Many people might have head of a network attached storage (NAS) drive without being totally sure what one actually is
. This article will cover what a NAS drive is, why having one can be useful and the benefits of a this type of drive over a normal external hard drive.
The most straightforward way to describe a NAS drive is to say that it is a really clever external hard drive. Actually, it is really more similar to your computer than an external hard drive. The reason for this is that these special drives come with a full operating system (usually a linux based one like freenas) which means they are a lot more intelligent than a standard external hard drive.
With an average external hard drive, if you want to back up some of your documents, or if you want to copy some files you need to be close enough to the drive to plug it into your computer. This can restrict where you can do your work and it becomes even more awkward when you're sharing a drive with another person!
All of this could be done with an spare computer or server but NAS drives are specifically designed to be quieter and easier to set up, cheaper to buy and run (no massive electricity bills from having to leave a power hungry computer running all of the time!). They're also designed to give off less heat so that there is less chance of your hard drives failing.
A NAS drive (sometimes called a Network-Attached Storage Drive) will connect to your local network and allow you to backup and retrieve your files from anywhere as long as you're connected to the same network. This means multiple people can access the NAS drive at the same time without having to fight over whose computer the drive will be connected to! It also means you can move around (if you're connected via Wi-Fi) and do your work wherever you want.
Depending on what model you go for, NAS drives have heaps of other features. Some will be very useful to you whilst some you might not use at all. Before you buy a NAS drive it is important to make sure you know which features you want and which ones you don't so that you can be sure you won't pay too much for features you don't need and you also won't waste your money purchasing a drive that doesn't do everything you want it to.