Pros: What is cloud storage? A question I often ask myself as the term seems so generic. The cloud reaches everywhere from million dollar data centers to this very device. So to be broad with my definition, Cloud Storage is a digital location either being local or public that allows users to upload/download their personal files, aka cat pictures and the hottest memes. And the Seagate 2-bay 6TB NAS is a great example of how Cloud Storage is making a big splash in the consumer market place.
For this review I will be focusing on local/remote media storage and sharing
What’s in the box?
Quick start guide, Ethernet cable, Power Supply, and 2-year limited warranty
First Thoughts:
The Seagate NAS is very aesthetically pleasing. It has a glossy black top with flat black sides and some vent holes in the back and a modest Seagate logo on the front. I really like the low profile design and black finish as this device just blends in anywhere I put it. The LED on top is not too bright and the noise profile with this is almost nothing.
I ran this device in line with a power monitor and it would roughly cost around 15-20$ a year to run this device even at full usage, which is wonderful.
Diving in:
Settings up and accessing the NAS was as simple as it could get. It instantly appeared as a shared drive on my network when I opened it there was a shortcut to the NAS’s web interface.
Setting the NAS up via the web was simple and very straight forward. A standard terms and conditions window and a few software updates and I was ready to start defining my storage options.
The Seagate NAS gives you two options. RAID 1 (Redundency-3TB usable) or RAID 0 (Non-redundent-6TB usable.) After that you can setup your user account and any others that you want to as well. Then you can define some simple settings such as how you will be accessing your NAS and on what type of devices and a few more options. Once you are done with these initial steps you are redirect to the NAS’s dashboard. Nice job on the dashboard Seagate, simple easy to use and very straight forward.
Apps:
The Seagate comes with the ability to install a wide array of apps for all different kinds needs. A short list would be;
Plex, OwnCloud, Wordpress, BitTorrent and many more.

Cons: Does not have the ability to create new network shares in the root directory. I have to browse into the public or home folders of user to create new folders. Plus it does not allow me to define folder specific access so it’s more an all or none type security model.
OS and app updates worry me a little. This is an arm7 processer and it looks like most of the apps are ported into a ruby on windows format. Now what does this mean? Well let’s focus on OwnCloud right now, OwnCloud is a great web file sharing service, though when it is installed on the NAS it is running a very old version 6.
Now if I wanted to update to the latest version 9.0.0 I should be able to grab the .tar.gz file from OwnCloud and go to the advanced tab and manually update OwnCloud. But I can’t since this is an arm7 processor which is not the same as today’s x86 processors and OwnCloud does not make a version that is ported for Ruby on Windows. Meaning Seagate is the one who ultimately will have to update the applications for this NAS.
On a side note I would really, really, really, love to see Seagate update their OwnCloud app to a newer version as I would use the heck out of it. But since it is version 6 which I know from experience there are a ton of public exploits, speed and security issues I won’t be using it.
Now how long will that go on for? 1-year?, 2-years. How long before Seagate just stops suppling customized updates for the applications on this NAS?
Just and FYI this is equally a con and something to think about. Sure this applications works great now but I like devices that can withstand 5+ years of service before I even need to think about replacing it for the latest and greatest. I don’t want a device that will be unsupported 1-2 years after it was released.
Also Ruby on Windows. Ruby requires very fast hardware to run good, not great just good.

Other Thoughts: Please keep in mind that this device is not meant to be a power house. It is running an arm7 processor with 550+/-mb of RAM. Running a Plex server that is analyzing video files while streaming movies plus hosting a WordPress site and transfer files to and from this device has this devices resources maxed out.
Some things I would like to see Seagate supply in the next update would be to allow for a JBOD configuration so that I can safely use all 6TB of storage. The ability to remove icons/customizes the dashboard. The ability to rename from person cloud to anything else. Lastly I would like to see updates to their apps especially OwnCloud and Plex since those in my opinion can really make this device a really sweet piece of equipment to have.
Overall I do really like this NAS. It’s simple to use and very easy to setup. I have been running PLEX and WordPress non-stop for close to 30days now and I have little to no issues with it. Yes it can be slow at times but that is to be expected from this device.
Would I recommend this device to others? For a home user yes I would, though for someone who is a power user or IT professional I would not as it’s to underpowered and program specific for their liking.
SeaGate good job with this device though please supply updates to your applications

