Question 1

I'm sorry for even asking this.  Maybe I'm misunderstanding what this product is.  I'm looking for the storage capacity.  Is this a network storage 'drive'?  If so, what is the capacity?  Or is this device something else entirely?  Again, I'm sorry for asking, it feels like something I should have already known or seen.

Accepted Answer

This is a Network Attached Storage unit which means that it attaches to your network and is available as a shared device to all computers on the network. For example, in a typical home setup with wifi, you would plug it into your wireless router and it would then be available to any computers that log into that wifi network. You do not see any mention of capacity because it does not include any hard drives. You must buy them and install them in this unit. Search for NAS HDD SATA to see some options. Usually you would buy two of the same size and set them up to mirror each other so if one dies, the other will hold the data until you get a replacement. You need to buy twice as much storage space as you need, but it is much safer.

Question 2

Does this device support 4TB Drives?

If not what is the maximum Size per disk that it can handle?

Thanks,

Accepted Answer

I have a 4TB disk in there and it works fine:
Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive

Question 3

Got this NAS recently but I am seeing very slow speeds over wifi and a gigabit router at both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. What speeds are you guys able to achieve over wifi using this NAS?

Accepted Answer

Wireless G has a max speed of 54mb/s. It would take about 7 minutes with a perfect connection to d/l 1 gb.

On my system using this NAS I am lucky to get a sustained transfer rate of about 38mb/s. Which relates to about 10 minutes to move 1gb.

Question 4

does it support PC and Mac?

Accepted Answer

The Shuttle KD20 is built as an independent web server. It is setup and configured with the use of a web browser.

To a pc automatic shares are created so that if you use it as configured out of the box, network shares are created so that it shows up in the network neighborhood as well as by ip address.

I see it in all versions of Windows as well as Mac. They even provided a finder tool for the PC to emulate the Finder tool that is standard in the Apple world.

Truly this item is a stand alone server that will work to serve any mixed network using TCP/IP addressing.

Question 5

Does this drive support all SATA types: SATA I/II and III?

Accepted Answer

There is a list on their website of the supported drives.

But let me throw this out there.  If you have a little extra get the Synology NAS.  There are a few that are less than $200.  I bought the Shuttle KD20 and while it's "OK" at home and I really haven't had any issues with it, the cloud aspect sucks.  They use a proxy method to get to it which isn't bad but they don't support files larger than 2GB for transfer since they're using AJAX and not FTP.  That's a major bummer if you want to share ISO's with someone.

Question 6

Will hdd's attached to this NAS by the usb ports become a part of the NAS? Will they be seen as such by software accessing the NAS?
In other words, will attaching external drives by the USB port expand the storage of this device?

Accepted Answer

Nope. They're for transfering data to specific predetermined directories. Don't think of NAS as an external Hard drive, it's way diffrent in how you configure it to be seen. Mine displayed as five network drives, Each drive had the same capacity and freespace. This is essentially a RAID setup. The physical drives are either "pooled" as one volume, or "mirrored" with two identical drives to increase data security.

Question 7

I'd like to use SSD with this NAS. Is there a solution?

Accepted Answer

This things transfer rate is pretty glacial, if you want speed forget about this thing . If I want to look at a movie stored on it, I have much better results copying it to the computer first.  Seems like a waste to put a expensive SSD in it with cheap spacious hard drives  available.
Another thing you may want to consider, this is a neat little LINUX box running a samba server. It will reformat the "Disk" to it's own formatting scheme. 
Even though it has only two bays, This is a more a RAID oriented device, but pretty much limited to JBOD or disk mirroring. This device is best used with two large, identical disks (Drive Mirroring). And unless you're mirroring, Swapping drives will REQUIRE formatting the new drive or if two are installed BOTH drives.
Personally, I'd save the SSD for speedier work

Question 8

When trying to set the NAS up, I am getting an error that says:The Maximum Number of Clients has been reached. Please try again later. I have no clue what is causing it, but the NAS is being accessed from 1 machine only. Any help is greatly appreciated?

Accepted Answer

Thanks Vic. There is worst.

Now it stopped working completely. I reboot it, works for an hour (very slow with my MAC, while my Synology rocks), and then stops. iTunes doesnt even recognize it during the time that it works, and it sued to before. Sent an email to their support - lets see what they have to say. Waisted money. Put some more and buy a decent Synology.

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