I'm using multiple 4-bay eSATA HDD enclosure on my HTPC (Win7). With around 30 (2TB) HDDs, I think I really need a dedicated many bays file server.
My concern is the file server software, in term of HTPC usage. I need the file server HDDs be in idle spindown mode when no media file is playing.
My current problems:
- HDDs will spin-up when I just want to browse it's file list
- many normal PC operations will wake up all idled HDDs, such as:
.initial/create partition on a new HDD using Windows Disk Management
.install new software (I guess maybe the installer want to check disk space on all HDDs...)
.delete a file or empty recycle bin
- reboot the PC will of course restart all HDDs (a separate file server will certainly solve this issue..)
- since all HDDs are on eSATA connection in a few 4-bay eSATA enclosure, sometime when I add/remove (swap) a HDD, all HDDs will wake up!
Can a dedicated FreeNAS file server solve all the above problems? The most useful feature would be to browse HDDs file list without waking up the HDD.
Thanks in advance!
My concern is the file server software, in term of HTPC usage. I need the file server HDDs be in idle spindown mode when no media file is playing.
My current problems:
- HDDs will spin-up when I just want to browse it's file list
- many normal PC operations will wake up all idled HDDs, such as:
.initial/create partition on a new HDD using Windows Disk Management
.install new software (I guess maybe the installer want to check disk space on all HDDs...)
.delete a file or empty recycle bin
- reboot the PC will of course restart all HDDs (a separate file server will certainly solve this issue..)
- since all HDDs are on eSATA connection in a few 4-bay eSATA enclosure, sometime when I add/remove (swap) a HDD, all HDDs will wake up!
Can a dedicated FreeNAS file server solve all the above problems? The most useful feature would be to browse HDDs file list without waking up the HDD.
Thanks in advance!