4.5.2016

Ok, bit of a story but hopefully it's a heads up to others.I had some spare drives lying around so thought i'd pop those into this, 3x 1TB drives and a single 500GB. Configured as X-RAID, the ReadyNAS creates two RAID5 volumes, a 4 disk one of 500GB and a 3 disk one of the remaining 500GB on the 1TB drives. It then presents the sum of that as a single data volume so quite painless and neat.During some configuration, the unit didn't respond and I had to pull the power plug, at this point, it appeared to have lost the configuration and told me that I had to remove inactive disks to use the volumes data and data-0 (the above RAID sets) but the disks weren't inactive. Anyway, since I was just setting up,I put it down to one of those random IT things and carried on.Having set up the volumes, I set to work shoving stuff from a plethora of disks onto this, you know the sort of thing, the family photos, the family videos, all that important stuff. Good plan, after all, this is going onto a RAID store...(you can see where this is going already right?)Next, I thought i'd get smart. Rather than copy from a USB external drive on my PC, across the network to the NAS, why not just connect the USB 3 drive direct to the back of the NAS, surely the copy would be faster on the same hardware than introduce the network.That all went smimmingly...until the last and yes really it was the last file, 7GB, not that that's of specific relevance but as my luck would have it, the NAS fell off the network, it would respond to ping but not the power button. Only one thing for it, pull the power plug.Upon re-inserting the power plug and watching it boot, it flashed to say that drive 3 had failed (well I didn't think it had) but I thought "Uh oh...at least it's RAID!" (are you falling off your chair laughing yet?)So I went into the NAS web admin page to be told... "Remove inactive disks #1,#2#,#3,#4 in order to access the volume data" and as previously, it was showing me the raw data and data-0 RAID 5 sets. Going to the share config in the admin told me that I needed to create a volume first. WTF!You might think, oh well, it was only copying to it but in classic screw up fashion, i'd been deleting as I went from my source disks *bangs head VERY hard*.Now, just to put this into some perspective, there are many things that I'd be very ashamed to have to admit to my wife that i'd done. Telling her how I, an IT guy for 30+ years had just monumentally "lost" all our family pictures and videos was right there at the top of the shame list.Being a holiday weekend, I figured now was the time to turn it off and just leave it before waiting 2 days to get in touch with Netgear support. I rationalised that the data must be there, some part of the config was missing but nonetheless, spent money on volume recovery/undelete software and went at the lengthy process of scouring my original disks to recover what I could.I also had 2 days in which to read/research and see what other experiences people had with these units. Some even report the same issues (or very similar) in Amazon reviews.When I did get through to Netgear the first level support girl was very understanding, had a look at the logs (I'm sure she didn't mind encountering the porn on the PC while looking in the downloads folder for the log.zip file during the remote session) and said "one of the disks isn't on the supported HCL. We had a discussion on this point, I accept the HCL, non compliant statement but pressed my point that the disk that "failed" wasn't the non HCL one and that upon reboot again, it was not showing an error so I believed the error at the time to be a timing related issue or similar.Anyway, she was courteous and escalated me to second level. "Ian" went through his routine (equally competently I might add) and conceded that this was going to be escalated and he wanted to go through the option to enable SSH...except you can't do that if you don't have a volume mounted. Never mind, paperclip in the rear and bring it up in the "Support" mode where it listens on a port. He confirmed that it was accessible and that was the end of his involvement.There the unit sat for a day... patiently waiting to be stroked and teased by a level 3 tech.I did expect a phone call first but I happened to be sitting next to it and noticed it was active, disk activity, then it shutdown and restarted into the running mode. Immediately then came an email from level 3 tech to say he had recovered the volume, take a look.As I write this, I am copying everything off as a backup, as per my original intent.The unit has a choice of several apps which connect to various cloud storage providers for automated backup, one of those will be going on later and I shall also be writing out some Blu Ray discs for backup and looking at a fireproof safe.I will replace the non HCL drive tomorrow, even though I don't see that as a factor here, Netgear wouldn't be unreasonable for denying support as they state they may. I've spent my working career for IT hardware and software manufacturers so I know how that works, the risk was mine.Credit to Netgear support, very professional, courteous, understanding and with a fabulous outcome - HUGE THANK YOU!Once i've got the content secure, i'm going to bully it a bit more and see if I can understand the failure mode, especially when I have 4 HCL compliant drives, then that might be a different discussion but for now, if you too want to avoid utter shame and a divorce lawyer...- This is NOT your only back up solution- Do make regular copies- Don't delete your only original copy- Establish an alternate back up- DO use supported hardware, it avoids those awkward discussions about "but yeah it *should* be ok"- Netgear Support may be able to help if you don't dick around with it and make things worse(All of the above being blindingly obvious to me throughout my career but I thought I was going to be ok just this once yeah yeah, laugh at me now but learn vicariously and don't be so foolish)About the device itself, i'm sure it'll be a wonderful addition to the family IT infrastructure, once i've got past the stage of treating it like a cat that has just scratched my eyes out.I like the iSCSI support, just need bigger disks to make more use of that to create volumes on others machines in the house, plus I need to have more confidence that the thing isn't going to drop the config on me again.The ability to dynamically add bigger drives (one at a time to allow rebuild) and not have to fully backup (hahahaha) and reconfig the RAID sets seems like it should be a nice feature.So at the moment, I'm not unhappy, just bruised confidence and after a few days of bullying it, if I can reproduce it dropping the volume configuration then i'll likely be winging its way back to Amazon.Final words in case they haven't sunk in... you cannot replace those years of lost family pictures and videos, however you can replace the wife but that tends to be expensive (apparently).

