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isucyfan

isucyfan

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Apr 21, 2006
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I'm looking to buy one of these, and the reviews are generally terrible on some of the basic ones I've looked at. Anyone have any suggestions for a good one?

I mainly want it for wirelessly backing up data from my laptop and desktop, and to be able to move stuff around to keep my laptop's HD from filling up. I don't foresee needing/wanting to stream content, but may play around with that at some point. I'd like something at least 1 TB, preferably more, but want to keep the price down if possible.
 
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ia8manfan

Active Member
Apr 12, 2006
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I seocnd this statement. I am looking to buy the Acer Iconia Tab W500, and want to wirelessly access the HD for music and other files.
 
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IcSyU

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Nov 27, 2007
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I have a WD 1TB hard drive connected to my router and can do live backup wirelessly with software that I can't remember the name of right now (it's a Norton product if I remember right). Works awesome. As soon as I hit "save" on a document on any of my laptops, it automatically backs up the file on the hard drive.

Cost wise you'll come out about the same. If I remember right, it was $200 for a 1TB networked hard drive when I went that route last year. I got a router with a USB input for $80 and the 1TB drive for $75.
 
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Cyclones2

Cyclones2

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May 9, 2011
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What are you looking to spend and which ones have you looked at already?
 
isucyfan

isucyfan

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Apr 21, 2006
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Cyclones2 said:
What are you looking to spend and which ones have you looked at already?
Click to expand...

I was at Target today and glanced at the 2TB Free Agent Go Flex that was $159. I also just got on Bestbuy.com and was looking at the Seagate models. I'd like to stay in that price range, but the reviews are troublesome.
 
Cyclones2

Cyclones2

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Yeah they aren't consistently outstanding but i feel people are more compelled to write a review when they don't like something than when they do like something...
 
Cy4Patriots

Cy4Patriots

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Jan 10, 2011
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isucyfan said:
Those look like a couple of good options. Reviews are not great, but I'm not seeing any units that have consistently solid reviews.
Click to expand...

Someone will always find something wrong with it. More bad reviews are because they bought something they didn't have a need for or didn't read enough about it.
 
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isucyfan

isucyfan

Speechless
Apr 21, 2006
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Saint Paul, MN
Cyclones2 said:
Yeah they aren't consistently outstanding but i feel people are more compelled to write a review when they don't like something than when they do like something...
Click to expand...

Cy4Patriots said:
Someone will always find something wrong with it. More bad reviews are because they bought something they don't have a need for or didn't read enough about it.
Click to expand...

Very true...that is why I wanted to hear from people that actually have a unit that they like.
 
cytech

cytech

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Apr 10, 2006
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Why not just put a extra hard drive in the desktop for this purpose? That will be your cheapest option. As another poster pointed out I would get a router that has a USB port for plugging in a external hard drive for network storage. Most of the store bought NAS use crap hard drives which is what leads to the poor reviews.
 
jbhtexas

jbhtexas

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Oct 20, 2006
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cytech said:
Why not just put a extra hard drive in the desktop for this purpose? That will be your cheapest option. As another poster pointed out I would get a router that has a USB port for plugging in a external hard drive for network storage. Most of the store bought NAS use crap hard drives which is what leads to the poor reviews.
Click to expand...

Agree...for the most part, those poor reviews probably aren't too far off. A couple of years ago, I had an Iomega 500 GB that crapped out after 6 months. The reviews weren't great, but I thought Iomega was reputable so I got one anyway.

The drive used a Linux-based OS on a chip and striping across (2) 250 GB drives. The thing ran super hot which I hated from the start. The chip failed and the unit wouldn't boot. Iomega would not help with data recovery (I didn't have great backup at the time). Thankfully, the failures were rampant, and someone on the InterWeb developed a recovery procedure where one could hook the Linux drives up to a PC and mount them with UFS Explorer, reconstruct the stripe set, and recover the data. But even before that, the transfer speed to the drive was terrible (I've got 1 Gbit wire in my house).

I ended up just sticking another SATA drive in my Dell desktop for NAS. No problems since, and the transfer rate is good.
 
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CyFever

CyFever

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Dec 2, 2009
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Phoenix, AZ
I'll second the request for recommendations, only I've got an additional requirement: RAID 5 or better with 3 drives or more.
 
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BobTheHawkHater

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2008
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Bump ...

My Seagate NAS just took a dump (2nd Seagate NAS that's failed for me) so I'm looking for a new backup solution. I don't trust the security of cloud backup services -- I just want something local.

I have 2 work desktop PCs at home. One of the NAS drives I purchased a long time ago came with backup software from Retrospect which I have configured to incrementally back up work files and pictures from both PCs at 2 am every night. Once a week it "grooms" old stuff out of the backups so I don't run out of space on the 4 TB NAS. It works well most of the time, but maybe once every year or two something will go wrong and I'll have to rebuild the backup catalogs.

Anyone have advice on what my next backup solution should be? I feel like I'm kinda in the dark ages with my current solution, but it works (or used to til last week) and I don't have to spend much time on maintaining it.

I would like a solution for under $1,000, under $500 would be even better, but I was looking at some of the new 2-bay RAID NAS drives with ethernet interfaces and I'm not sure they would fit that budget. They also look really complex to set up.
 
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