I’ve been meaning to get around to making sure all my good files (mainly photos and some crucial documents) are properly backed up for some time - I even played with getting an old machine running as an rsync server - but it was too noisy and … crap.

So I finally got around to buying something proper, and after some research into Network Attached Storage settled on a Linksys NSLU2 with a Buffalo DriveStation 500GB USB hard drive - expandable flexible storage, and I thought there would be some fun to be had with various open source firmware available for the ’slug’.

Day 1 - install the thing in my network, get the drive formatted, set up users, get things going ‘out of the box’. Great, does what it says on the tin, I’m a happy bunny, time for bed.

Day 2 - do I quit while I’m ahead? No.

I’ve been reading up on the unslung firmware and it sounds easy, and a lot of fun. Perhaps I can get it acting as a Subversion repository, streaming media to remote iTunes etc. - all the things I don’t need but will be great to tinker with. So I get the latest release of the software, fully digest all the instructions, including the warnings, and following the process to the absolute letter (apart from ensuring I can RedBoot because I’m an optimist) I proceed to upload the .bin file through the web interface at the right moment. “Can take 5 minutes or more …” it says “… do not turn off the power while upgrading!” it says.

One hour and 5 minutes later it’s still blinking, and I’m now pretty convinced I’ve got a nicely styled plastic brick. What do I do? Should I leave it running all night in the pathetic hope that the pixies will sprinkle their magic dust and it will have sorted itself in the morning, or should I do the thing I’ve been told not to and turn it off to try and follow the process to un-brick it? Why didn’t I leave well alone?

To cut a long, boring story short, I finally managed to get into the RedBoot prompt, reading through the instructions on what to do next made me chicken out of going that route - with my luck I’d permanently screw something up. So I found a bit about using the Sercomm Updater (I only had a Windows machine to hand) - and it worked an absolute treat upgrading to the unslung firmware (brave decision - I was a gnats’ away from going back to the Linksys) Why isn’t that the first suggestion rather than teasing the unsuspecting with talk of trying to catch a 2 second telnet window with a Vulcan nerve grip keyboard maneouver?

I’ve now got an unslung NSLU2 with all the original Linksys web interface still working - when I’ve regained my composure I may see if I can figure out another way to brick the thing.