15.2.2016

I must start by saying I received this NAS free as part of the NETGEAR friends and family program but my review is based upon my own experience of setting up and using this device.This was a disk-less unit so I purchased 4 x WD Red 2TB NAS drives to populate it. It's a screw-less system to put the drives in so a few minutes at best, nice and simple.Set-up of the NAS comes with ReadyCloud which was particularly easy, I just plugged the NAS into my router and browsed to [...] to create an account, discover and set-up my NAS.Once set-up on-line via ReadyCloud I was able to jump straight from there via a click to the management page of the NAS itself, from here I could get to a more granular management page of the system.You do get more options in terms of settings on the NAS when on the direct management page, but ReadyCloud is good for quick set-up and great for accessing your files or sharing them.I have a mix devices, Windows, Android, IOS, MAC OS but the NAS supports protocols for access that all seem to understand. SMB for Windows/Android and AFP for MAC/IOS seem to do the job. I don't have a need for FTP but you can able that too if you need it. I've previously run KODI as a media centre just based of a Windows Media PC but there is an app store on ReadyNAS with loads of useful apps for different things that can be downloaded straight on the NAS itself. I downloaded PLEX Media Server onto the NAS itself to see if this could replace KODI for streaming my media and I'm quite impressed! I copied all my content into a share on the NAS and then within PLEX pointed it at the folder on the NAS. Plex downloaded content for all my files, covers, descriptions etc, that was a nice touch. I've now gone around installing PLEX on everything I own, phones, laptops & computers, tablets, xbox, and I can even cast from my PLEX phone app to my ChromeCast dongle plugged into the kitchen TV. The NAS handles all the streaming and delivers me no issues even up to 1080p on two devices, the most I tested. I did purchase the premium PLEX app on my phone but now I can get my content streamed directly from my NAS anywhere. This feature alone has me sold and I would happily pay for the 214 based on it.I also installed the ReadyCloud app on my android device, I can from here now see all my files and download them as well as uploading any file I want on my phone to my NAS from anywhere. I couldn't do this on my IOS device but that's likely because the iPhone is more locked down. On both app's you can choose to backup photos/media off the phone, not something I did. When you sign in to the ReadyCloud website you get more features than the app, the ability to share being the best! The ReadyCloud service VPN's you to the NAS for access from anywhere, now I can click a file or an entire share and email a link for other people to access it directly from the NAS. You do have to have decent upload speeds to support it, especially if you have big files to share, I'm lucky with a 20Mb upload so not to much of an issue. Works great and I was sharing photo's with family from the NAS, without the need to put it on some on-line provider or having to drag it into emails.I didn't use a NAS previously as I didn't see the point when I have a Windows Media PC but this has convinced me. Certainly PLEX and ReadyCloud are the two winning features here, I could probably set-up similar on my PC but for ease of use and set-up the NAS definitely wins out. The longest part of the process was transferring data from PC to NAS, my network is 1Gb and I had over 3TB of data! taking away that the actual set-up of the NAS, PLEX, ReadyCloud and installing PLEX on all my devices took me around 2 hours. Now all my content is on the NAS and it's my media server its made my Windows Media PC a little redundant, so it stays off unless needed.For the price I would definitely recommend this NAS to all. There are a lot more features that I haven't touched on, but will get around to playing with so I'm sure the review will only get better.

