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12-06-07
Duration of ownership: 9 Months
Strengths: RAID 5, All Metal Enclosure, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11G Wireless with WPA Security.
Weaknesses:Defective software
Overall Evaluation: This unit is incredibly enticing. Most units, although 1TB, only allow 0,1 RAID which means that in RAID 1 (mirror mode) you can only get 500 Gigs.This Iomega unit allows you get 750 Gigs in RAID 5 since it has 4 drives. More cost effective storage space.It also features:* Linux based OS* Flexible user and group based security,* Above average performance with respect to RAID, responsiveness, and transfer speeds.* Gigabit ethernet as well as 802.11G wireless* 2 USB ports to attach additional storage* 4 drive bays to upgrade and replace drives* RAID 5 !!. This is a prominent feature that sets it in a unique category among entry level NAS.* A very well built enclosure. All metal, fairly thick at that, as well as very sturdy enclosure for the HD's that uses screws. Nothing plastic of flimsy here.All very very good features for a NAS. The price is slightly higher than competitive products, but the added features are well worth it.Wait a second? Isn't the product being rated as 1 Star? I sound like a i am in love for the first time......The biggest drawback? It's a deal killer.* BAD AND HORRIBLY DEFECTIVE SOFTWARE ****The software running the unit itself is flawed. Your data may be intact on the drives itself, but the administration software running on the unit can, and quite often, does fail.When it fails, you have very little options. There are some limited recovery options on the unit and Iomega tech support has limited solutions as well. If these do not solve the problem, you can send the unit back to Iomega, BUT LOSE ALL YOUR DATA.They do offer in-house data retrieval services, but quotes have run from $2500 to $6800 dollars depending on the amount of data to be retrieved.Opening the enclosure itself voids the warranty accordingly, and there is a little a layperson could do on their own.The internal drives are IDE on some models. This means that taking the drives out and hooking them up to a independent system requires a separate 4-Channel IDE/SATA RAID card that supports RAID 0,1,5 + JBOD.The costs of fixing it yourself can become prohibitive.The whole point of this product is:1) Network Attached Storage. Multiple computers accessing the data at the same time.2) Backup. This requires reliability and redundancy (RAID)This product, although very well spec'd, cannot live up to it's purpose and will be a liability to anybody using it.Avoid this product at all costs.
06-11-07
Duration of ownership: 60 Days
Strengths: Fast access, easy to set up, reliable data storage
Weaknesses:The admin software should be more user-friendly, certain functions are not well explained by the online help.
Overall Evaluation: I buyed this item to replace a bunch of old Snap Servers, and the set up and data backup were done in about two hours. The system will not boot properly if you use the wrong type of power cord, and there are two cords almost identical for my area. The discovery software seems to be designed for networking experts instead of the average user. Since then, I just forgot about the Server, with zero maintenance in the first two months. You will get a nice device for an affordable price.
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