Avid Contributor I

Answered

NAS drives and what to buy?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 24, 2021
23 replies
1012 views

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...

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Best answer by ratty

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

rattyAnswer

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

A

amun

And how many tracks are there?

S

seven-worlds-collideAuthor

Avid Contributor I

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.

S

seven-worlds-collideAuthor

Avid Contributor I

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

ratty

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?

S

seven-worlds-collideAuthor

Avid Contributor I

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

S

seven-worlds-collideAuthor

Avid Contributor I

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

ratty

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.

S

seven-worlds-collideAuthor

Avid Contributor I

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

S

seven-worlds-collideAuthor

Avid Contributor I

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

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community