co.uk/digital_home_sc101.php
If I have a NAS will I still need to have a p.c. switched on?

I think I am having a bit of a 'slow' day!

[mherger]

> Is there a recommended NAS that will work with a SB3?

Search the forums for linkstation, diskstation (ssods), qnap (if you're
living in the UK), or Infrant. They all seem to be working fine, but have
some limitations (performance, transcoding, flexibility).

> Something like
> this, perhaps? http://www.netgear.co.uk/digital_home_sc101.php

Haven't heard of anybody successfully install SlimServer on this one.

> If I have a NAS will I still need to have a p.c. switched on?

The devices I mentioned can run SlimServer. You won't need a PC any more.

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------
Help translate SlimServer by using the
SlimString Translation Helper (http://www.herger.net/slim/)

[tommypeters]

The SC101 is not recommended for anything but toasting data - that's why it looks as it does. The RAID capability is totally errant and several people have experienced it to unprovoked rebuild the array and all data on the two disks are toast. Beware.

And I don't think it could run SlimServer well anyway.

[Dinger928]

Anyone seen or read about this new unit from Dlink? I'm wondering if it would be able to run slimserver?

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=509

[Mark Lanctot]

In order to run SlimServer on the new BestThingSinceSlicedBreadNAS, either the manufacturer has to support SlimServer directly (Qnap through Progressive AV in the UK, Infrant worldwide) or you need shell access to be able to install perl and SlimServer.

If you can't get shell access with the default firmware, which is very likely, you can't install SlimServer. There may be third-party firmware which allows shell access, but you will be able to find this for only about a half-dozen NAS devices. A forum search here will find these (Buffalo LinkStation, Linksys NSLU2, Synology, etc.)

A NAS is not like a regular PC - the manufacturer doesn't want you to be able to install software on it.