Netgear ReadyNAS NV

I purchased the Netgear ReadyNAS about 2 months ago and I would have to say, it is one of the most flexible NAS systems out there with its proprietary Raid X support.


Raid X is raid 0, raid 1 or raid 5, depending on how many drives are installed. It allows you to expand the NAS system capacity without reloading the system by simply adding a drive or replace the existing drives with larger drives and the system will expand the capacity of the NAS.

For example: The unit I purchased came with 2-500GB drives configured with Raid 1 (mirrored). I copied over about 100GB of worth of files. While the system was hot, I installed a 3rd drive. It reported on the LCD that the 3rd drive was installed. During the next hour, I continued to copy over files while it worked on the new drive. Then it emailed me to tell me it was ready to be restarted. I restarted the system and after boot-up, it converted from a raid 1 to a raid 5 configuration (during this process, I didn’t have access to the unit). After it was complete (about 5 hour later), I had 1TB storage available to me. I didn’t lose any of the files I had on the unit. Later I went through the sale process again when I added the 4th drive (giving me a total capacity of 1.5TB). Again, the NAS emailed me when it was done.


Netgear states in their documentation that if I was to replace my 500GB drives with 750GB, one at a time, using the process stated above, that when I add the last 750GB drive, it would expand the drive total capacity to 2.25TB without having to reload the system. By the way, you can only expand the system, you cannot shrink it. In other words, I cannot replace my NAS with 250GB drivers.


Some of the other features I use: built in backup to my other NAS (a Buffalo Teraserver), email notification of events (backup failure/success notification, individual drive health reports, relocating of sectors [yes one of the Seagate drives had a minor issue], etc.), and attaching a USB drive.


Some of the features I don’t use: network sharing up to 2 USB printers, UPS support, USB Camera, Routers, and support multimedia devices.


This is a very flexible/power unit with a rich set of features for the $$.


Now for a little comparison of the Netgear ReadyNAS and the Buffalo Teraserver Live NAS unit. I understand that comparing these two units is like comparing apples and oranges (the Buffalo Teraserver Pro is in the same league as the ReadyNAS where the Teraserver Live is a bit more basic), but I’m comparing units I own so I can talk from experience.


Drivers: Buffalo requires loading of a driver on each workstation that will be accessing it. Netgear on the other had, is visible/mappable without any drivers.


Expanding: The Netgear ReadyNAS supports Raid X the Buffalo Teraserver Live doesn’t. The Buffalo requires you to have 4 drives at all times. If you want to upgrade it, you can. But you will need to replace all 4 drives at the same time and rebuild the raid.


Add Ons: Both units will support 2 USB printers, but both have different limitations. The Netgear will only support the printers on its compatibility list (which is a small list). And Buffalo will only support postscript printers. Netgear documents this limitation fairly well. Buffalo isn’t so up front. They don’t document it anywhere. You get that info by calling their tech support. Buffalo appears to support all USB enclosed drives (all that I own at least, but it’s hard to say because they don’t document it). Netgear on the other hand, does a fairly good job documenting what they are compatible with.
Postscript printers, USB external drives and UPS battery backups are all the add-ons that the Buffalo supports. Netgear supports those and a few other types of devices.


See the compatibility list for Netgear here: http://kbserver.netgear.com/inquira/default.asp?ui_mode=answer&prior_transaction_id=1059116&action_code=5&highlight_info=16778538,5,9&turl=http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101708.asp&answer_id=8630174#__highlight