Maxtor Shared Storage Drive II - NAS server

Reviewed by: sierra_nevadas

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Good value; Easy setup; great performance; gigabit ethernet port

Weaknesses: No USB mode; klutzy desktop software

Overall Evaluation: We have a Windows Home Server (WHS) at home (built from scratch), and had been quite happy with it. However, I was noticing some My Movies files getting corrupted. While I first assumed it was a bug in the program, I then discovered that it was the WHS itself that was corrupting the files!! It is a well known bug of this product, and they are still working on a fix (as of early March 2008). I was quite worried about my pictures and 2000+ CD MP3 library becoming corrupted as well, so decided to start storing these on a different product. This Maxtor drive povided the best bang for the buck. It was compact, easy to setup and doesn't use much power. Setup took me about twenty minutes, and did require a reboot. The desktop software is a bit funky, as you click on the icon in the Taskbar, and do some setup with that, but then get kicked to a web-browser to perform other setup. THey should have it all web-based, and not mess with the desktop control. All the other computers in the house have no problem finding the shared folders. Oh well, minor complaint, as I don't do any tweaks after the initial setup. It has a gigabit ethernet port, and is quite speedy, especially comared to the WHS. A click on Folder -> Properties is almost instantaneous with the Maxtor, yet takes several seconds with the WHS. The Maxtor has a built-in media server, so my music & pictures are visible throughout the entire home network. THis includes my DirecTV HD-DVR, which allow me to view pictures w/out a PC on in the house!