Remote Hard Drive Access

[maxxiejw]

I do a lot of traveling and what I want to do is connect my external hard drive to a device and be able to access it away from home. I want to access both files and be able to stream the videos from it.
I don't know much about accessing a hard drive across the internet, but I was wondering if it's possible with the raspberry pi?

Thanks

[alexeames]

Yes it is. There's quite a few threads on it. What sort of drive is it?

[maxxiejw]

It's a Hitachi Touro Desk Pro 2TB USB 3.0

[sim_tcr]

It's a Hitachi Touro Desk Pro 2TB USB 3.0

Connect your drive to one of the usb ports on your raspberry pi.
Create a folder to mount this HDD

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/hitachi

I am assuming this drive is formatted as NTFS, so you need an additional software called ntfs-3g. Install it by issuing below command

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

Mount the HDD as below.

Code: Select all

sudo ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/hitachi

Now if you cd to /mnt/hitachi you can view the contents of HDD.

To access this contents from internet, you need to first setup your pi be accessible from internet.
First assign a static address to you pi, details are at http://raspisimon.no-ip.org/ipaddress.php
Now forward your ssh port (by default port 22) in your router using the above assigned static address.
Now if you know your wan ip address, you can access your pi from internet. It is very easy to setup a domain name and map it to your ip so that whenever your wan ip changes, the name to ip mapping happens automatically. Details at http://raspisimon.no-ip.org/noip.php
Now you can use a software named winscp to access the HDD contents remotely using GUI interface. http://winscp.net/download/winscp513.zip
Accessing speed may depends on your home internet connection upload speed and the download speed of your outside internet connection.

Note: when you open your Pi to internet, it is always advised to,
change the passwords of 'pi' and 'root' accounts.
change ssh port to a random port (this can be done in /etc/ssh/sshd_config)
Also setup key based authentication and disable password based authentication.

[ski522]

I want to access both files and be able to stream the videos from it.

The Pi doesn't have the horse power to transcode and stream across a network. You would need a much faster system, then you can install Plex Media Server (http://www.plexapp.com/) for streaming remotely.

[klricks]

...
...
To access this contents from internet, you need to first setup your pi be accessible from internet.
First assign a static address to you pi, details are at http://raspisimon.no-ip.org/ipaddress.php
Now forward your ssh port (by default port 22) in your router using the above assigned static address.
...
...

Is it really necessary to set up a static IP?
I do DHCP reservations on my router:
First I find the RPi in the client list on the router
Then I assign an IP address within the DHCP range such as 192.168.1.123.
Now the RPi always gets the same IP address and there is no configuration needed on the RPi.
Am I missing something?

[sim_tcr]

...
...
To access this contents from internet, you need to first setup your pi be accessible from internet.
First assign a static address to you pi, details are at http://raspisimon.no-ip.org/ipaddress.php
Now forward your ssh port (by default port 22) in your router using the above assigned static address.
...
...

Is it really necessary to set up a static IP?
I do DHCP reservations on my router:
First I find the RPi in the client list on the router
Then I assign an IP address within the DHCP range such as 192.168.1.123.
Now the RPi always gets the same IP address and there is no configuration needed on the RPi.
Am I missing something?

I guess by doing dhcp reservation in the router, router note down pi's mac address and always assign the same address to pi. Or in other words router reserves a particular ip addreSs for a mac address.

[klricks]

I guess by doing dhcp reservation in the router, router note down pi's mac address and always assign the same address to pi. Or in other words router reserves a particular ip addreSs for a mac address.

Correct the MAC addresses off all connected devices are displayed in the DHCP reservation table and referenced to the client name. raspberrypi
If not connected then the MAC address can be entered manually.

[alexeames]

I guess by doing dhcp reservation in the router, router note down pi's mac address and always assign the same address to pi. Or in other words router reserves a particular ip addreSs for a mac address.

Correct the MAC addresses off all connected devices are displayed in the DHCP reservation table and referenced to the client name. raspberrypi
If not connected then the MAC address can be entered manually.

Yep - I use the same reservation technique. It gives a specific IP address to each MAC. A wifi dongle has its own MAC too.

One thing I'll add for the OP is that disk performance on the Pi is 3-fold increased if instead of formatting the disk as NTFS you have it as EXT4. The downside is the HDD won't be directly usable on Windows machines without installing additional software, but it will massively speed up the file transfer between Pi and HDD.

I would also set up ssh login with keys and disable passwords, then use an sftp client to get your files. I'm not sure about streaming, but I'm sure others will chip in with comments.

[Magic Knight]

I connect remotely same as above with a few differences.
Router (BT hub2) - 2 changes, port forward ssh and also setup dynamic dns
Get a free dyndns account here https://www.dlinkddns.com/login this will allow you to connect to your pi from anywhere with a dedicated web address.
I haven't needed to mess around with IP addresses, my pi always connects to my wireless network with the same ip address.
Software - I use Filezilla portable. Connects via ssh, nice interface and portable, keep it on your usb stick.