27.5.2015

I have received this device as part of NETGEAR's Friends & Family program.To look at it’s a very small non obtrusive NAS so I have it sitting underneath my TV as that is where my router is, and it doesn’t look out of place at all with my sky box, DVD player etc.The 202 was diskless and I have 2 x 2TB drives purchased separately in the unit and the setup was very easy even for a not overly technical person like me. I followed the instructions to go to Netgears ReadyCloud website and it discovered my NAS straight away with it up and running in no time. I have to stress the ease and speed of this was a massive plus for me, how it works I don’t know but it just does.Once turned on it already had a host of network shares pre-setup already,generic music, videos etc. Perfect as that’s what I was copying across to the NAS. I was able to directly plug my external HDD and copy all my music and videos into the folders in no time at all. It does show as I only have 2TB space not 4TB but I’ve been told it’s because the drives are in RAID 1 (jargon to me), google says it means the second drive is a copy of the first for protection. I only have around 900GB of data so it’s no issue and nice to know should a drive die I won’t lose my stuff.I like that I can set different user levels as I live with a housemate so I have given them access with a username and password to my music and videos but only to view so they are not able to delete anything. I’ve also given them their own folder so they can store their own files too which is really cool. With the free ReadyCloud service we can access our files from anywhere on our iPhone’s and I’ve been using it at work, I’ve shared files to people directly from my NAS like dropbox, being a Teacher I have tonnes of documents so I think this will prove to be invaluable as I can have them in one place now and access them and share them from anywhere! There is an app for windows and android but I haven’t tested these, the IOS version and website works great on my phone and iPad.The ReadyNAS has the ability to install applications from its own inbuilt app store which will prove really useful for me. I use WordPress for managing my home business website so I’ve been able to install the WordPress app and I have now copied my website onto it. I have a running backup now should I ever need it and I can test and make changes to this version before I do it on my live website.I have installed the plex media server application and it discovered and downloaded all the covers and details for my movie collection, a nice touch. It streams great to my iPad via the IOS application although I haven’t had a chance to play with it much more than that yet. My housemate has a chromecast and I have read it works with that also but he hasn’t had a chance to test it, would be great if that works well.I’m really impressed so far with what I have managed to achieve and I feel like I’m only scratching the surface of what this NAS can do so I know this is going to be an essential bit of technology for me just like my iPad. I will admit I have downloaded the user guide from Netgear’s website to help me along the way and I will be reading through more to see what else I can do with some instructions. I would happily recommend this to anyone looking for home storage, even though it’s already doing a lot more than that for me already.

11.2.2016

I’ve had this unit up and running for roughly a month and so far it’s done all I’ve asked of it perfectly.I’m far from a “techie” with these kinds of things although I do have a fairly good understanding of computing in general. Initial set-up was simple enough, I use a MacBook predominantly and used the Netgear RAIDar app to find the NAS on the network and enter the admin page from there. I mainly use NAS devices for storing media and streaming but I don’t do a huge amount of “back-up” etc, although I will look into it with this device as the “backup jobs” scheduler looks comprehensive and easy to use.Before I received the RN214 I used to use various streaming devices and software programs

27.6.2020

I'm no slouch with computers having spent decades working in tech support and managing systems from the home level up to enterprise infrastructure including raid systems. Having said that I found setting this system up to be very frustrating and had some serious niggles that were major sources of annoyance. Once it was up and running everything seems fine but those initial headaches really soured my experience of it.On initial setup it insists you change the password, which is a great practise for security, however it promptly forgot it so after it rebooted as part of the wizard it would no longer let me log in with the old or the new password, meaning an immediate factory reset to regain access.

20.7.2015

I received a ReadyNAS 204 with 4 x 1TB SATA drives for the family and friends program.Out of the box, the ReadyNAS 204 has the look and feel of a quality product.The unit provided was diskless, so first challenge was to install the 4 x 1TB hard drives.If you're not a screwdriver aficionado (and may not have one to hand), the good news is the drive bays support screwless hard drive installation which is a simple method to install hard drives (if necessary).Connected the ReadyNAS to the network, powered up the unit and used the provided RAIDar application to locate the ReadyNAS on the network and then clicked "Setup" which auto opened a web browser session to the ReadyNAS and simply logged into

1.3.2016

The RN214 is a clean and uncomplicated four bay NAS enclosure with a sturdy metal chassis and two pairs of drive bays that pull out from the front (located behind a door). As well as a front USB port, which you can configure to transfer data instantly between a USB drive and the NAS at the touch of a button, there are two USB3 ports at the rear and a single eSATA2 port. The NAS connects to your network via a Gigabit Ethernet port at the rear. There are aactually 2 Gigabit ports here which when combined can take advantage of a speed boost that overcomes the natural bottleneck of a single cable connection.There is a handy web browser based set up process thats simple and fast to get through.