Pros: I liked the out of the box solution, plugged it in and it asked me whether we were going with Raid 1 (3Tb mirrored) or Raid 0 (6Tb) - nice. Was able to find software on the network, and as others mentioned it did an auto update

Cons: You would think that Seagate, if anybody, would perfect their backup software. Nope! Took an email to Seagate support who advised that I had to ensure a half dozen services were turned on. After that I could at least see the drive, but .... I can't
"Add Cloud" to backup from Windows 10, and the backup App built into the Personal Cloud does not allow for backing up to OneDrive, which is absolutely insane, given it cost only $100 per year and you get a terrabyte of storage for up to 5 people.

The plan had been to backup the Seagate Personal Cloud to OneDrive and that doesn't work, and the Seagate Backup Dashboard doesn't seem to allow any Cloud Drives to be added - another email to support, so maybe ...

Other Thoughts: If they fixed their software this could be a fantastic piece of kit. I want to ensure that family photos aren't lost, and this was to be the solution.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Calvin,

There are a number of cloud backup options (Google drive and Dropbox) using your Personal Cloud with our Dashboard software. There are also options for backing up your PC to the Personal Cloud and for using our "Smart Copy" feature to synchronize your media files. For more information, please reference our Dashboard support site listed below:

http://goo.gl/3WDRwY

We wanted to note that our Backup Plus drives come with the ability to back up to OneDrive. We currently are offering a promotion for redeeming 200GB of storage on OneDrive. For more information on our Backup Plus drives, please reference the link listed below:

http://goo.gl/NiEk3J

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

http://www.seagate.com/contacts/

Best Regards,
Seagate Support

Pros: Attractive case, reasonably quiet, hefty in-line power supply. Browser-based interface is mostly easy to use. Android media app works, more or less. Backs up files automatically and continuously over network or Internet.

Cons: As another reviewer noted, this product seems to be targeted to two completely different audiences, thereby missing both marks. It's being pitched to the home user, yet has many advanced features that they would never use. At the same time, an average user such as myself will likely experience deal-breaking frustration trying to use this device, while a power user or IT specialist will probably find it underpowered and limited.

As a reasonably adept computer person, here's what didn't work for me:
- Attempting to transfer a media library over Wi-Fi will take approximately forever. You'll need a direct cable connection using a gigabyte router. Using a 100meg router didn't take forever – just overnight. But wait, I said, there’s a USB3 port on this device – maybe I can plug it into my computer for a quicker transfer. Nope, it can't be used for that. If your media library is on an external drive, that presumably could be plugged into the Seagate and transferred to the internal drives.
- After transferring 100 or so gigs of media to the Seagate, I discover that the Seagate media app can't access anything in a private folder – only in the public folder. I then attempt to move the 100 gigs from the private to the public folder, and see that will take an estimated 21 hours. Nevermind. A second attempt estimated 10.5 hours, during which time the media server was "unreachable".
- Also note that if you have an R-rated movie that you'd rather your kids not watch, you can't put it in a private folder to keep them from viewing it – you'll need to use some other parental control system.
- The android Seagate media app suffers from the same limitation as most DLNA interfaces, where your files are displayed in one long list, with few advanced sorting or playback features. With videos, this is possibly tolerable, but with music or photos, probably not. There are no shuffle or playlist features for music, no slideshow features for your photos.
- The Sdrive app didn't work at all. "No device found".
- The interfaces contain various links that go nowhere and buttons that do nothing. I called tech support to ask about some of them, and was told that the Seagate media and Sdrive links aren't supposed to work on a PC – only on a tablet (they actually don't do anything on a tablet either.).
- BTW, if you actually want 6TB of storage, be sure to switch out of RAID mode before loading any files, because the switch will erase everything on the drives.

