Seagate Central STCG3000100 3TB Network Storage System

Pros: - The usual: 3TB, etc.
- Basically, ready to serve shared files on a private network. There is a Share called "Public" already set up and you just use it. All the computers on my network see it instantly.
I copied one set of shared files (60,000 files in 25GB) in maybe an hour. After that, access from any computer using Windows Explorer was lightning fast. It felt like the files were locally stored. As the above numbers indicate, our files average about 4mb, but vary from 10k to 10mb. All open quickly. These are mostly CorelDraw files, graphic images and Paperport document images.

I stuck a USB hub in the single usb port and was able to see all drives thus connected. The hub appears as a share, so you get an error when you click on it, but the drives open just fine. Obviously , this could be used to expand storage, if you happen to fill it up. I think when that happens to me, I'll just buy a bigger unit.

Cons: None really.

The device defaults to the Windows workgroup default "WORKGROUP". I could not find a way to change this. We call our workgroup something else. So on XP machines, I see two workgroups. On Windows 7 machines, workgroups are "invisible", so it only comes up on XP machines. I don't think of this a a real Con, since the Public share is just as accessible and we will soon have no more XP machines.

As with so many computing devices, the documentation was poor and/or non existent. I was able to locate a 50 page user manual but it should have been on the device itself. It's here: http://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/support-content/external-products/seagate-central/en-us/SeagateCentral_UserGuide_EN.pdf. You could also google "seagate central user manual".

It's a shame that one has to read reviews to locate information about a device, but that's the first place to look.

Other Thoughts: We've been taking about building a Linux file server from an old P4, but there just hasn't been much time for that. When I saw this, it looked like it might be as good and the price was very modest for a pre-built solution. (Not much more than a 3TB bare drive!) I'm using this as a poor man's Small Business Storage Server. I wanted to see what one of these could do and find out if my people would adapt. In that sense, it took one day to say it was a success.

Since it has only one drive, I will probably retire it soon and buy one with RAID 1, like the "WD My Book Live Duo 4TB Personal Cloud Storage".

I know nothing about using this device for streaming video and the like. When I want to watch a video, I turn on the TV and get it from cable on demand.

Also, have not tried remote access but will likely update this review when I have additional experience with it. That should be a majorly useful feature.

Pros: Drive arrived just a few days ago. Plugged it in and it was easily found by my Raspberry Pi, my WDTV, and my phone with no problems (try doing that with a Windows shared folder!). Streaming a 1080p movie worked fine on all players. The phone will only allow steaming over WiFi, not the Cell network. The phone app will allow you to download the file, but who wants to do that?
Copying files to the drive is not the fastest, but I really didn't expect it in a NAS at this price range. As long as it streams fast enough.

Cons: It was great that the drive put itself to sleep when it wasn't being accessed. However, it doesn't always want to stay asleep. It seems to randomly wake itself up and start spinning the disc. I've taken to pulling the plug on it so it's not constantly running. It would be nice if I could just forget about it.

Other Thoughts: I gave it a 4 because of the sleep problem. Hopefully this will get fixed in a firmware update.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Donn,

The Seagate Central Shared Storage Network drive will put itself to sleep when no network activity is detected. However, if there is any network activity the drive will wake. We would not recommend pulling the plug on the drive unless the drive has been properly stopped first as this could potentially be a problem if the drive is being accessed when the plug is pulled. To Stop the drive, open our web admin utility and go to "Settings", "Setup", "System" and then "Stop".

If you have additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support staff and we will be happy to assist further:

http://seagate.com/support/contact-support/

Best Regards,
Seagate Support

Pros: - Easy setup.
- Lightweight background backup agent (doesn't use much system resources).
- Straight-forward backup scheduler.
- Good basic user controls for password protected backups and remote access.
- Files can be accessed locally and remotely in a number of different ways:

* Windows file sharing (SMB)
* DLNA
* Seagate Media mobile app (for Google Play Store, make sure it's the official one by Seagate Technology LLC)
* A third party website portal (Tappin) which is seamlessly setup for the users that you allow to have remote access.

- ProTip: this device runs on linux on an ARM processor, and has FTP and SSH services running. I was pleasantly surprised to find this, thank you Seagate.

Cons: - Would prefer some optional advanced security controls, and perhaps an advanced remote access alternative to Tappin utilizing the web server on the device.

- Seagate Media mobile app could use some additional features. I would prefer to open some file types in a different app, but there is no way around the built-in music player for instance. Also it would be fantastic if I could backup my mobile device files to the Seagate Central automatically when connected to the same LAN.

- Transfer speeds are lower than expected. Despite being attached to a Gbit LAN with jumbo frame support, transfer speeds top out around 34 MB/sec for large sequential files. For comparison, a 3 TB Seagate external hard drive has no problem writing files at around 90 MB/sec. As this is a backup device, I don't find this to be a deal-breaker.

Other Thoughts: All in all, this is a great device for an individual, family, or small business that would like a simple "set it and forget it" backup solution, at a much lower price point than a full-on multi-drive NAS solution.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Hergs,

We would like to thank you for providing feedback on our Seagate Central Shared Storage drive. We will pass this along to our developers for possible future enhancements.

If you have additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support staff:

http://seagate.com/support/contact-support/

Best Regards,
Seagate Support

Pros: Great networking unite and lets you set up users on the drive so each persons files are password protected from anyone else using them.
has a decent interface from the dash board
-Lets my family upload things on my drive as a back up to there computer with there own account and not have to pay a monthly fee for it.
-love the account password protection part so no one but me can see my files as well as each user can only see there own files.
-does have a public portion that everyone can access so if you travel great to put photo's there so you can share with who ever you want to.
-like the myspace back up portion so all the photos that go there get backed up and if they ever get deleted or removed by accident you have them on your hard drive now :)

Cons: -DashBoard utility doesn't always install and has issues installing. as well as the set up can be a bit confusing at first.
- says you can access from anywhere but there is a catch. the access from anywhere means via computer if you want to use your phone or other device the app you download requires you to pay a monthly fee to access from there, something they should mention.
- As for the device and how to add users and change things can be confusing also, since it is not done through the dashboard utility but a website link on the drive, which is separate from other features such as uploading and downloading of information to the drive (if your not at your home pc) done through www.tappin.com
-a max of three accounts can be made for the access anywhere portion after that you must pay for more users. as for home ive not seen a limit if your running a network and just want all devices backed up.
- does not let you ac

Other Thoughts: Although i put alot of cons for the device it does what i wanted it to do. i put the cons here so people are aware of the things you can't or do not actually find on the internet about this device and would have to buy it in order to figure it out.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Seagate Customer,

This response is from Seagate Support and we'd like to thank you for taking the time to post a review of the Seagate Central.

There is no charge for using our Seagate Media app to access files from your mobile devices. For more information on how to use our Media app, please refer to page 21 of our User Guide:

http://ow.ly/kV7YR

Additional information on setting up the Media app can be found in the following support article under the header "View Public folder content through the Seagate Media app":

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/005381en

We also wanted to provide a centralized link for help with setup, usage, installation, and troubleshooting of your Central Network drive. Please reference the link below:

http://ow.ly/kA3Q5

If you are having any problems with the Dashboard software, we would recommend using the software link provided here:

http://ow.ly/l3RhJ

If you have additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support staff:

http://seagate.com/support/contact-support/

Best Regards,
Seagate Support