13.9.2015

I have a large collection of photographs and have spent a long time scanning in old pictures some going back 80 years and although I had a backup system I was never 100% happy with its operation and was looking for something that would securely store all my files.So I looked into the NAS option and it seemed to tick all the boxes and after several weeks of research I eventually decided on the Netgear RM202 product, I also purchased 2 WD red 3Tb hard drives.The installation of the unit and the drives was very easy, and the software copied all my files across with no problem, the issue I have is with the documentation, this seems to assume that I know a lot about NAS and am familiar with the terminology which I am not and I initially struggled the concept,

12.12.2017

Simple to get up and running, simple to set up personal cloud and access from phone etc ehen away from home. I added 12Tb of storage in a raid 5. If you have a netgear swich you can bond the two ethernet ports, even with a normal switch/hub you can still use both to improve load balancing. Not too keen ont he documetnation for backups using RSYNC, most is for an older version of the operating system. You do need to make sure you get the latest firmware updates. For the hardcore users you can enable SSH root access and that gives you the full power of the linux distribution on which it runs. I have two in separate building, one backing up the other,

6.7.2015

ReadyNas RN202I received this Device as part of the friends and family program. I am happy to say this device meets my requirements brilliantly.I am not the most technically gifted person, and yet this product was a breeze, a joy to setup and has managed to back up everything I wanted in one weekend. The cloud connection was seamless, and the folders already created made it easy for me to organise my back ups in a simplistic fashion.I had the option of calling the support line for help but didn't need it.I would recommend this product to anybody who has a family and has a lot of files and movies they wish to share amongst them, The box itself is tiny fitting in amongst your other electronics with ease,

31.5.2016

The nas box itself is built like a tank and I have 4 x 4tb of Seagate discs and all I can say is that it works perfectly and I am very pleased with it. However the Readycloud internet page what you use for your nas drive is appalling rubbish. Setting it up was easy and for a while everything was perfect. About 3 days ago I tried to log on it said my email address was wrong then my password was wrong so then I clicked on 'I have forgotten my password' so they would send me a link to change it. So I changed it and horaah I got on. Today 31st of May I tried to log on I could only get so far and a window came up saying that I would not be able to open anythingelse because the nas box and computer

3.7.2016

Not sure why this has gone up to £240 - I paid £170 a week ago!Anyway, this is brilliant. I bought it to replace an aging Zyxel NAS along with a 3TB HDD to get me going ( I plan to add more later to increase storage and back it up). It is used for my music and home movie collection so I have installed Logitech Media Server (built in apps) and Plex. Now, there are versions of Plex available on the device for installation (confusingly, ignore any reference to RN2xx versions - they are for the RN212 and RN214). I ignored the versions on the most recent firmware and installed the latest free version downloaded directly from the Plex website - you need the Netgear Arm6x (as I write it's running v1.0.0.2261-a17e99e).

1.7.2015

I received this ReadyNAS free as part of the NETGEAR Friends & Family scheme.I already have three older ReadyNAS systems and this one is just as easy to setup and configure. With its out of the box setup and latesst OS features an it is easy for nearly anyone to setup and get up and running without too much tehnical knowlege. For those people that do want it to do more the additonal features, functionality and apps are there and easy to add and configure. It's small foot print and look make it great for those that cannot hide it. With the storage SATA expandability function as well we can easily increase the amount of storage when needed.Netgear has always been one of our preferred suppliers

22.7.2015

I have been a ReadyNAS user for many years and continue to be impressed by the way their devices store and grant me access to my data. It really was a breeze setting-up this device. The ReadyNAS interface is simple but powerful. The device came with a pre-set suggested group of network shares, which I largely ended-up using. User and Group permissions were very intuitive. I'm sharing the device with my sister, so it's nice to have separate accounts and access.I'd recommend this to anyone who wants control of files local and cloud.

6.6.2018

Loaded with 3xSeagate Ironwolf 8TB. Easy to set up, does what it says on the tin, excellent performance (consistently over 90 MB/s read & write over a single gigabit ether connection). The Netgear ReadyNAS devices may not have as many "bells and whistles" as some competitors but this really isn't a problem. Just be aware that building a 24TB RAID 5 volume (using X-Raid configuration) takes the best part of 24 hours, I don't see there's any way out of this (my ReadyNAS 104 with 4x4TB drives takes over 3 days).

Netgear ReadyNAS 212 2-Bay - Reviews

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