My girlfriend has one of these, ethernet-connected to her router and thus available on her home network. However, in order for any computer, Windows or Mac (what about linux?) to access it, it is necessary (aside from any hacky-workarounds that may possibly exist) to install the Iomega Home Storage Manager. This makes volume(s) offered by the NAS appear, on the Mac in Finder under SHARED, or on a Windows machine as additional drive letter(s).
To acquire the Iomega Home Storage Manager, go to https://iomega-eu-en.custhelp.com/app/platform/p/1031,1043 or else try https://iomega-eu-en.custhelp.com/ and click on [Desktop Network Storage > Home Media Network Hard Drive]. May need to establish and login-to an iomega support account (free) first.
I wondered at first about enabling the NAS as a Mac OS Time Machine (backup) disk. An iomega article I saw suggested that should be possible, for iomega firmware 2.0 and above. But the disk as it stands is NTFS-formatted – because when it was set up we had only Windows machines. Now that disk contains much material in that NTFS. I guess it might be possible to partrition the disk e.g. to keep the existing NTFS and add alongside it a HFS+ partition for Time Machine to use. But it’s guesswork that carries risks (of disruption/damage to existing contents). We want an easy geeking-minimal life, so maybe better to repurpose that NAS and get a purpose-made Apple Time Capsule instead. Either way, the evening wears on, so I’ll shelve that idea/investigation for now…
Misc Items:
Name of product to select:
- One of:
- Home Media Network Hard Drive (Appears as smart volumes for YouTube & Flickr etc?)
- Home Network Hard Drive (Appears as a single ordinary Volume?)
- For download, try one of these. Maybe need to establish and login-to an iomega support account (free) first?
- All Operating Systems: [https://iomega-eu-en.custhelp.com/app/platform/p/1031,1043]
- Mac OS X Snow Leopard: [https://iomega-eu-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21686]
(sic – no “custom_” before “detail”) - Windows (XP,Vista,7):
at [https://iomega-eu-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/custom_detail/a_id/21687]
or [https://iomega-eu-en.custhelp.com/app/cust_alp/p/1031,1043]
- Time Machine Bacchups:
- iomega home network drives can (I have read) be used for Time Machine backups, however the problem (I read) is that drives, formatted in NTFS, are not “readable” as AirPort Disks. They must be formatted in either HFS+, FAT16 or FAT32. [https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2343152?start=0&tstart=0]. I believe that ordinarily, Time Machine takes over a whole Partition. Thus it is necessary to define its own partition first. But to save precious time and play safe it may be better to simply get an Apple Time Capsule for her system, freeing up the NAS for my own nefarious purposes.