Other Thoughts: If you're a skilled IT professional, you can probably make this box do all sorts of fun things. If not, with some effort you should be able to load a movie library that can be watched over the network, and set up a file backup schedule.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Doug,

We wanted to note that there are a variety of sorting and playback options available within our Media app. These include options for shuffle and playlist for music, and slideshow for photos. For a complete user guide of available features within our Media app, please reference the following link under "Documents":

http://goo.gl/KYS5gT

Sdrive client software is available for both PC and Mac at the following link under "Downloads":

http://goo.gl/4e3dfE

Please note that while there is no Sdrive app for mobile devices for the Personal Cloud, you may access your data by using our Media app using your Seagate Access Credentials .

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

http://www.seagate.com/contacts/

Best Regards,
Seagate Support

Pros: Review sample was not pre-tested or cherry picked

In-line transformer = no wall wart

shielded patch cable included - nice touch

sleek design. simple yet stackable

easily opened to access user replaceable drives, no screws or breaking off tabs

individual smb folders for each user plus a public folder
usb print server

Protocols for file sharing: smb, ftp, sftp, afp, WebDav

seagate provided email server for notifications or use your own

raid0 can be used with 2 different sized disks - pretty uncommon

backup the nas data to rsync, smb, ftp, webdav, netbackup nas device or local USB

SMART data on internal drives provided via web gui

sync with google drive or dropbox or bittorent

can act as a netbackup server

remote access via seagate media app works without port forwarding or upnp router.

wordpress web server can be installed

"apps" can be installed to add additional functionality. Only a handful available, but nice to know we may see more in the future. Hoping for iscsi target and Plex server.

Cons: 6 tb on box, but can't really use that for any data you care about. Raid0 seems too risky

lots of pre-installed media, but easily removed

seagate dashboard on windows takes a few minutes to find the device for backups

right out of the box it will open ports on your router via upnp. I would liked to have agreed to this first.

if upnp port forwarding fails you will have to do some searching to find out what ports are needed

CPU power on the NAS is not fast enough to get the most out of the performance of the included hard drives

Foil tape will probably get torn when removing/replacing a drive. It also won't re-stick.

SFTP/ssh performance is really bad, 6MB/s read

USB attached drives are not handled the same as the local drives. They can't participate in a raid and show up as a separate network share

Media app on android will auto upload media locally, but you have to force it to connect when over a 4g connection. Once you force that 4g connection, there is no way to turn it off without switching airplane mode on/off or connecting to wifi.

Samsung's S-drive software claims to work, but I can't see to make it work even locally.

Other Thoughts: Seagate has a solid home NAS device with reliable remote accessability (aka personal cloud). Very versitale and equally easy to setup. At the heart of the device is two seagate ST3000VN000
drives, which are designed specifically for NAS workloads. They are 3 TB each, and can be configured in raid0 or raid1. SMART data reports they are brand new drives.

File transfer performance is adequate for streaming media or backup jobs running in the background, but the CPU on the NAS itself is not good enough to saturate a gigabit network. SMB or FTP file transfers average 70 to 80 MB/sec in raid0 and 50 to 60 MB/sec in raid1. Copying the same file to my file server over the same switch gets over 100MB/s. The CPU is showing maxed at 100% during most transfers, so I'm confident that the CPU on the NAS is the main bottleneck. If you are using a wireless network or accessing it over the internet, you will never hit this bottleneck anyway. Using SFTP amplifies this problem though, averaging an anemic 6 MB/s.

The versatility of this device is really astounding. You can install a wordpress "app" on the device and host your own wordpress site. Run a public FTP server to share files with your friends. Backup all your media from mobile devices, backup all the data on desktop computers. Stream that media to a smart tv or mobile device.

Overall, this is a solid choice for home network storage. If you're looking for something that "just works", or you like to play around with all the bells and whistle this will satisfy both roles. I would have liked to see a better cpu that can give you maximum performance from the drives, and that's the only reason this doesn't get 5 eggs.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Edwin P.,

We will pass along your feedback on opening ports on UPnP to our developers. If you wish to disable the open ports, this can be done in our admin utility under "Device Manager", "Network", then open "Port Forwarding" tab and click on "Disable" button, if needed.

