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seven-worlds-collide
Avid Contributor I
Jan 24, 2021 9:56 AM UTC
Answered

NAS drives and what to buy?

Hi, I have a huge collection of live music sitting on a standard hard drive (none of which is available to stream) and understand that I need a NAS drive to be able to play any of this through Sonos. 
unfortunately, that’s where my knowledge stops… could I please have some recommendations as to what to buy, makes and model numbers etc that are known to work. I’ve done a little research, but I’m more confused than when I started looking. 
I have a very basic knowledge of computing, but can usually get things working if I have the right equipment and software. Sorry if the question has been answered many times before, but there is lots on information online which is too complicated for me to grasp...

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ratty
rattyAnswer
Jan 24, 2021 10:18 AM UTC

How much music (in GB)? And does your router have a USB port, with the ability to share storage onto the network?

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23 replies

ratty
rattyAnswer
Jan 24, 2021 10:18 AM UTC

How much music (in GB)? And does your router have a USB port, with the ability to share storage onto the network?

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amun
Jan 24, 2021 10:54 AM UTC

And how many tracks are there?

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seven-worlds-collideAuthor
Avid Contributor I
Jan 24, 2021 11:34 AM UTC

Hi, I’d need around 3-4gb and there are several USB ports in the back of my router. Thousands of tracks, unfortunately many are MP3 due to their age. Currently sitting on an external hard dive. Thanks so much for the quick replies. 

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seven-worlds-collideAuthor
Avid Contributor I
Jan 24, 2021 11:35 AM UTC

Yes, the router shares storage, the external usb is visible to my MacBook, but not to Sonos. 

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ratty
ratty
Jan 24, 2021 11:39 AM UTC

3-4GB? In that case you can just copy them to a modest-sized thumb drive and plug it into the router. Point Sonos at the share and it can index and play the tracks.

What router is it? 

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    seven-worlds-collideAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    Jan 24, 2021 11:41 AM UTC

    It’s a BT router. Not sure what model, but it’s fairly new and has a large blue circle light on the front. 

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    seven-worlds-collideAuthor
    Avid Contributor I
    Jan 24, 2021 11:42 AM UTC

    So should my external hard drive work with Sonos then? Standard Seagate 4gb external hard drive. 

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    ratty
    ratty
    Jan 24, 2021 11:52 AM UTC

    A BT router should work fine with a USB drive. You can google for instructions.  

    Yes, you could plug in your Seagate drive though it may keep spinning all the time. If it does spin down when idle Sonos may throw a timeout error on the first track, before the disk has had a chance to spin up. The advantage of a small USB stick is it’s solid state and instantly available.

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      seven-worlds-collideAuthor
      Avid Contributor I
      Jan 24, 2021 11:54 AM UTC

      That’s fantastic, thank you. I’ve got a thumb drive that I’ll play about with to see if I can get it working. Looks like you’ve saved me some money there, so thanks - most of the information seemed to point towards me needing something very specific.

      very much appreciated, thank you 

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      seven-worlds-collideAuthor
      Avid Contributor I
      Jan 24, 2021 11:59 AM UTC

      ...and sorry… I meant TB, not GB… but if the principle is the same...

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