Netgear ReadyNas NV+ 4-bay NAS Drive Enclosure w/ Gigabit & speeds up to 25MBps (Diskless)

Pros: I can't think of any pro's except the description of what the device offers is excellent.

Cons: On first boot the device booted up with Bad Firmware error on the LCD. Submitted a support case online (netgear.com). It took netgear 7 + days to respond to my question with links to FAQ's vs. solution. I read the FAQ's before contacting online support.

Other Thoughts: I'm sure I got unlucky with bad hardware. 7+ days to respond to support ticket is not acceptable. I never got the hardware working. Newegg customer service and return process is awesome!!!!

Pros: Compact size. Gigabit port. Silver.

Cons: Using my MacBook Pro to set this up was rather cumbersome. Had to reference the ReadyNAS forum numerous times. Setup took a LONG time, but I have 4 Western Digital 1TB drives and synchronization of the drives took 8 hours.

Other Thoughts: I still need to setup the NAS for Time Machine for my MacBook Pro, MacBook, and iMac.

Pros: Cheap and for standard use it is pretty easy to setup. Install the drives and it does the rest.

Cons: Unstable OS. Within the first couple days of tweaking the add-ons and setting up the security, I found inconsistent access to the shares. I originally set it up with domain user security. When I found most share would only let me in around 30% of the time I tried to change the security type to local security. However, the web view was no longer accessible. Scanned ports to find no 80 or 443 port open any longer. Tried reloading OS and nothing happened. Luckily I still had all my files in another location and performed a full reload. Got everything setup and things appeared to be good. Now about a year after setting it up I decided to setup an FTP share, but found I could no longer get into the web management again. Port 80 and 443 are closed again and I have no place large enough to move the files off to completely reload. I have tried OS reload but it doesn't ever actually perform the reload. Netgear 90 support always sucks but is standard for their products.

Other Thoughts: I would suggest spending a little more money and going with a different NAS if you are wanting something you can really count on. I would have given a 1 egg, but the cost and ease of basic setup is nice for those that aren't use to storage solutions. Otherwise, it shouldn't get any eggs. Check the ReadyNAS forums and see how many people have posted about lack of the web interface, "frontview". Without it your toast.

Pros: It sure looks nice. It appears that it should be working but any drive I put in bay 1 shows up as bad so it never completes initializing. I let it sit for 24 hours.

Cons: DOA. If it won't initialize, it's not much good except for sucking up energy

Other Thoughts: I'm going to get a replacement. Hopefully, I'll have better luck.

Pros: None. DLINK 2 bay 321 is far better.

Cons: Netgear lies about the awesome ability to upgrade to larger disks becuase this NAS doesn't support anything above 2TB at max. I will not be buying anymore netgear products. SCAM AND LIES!

Pros: Unit has support for 4 hard drives. Rather quiet when the fans spin down to normal running speed.

Cons: Does not support support hard disks bigger than 1.5TB without use of beta interface software. Interface software feels clunky and offers little in the ways of controlling the volume. It is a trick to get the unit to create a volume in something other than X-RAID. None of the printed documentation,which is very scares except the quick setup guide, includes default password (a very stupid mistake since it would take less than a line). Having been a regular Netgear customer in the past i know it is netgear1 but someone else might not. Though that will change since company has gone a different direction lately. The one of mediocrity, stupidity and laziness.

Other Thoughts: Waste of time and source of frustration. Manufacturer lies about its capabilities by including software that is still in beta stage and is needed to recognize 2TB drives.

Just as a personal remark:

If the software is stable and reliable then it should be escalated to a supported stage instead of remaining a potential loophole to refuse support. This level of "professionalism" should not be encourages by purchasing their products. Buyer beware and stay away.

Pros: Awesome unit, nothing bad to say about it, pretty much the ideal NAS for anything. Expandability, drive replacement, everything is a breeze (and I work with everything from desktop USB drives to enterprise class SAN systems as well). This is MUCH better than the readynas nv+ V2

Cons: DOES NOT SUPPORT DRIVES > 2TB EACH! Probably will not ever either.

Other Thoughts: We own several of these units and the new V2 units as well, this is MUCH better than the V2, other than the lack of 3TB drive support, this unit is MUCH more reliable, mature, and easy to configure.

Pros: Gobs of storage
Extremely flexible
Awesome tech support

I have owned the NV+ since it was released by Infrant, not Netgear. However, I have to give props to Netgear for keeping the model around this long and keeping all the same tech support guys in the forums as well (Thank you Yoda). If I remembered correctly, I paid $700 for the diskless unit. 200GB disks were the rage at the time. Its still humming along after taking some serious home abuse for 5+ years and 3 disk swaps. I'm considering buying a second unit to set up at a remote site and run VPN backups.

Using this NAS for general storage of all "household files" plus its also my media streaming server to watch movies from my Xbox, and play music throughout the house from any PC/laptop.

I felt it was necessary to post a review. Itis a rarity in IT to see a product last as long as this and still be relative from a technology standpoint.

Nothing but good things to say about this device and top notch tech support.

Cons: Tricky firmware updates

The firmware updates over the years have caused some pain and scares. However, the feature sets have increased dramatically over the years so the upgrades have been well worth it.

SMART errors started to appeared on one of the 400GB disks about 9 months ago. I decided to do a firmware update while my replacement/upgrade disks were in transit and that's when the pain really began.

The system couldn't boot back into a normal operating mode after the firmware updates due to the smart errors.

Make sure you have a USB disk attached for backups!!!

If your data is only in one place - you don't have a backup no matter how good the RAID is on you NAS drive.

Other Thoughts: This old "Infrant" system is still kicking along. This unit started life with 2 200GB disks, upgraded to 3 400GB disks, and is now running with 4 WD Black 1TB disks - I went with those for the 5 yr warranty.

I've been through 3 or 4 firmware updates and the last one was somewhat nightmarish, but partly because of the SMART errors on the one of the X-Raid disks.

The gents on the tech support forums are second to none. Walked me through a little trickery to boot into a "limp home" mode and I was able to attach a WD Mybook and create and run a backup job to copy the most important of the files to the MyBook.

Once backed up, I swapped in my 1 TB disks, and booted to create the xRAID array. Files are back on it and humming along nicely again.

My WD MyBook is now attached permanently to the rear USB port and back up jobs run once a week to protect against the most important files.

Did I mention how excellent the tech support is?

Pros: Plug and play. Simply install drives and setup is pretty straight forward.

Cons: I purchased this after seeing wanting to use ReadyNAS Photos II plugin... I didn't realize that the model I purchased is a SPARC architecture and does not support Photos II...
Just be careful of what plugins you want to use and all should be fine.

Pros: Super easy setup, works flawlessly.

Cons: None.