An Ode to my NAS
My Network Attached Storage failed yesterday. I came home to a disturbing grinding sound — almost like a whistle, along with a faint grind that unsettles, and makes one think that something sad has happened.
My NAS has been a true friend for at least 9 years, or maybe 99 years in spinny-disk time. It has booted faithfully every morning at 7:00 AM, and served files to anyone who has requested them without fail until midnight.
It ran a wonderful, anonymous Linux distro that allowed me to define users with their own private home directories, and a shared family area where we all posted music and photos. We just listened to Christmas music from it while decorating the tree last week.
I knew this day would come. I’ve owned many machines of all brands and purposes, and none have lasted more than 6 or 7 years. My NAS carried the flag for all.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but computers and their relatives are tools. They serve a purpose, and are meant to be replaced every 3–5 years. What made my NAS so remarkable was that, unlike my laptops or workstations, I didn’t spend lots of time nesting in it. I configured, deployed, and used it. Done. And yet- it was always there when we called on it.
I don’t know why it failed, beyond being reallly old. We live in a very dusty place, and I have to confess that I only vacuumed it out 2 or 3 times over the years. You can see how dirty it is.
I did have the foresight to configure it RAID-0, so I could recover our memories from it, and I can transplant them to a newer, faster, shinier tool. Maybe I’ll take better care of this one.
Who am I kidding? I’ll boot the thing up, give everyone a slice of the pie, and forget about it until it fails too. If I’m lucky, that will be a decade or so from now.
RIP old friend. I wish everything I owned worked as well as you.
