Question 1

do you have to buy 4 drives all at the same time 
or can you start with one or two ?

Accepted Answer

You can probably start with one or two.  The system lets you build one or more array sets.  I have mine configured with one array of four 2 TB disks, but you potentially could start with a smaller array.  Be aware though, that if you add more drives to the system, you will not be able to simply expand the array to the additional disks and gain capacity.  You most likely would need to re-build the array from scratch at the new capacity.

I would highly recommend this enclosure.  It has been super speedy and the DLNA setup works fantastically well.  I stream a lot of content from it to VLC.

Question 2

what does diskless mean ?

Accepted Answer

Diskless means it does not come with any hard drives.  You will need to purchase the hard drives separately.  But, that allows you to buy the brand and size (up to 4TB) that fits your storage needs.  You can start by purchasing one hard drive then add more as your storage needs expand.

Question 3

What is the file size limit?  Is there a limit to the number of files? Can I store full length HD movies?

Accepted Answer

I can't give you a definitive answer on that.  I would have to say yes though.  It is formatted just like any other NTFS harddrive and it can be set up as RAID for backing up large files.

Here is the thing I can say.  HD Movies are quite large and you need to be able to stream at a fast rate for proper playback.  If you are not hard wired or have an extremely quick wireless system with a strong signal, you may be disappointed.  I have a 300 megabit wifi router which connects to a 150 megabit wifi range extender.  At that speed I am only able to transfer wirelessly at about 1 Megabyte per second.  I am soley going to use this NAS as a back up device, and most likely going to build a much faster true server to handle file transfers etc...  It is a good device but not exactly what I thought it was going to be.

Question 4

If the unit is on when the power goes out then back on, does the unit power up or do I have to press the power button?

Accepted Answer

You must power the unit up.  However, once it is running and you open the app on your PC, you can schedule sleep times for it so your drives aren't spinning all of the time. It will power on all of the time when the sleep time ends on it's own.  It had been very reliable, so far.

Question 5

What is the max. capacity of each hard drive which can be used with this unit plse?

Accepted Answer

The spec's say "Scalable up to 16TB" I make the assumption that that would mean 4TB per drive. I also assume that the 16TB limit applies when the enclosure is used in plain old NAS storage mode (not RAID). If you use it in RAID mode 4x4TB would only get you 12TB

Question 6

What drive comes with this? I am looking for 4 1TB Drives. What size do I purchase if this is not what comes with it?

Accepted Answer

No drives come with this system, "diskless".  You want to look for drives made for NAS or NEtwork Attached Storage or Servers.  All major harddrive companies make them.  The system is not extremely fast so no need to invest in high RPM drives.  7200 RPM will do fine, or probably even 5400 RPM, but I have not used it with 5400 RPM drives.

As for storage size, remember you will be setting this up via RAID so depending on how you set up RAID you may want to buy more storage space,.  For instance, if you are going to mirror your drives best for backups and important files, then 4 - 1 terabyte drives will only get you 2 usable terabytes.  This is because all information being stored  on drive a is also be stored on drive b.

Make sure you have a good connection at your location via wifi or even better connected via wire (gigabit) you will be much happier.  If your network connection is slow look out, you can be in for some long transfer times and some lag time depending on what you are doing.

Question 7

If I want to store pictures from a compact flash to one of these harddrives, can I stick directly to the usb port of this NAS or I need to save my pics to my macbook then transfer them to the NAS harddrive?

Accepted Answer

You should be able to attach your CF (USB) into the NAS but you would still have to facilitate the copy from your MacBook. I say "Should" because I haven't been able to get my NAS to work yet, it's stuck in emergency mode

Question 8

What is a typical idle/active power usage?  Is it possible to configure the drives spin down to idle when the data is not being accessed?

Accepted Answer

I just checked the menu settings and don't see anything for idle, but I do have a sleep setting that turns off the NAS at midnight and power on 11am the next day.  I love this NAS so let me know if you have more questions.

Question 9

what size form factor hdd does it use? 3.5" or 2.5" hdd?

Accepted Answer

3.5". Not sure if an adapter is made to accommodate 2.5"

Question 10

How fast is the data transfer rate from the NAS  with 1gbit network and 4 drives in raid 5 or raid 10?
my last buffalo NAS only gave me 23mb/s which is a farcry from the 100MB/s on a 1gbnit network

Accepted Answer

it is about 40mb/s or less

Brand	BUFFALO
Model	LinkStation 441e (LS441DE)
Type	Desktop NAS
Standards	IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.3ab

Port RJ-45	1 x 10/100/1000M
Port USB	2 x USB3.0 + 1 x USB2.0
HDD Interface	SATA 6 Gb/s, 4 Empty Bays (HDDs not included)

Included HDD Capacity	Diskless System
RAID	0 / 1 / 5 / 10 / JBOD (Individual Disks) RAID only supported when two or more HDDs are inserted

Dimensions	5.02" x 8.94" x 6.97"
Weight	5.07 lbs.

BUFFALO LinkStation 441e (LS441DE) Diskless System Diskless Enclosure High Performance RAID NAS Personal Cloud Storage and Media Server

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Item#: N82E16822165611