How to make my LaCie 5big NAS better?

September 13, 2009 7:55 PM

LaCie 5Big NAS hacks/modifications/tricks?

Just got a 5Big NAS (5TB) running RAID5. Has a built-in torrent client but it's pretty weak. Any way to hack it to run a linux distro of Transmission or Vuze, something like that? Any other tricks that make this box better (aside from "spend $1500 more and get a readyNAS")

Thanks!

posted by Señor Pantalones to computers & internet (4 answers total)

Not a hack,but: switch it to RAID6. With RAID5, you only can lose one disk before you lose the entire array. With 1TB disks, it will sometimes take at least an hour to rebuild the array ... even if you replace the disk right away. With RAID6 you can lose two before you have data loss.
posted by SpecialK at 8:55 PM on September 13, 2009

Seconding the RAID6 idea, and do it now before you get too comfortable. I've been thinking about that very drive for my home network, a nasty mix of Macs, Windows and Linux.

How are you using the torrent client?
posted by rokusan at 9:52 PM on September 13, 2009

rokusan, the only way to interact with the torrent client is via the LaCie web administration interface, a very simplistic, basic client. Can't set # of active connections, any of the advanced stuff azureus/transmission/µtorrent/etc. give you.
posted by Señor Pantalones at 10:12 PM on September 13, 2009

I haven't been able to find any information on getting a shell on the LaCie 5Big or customizing its software. This could mean that the device is fairly locked down or that nobody has tried. You might try to find out whether similar models from LaCie have been successfully modified.
posted by scatter gather at 9:44 PM on September 22, 2009