SFTP is a slow performing interface in general, but there are ways to increase the performance. Make sure STFP is going out by Ethernet connection and not on WiFi.

We would like to speak with you by phone to resolve any problems you are experiencing with accessing our Sdrive. If from the US or Canada, our contact number for support is 800-732-4283. If outside of this region, or for additional support options, please try us here:

http://www.seagate.com/contacts/

Best Regards,
Seagate Support

Pros: Plug it into your network, wait for the light to go solid, then browse to it on the network. Box looks excellent, but the drives are audible in a quiet room, so keep that in mind

Browse to “personal cloud” across the network and there is a link to get you started (just takes you to the IP of the server, but that’s a handy way for non techie users to get the IP.

Logged in, effectively had me create a seagate account, and created a personal share restricted to my account.

It immediately downloaded a firmware update after starting up, which is handy.
Version 4.1.5.13, dated 2/12/15, took ~5 minutes to update.

Looks like a stripped down synology. Allows smb, afp, and what I believe is rsync. Unfortunately (for me), it doesn’t allow for NFS.

Backup app actually works ok, I’m already invested pretty heavily in other, offsite backups though, so I personally wouldn't have a use for this.

Device manager screen gives you a very good looking overview of the device, drive status, ip’s, space usage, number of users, ability to turn on and off system services.

It has build in scheduled (minimum of 1 hour) sync of your google drive or dropbox folders (very easy setup). Several other syncing apps, bittorrent sync, elephant drive, and owncloud can also be installed.

Using the seagate media phone app, you can send videos to chrome cast, using the seagate media roku app, you can directly play stored media on the server.

Cons: Speeds on SMB never went above 31 MB/s across a gigabit network, a bit disappointing, but probably fine for most home users.

The Google drive sync ran fine for ~6 hours or so, then broke in the middle of the night, and until I cancelled it (couldn't get it working again), it emailed me “Sync has failed with error: Errors selecting input/output files or dirs” hourly.. Bravo on the automatic notifications, boo on the poor sync app.

The android apps are extremely cludgy.

The media app would fail to discover the device, on a fairly uncrowded AC network, probably 80% of the time.

When it did discover the device, it never picked up anything but the pre-loaded media, didn’t matter if I put it in my user folder, or in the public folder, if I was signed in, or if I wasn’t. Big drawback if that doesn’t work the right the first time.

The file access android app worked, but it was poor compared to modern file storage apps on the same platform (dropbox, google drive, ondrive, ect). I also had to manually forward ports to get this actually working since it didn’t do it automatically on my network (other devices seem to do upnp fine).

Other Thoughts: Overall? Beautiful hardware, Beautiful UI, simple smb sharing/backup seems to work very well, if a bit slow.

Anything beyond that was a disappointment. Endpoint software was subpar all around, the media software especially was an absolute waste of time. This devices isn't targeted at power users. My grandma won't troubleshoot one of these things beyond ~30 seconds, so if it's there, it's got to work, and it's got to work the first time. I got this device for review, but If I had bought it, I would have returned it, but I’m also not this devices target market, I’d be more willing to either buy a synology/qnap, or just whitebox a nas/server for myself.

The hardware is promising. I'll fire the box up in ~6 months or so, and check with a new firmware load to see how it handles. if I have a different experience, I'll update my review.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Dustin H.,

We will pass along your feedback on opening ports on UPnP to our developers. If you wish to disable the open ports, this can be done in our admin utility under "Device Manager", "Network", then open "Port Forwarding" tab and click on "Disable" button, if needed.

SFTP is a slow performing interface in general, but there are ways to increase the performance. Make sure STFP is going out by Ethernet connection and not on WiFi.

We would like to speak with you by phone to resolve any problems you are experiencing with accessing our Sdrive. If from the US or Canada, our contact number for support is 800-732-4283. If outside of this region, or for additional support options, please try us here:

http://www.seagate.com/contacts/

Best Regards,
Seagate Support