Network Attached Storage: Netgear ReadyNAS NV+
January 10th, 2008
Shawn requested a recommendation for the Reasonable Network Attached Storage (NAS) device for home use:
A NAS for home use…primary, durable storage of media; photos, movies, music, etc. Tired of having copies of everything on all the different computers in the house.
I’ve done a small amount of research on this, and Buffalo Tech’s TeraStation products sound like exactly what I want. But after digging through reviews of them (primarily on NewEgg), it sounds like they have problems with recovering from a drive failure. Which, if that is truly the case, makes their products Unreasonable.
That does sound unreasonable; the most important consideration for any NAS device is reliability. Nothing’s perfect, but you want the device to last a reasonable amount of time, and when a drive fails (and it will), you want it to be back up and running with a minimum of hassle and no data loss. (Also, always keep an offsite backup of your critical data, since there will never be a technological solution to fire or theft).
So I did some research, and the reasonable home NAS is the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+. It’s a PC Magazine Editors’ Choice, and it gets great reviews on Amazon and reasonable reviews on NewEgg. It supports a lot of filesystems and can function as a print-server too. The only cons: it doesn’t restart automatically after a power outage, external USB drives have to be FAT[32], and custom software has to be installed on any computer without UPnP–though this software is provided for Windows, Mac, and Linux, which are the only operating systems anyone cares about.
It’s a little pricey, but you get what you pay for, and no other NAS device has as good a feature set and performance for the price point, unless you build it yourself. Even if you buy cheapo hard drives for every other computer in the house, you should not skimp on your primary backup solution. It will come back to haunt you.
3 Responses to “Network Attached Storage: Netgear ReadyNAS NV+”
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Thanks for the recommendation. As a follow-up, how about a recommendation for inexpensive, easy-to-use offsite backup?
For offsite backup, it’s very reasonable to burn a DVD once a month and mail it to a relative or friend who lives out-of-state (in case of nuclear blast). A safety deposit box in a local bank is probably okay, and a firesafe would work in a pinch. I know everyone wants an automated solution, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to backup hundreds of gigabytes to an internet server, for bandwidth, cost, and perhaps legal reasons. Every byte you’ve ever created should fit on a single 4GB DVD, except music and video, which can be burned onto separate CDs or DVDs.
As a follow-up; I did end up purchasing the model recommended here. Here are the things that sealed the deal for me:
1) Active user community
2) Netgear/Infrant representatives participate regularly in the user forums (http://www.infrant.com/forum). Infrant is the company that built the ReadyNAS list; they were acquired by Netgear in the past year.
3) 5 year warranty
4) Product has been on the market for quite a while, but is still being actively developed (last firmware update was posted December 19, 2007, and added significant features).
5) Out of the box streaming to my Xbox 360. Many other NAS devices on the market require 3rd party software to stream to a PS3/360.
6) Netgear is currently giving away a Sony camcorder with the purchase of this ReadyNAS model (offer details: http://www.buynetgear.com/rebate/Q1_Promo_ReadyNAS%20.pdf).
I purchased the product from eaegis.com. The website looks a bit shady, but they earned my business for the following reasons:
1) Great price
2) They are currently running a promotion which gives you an extra 500GB disk, turning the 1TB RND4250 into a 1.5TB device.
3) They install the additional disk, then run the system through a 48 hour burn-in test at no additional cost.
4) Company representatives participate in the Infrant forums, and they were very responsive to me via email.
5) No sales tax.
I just received my ReadyNAS today, and I’m very pleased so far. For what it’s worth, the “free” disk that eaegis threw in was the exact same model as the other two disks that come standard with the ReadyNAS RND4250 (Seagate ST3500630NS). They shipped exactly 2 days after ordering (per the 48 hour burn-in testing), and they packed everything up very nicely; there was very little evidence of the box ever having been opened. I would purchase from eaegis.com again without hesitation.