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Forum Discussion
Leave ReadyNAS, possible replacements?
Given that Netgear appears to be abandoning this product line, and given that even WhoCares is giving up on it, I am going to consider alternative solutions to replace my aging 524X. I hope to hear...
ReadyNAS is a basically compact PC. You can run whatever you like on it. The trick is to reach the video output and config BIOS to boot from an external device (often an USB stick). Or via serial, telnet, reach the internal flash, etc.
What you choose depends on your needs and how powerful your machine is.
The most popular choices for a replacement OS are:
- OpenMediaVault
- unRAID
- TrueNAS
- Xpenology
- Standard Debian
RN524 looks like a good candidate for a new OS:
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/rn524x#docs
eton wrote:
The trick is to reach the video output
The RN51x and RN31x NAS have hdmi video out, but other models (like the RN524) do not. So this part could be difficult.
Since Netgear has abandoned their storage products. They should take responsibility for their products and customers and write detailed guides how to access the hardware and boot up third party OS on each NAS model.
Preferable release of technical documents of the hardware. And also release all versions of ReadyNAS OS (and RAIDiator) as open source on Github or Gitlab.
- Sure would be nice if they open sourced OS6 but I really doubt they will.
No doubt that if I am going to be able to run an alternative solution it will have to be something that can be run headless, like readynas os can.
I’m not too hopefully about trying to repurpose this hardware with a different OS unless someone like WhoCares figures it all out. Far more likely I will just use it as is for as long as I can in some capacity a few more years and then buy something new but I’m not sure what right now.
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