When you buy a New ReadyNAS and power it up, it takes the IP address 192.168.168.168. What do you do with that?
Netgear includes a CD in the box that has their RAIDar configuration software that will discover all Netgear ReadyNAS units on your network regardless of IP address.
Once you discover the ReadyNAS you can click a button in RAIDar and launch the FrontView configuration software builtin to the NAS, set either DHCP addressing or a static IP address.
In this video we take you step by step through the process and then through each of the configuration screens in the basic setup wizard.
Some people will buy a Diskless ReadyNAS Duo home NAS because they already have some hard drives, others so they can get the hard drives they want, or maybe the price point was just more favorable that way.
So what hard drive should you buy for your Diskless ReadyNAS Duo?
If you already own a ReadyNAS Duo, I would suggest matching the hard drives already installed. Otherwise, you definitely want to buy NAS hard drives that are on the Netgear hardware compatibility list (HCL) – see below.
On this particular post, I am only going to cover the 2TB NAS hard drives and 1TB NAS hard drives as I feel those are going to be the most appropriate and most popular.
While I ordinarily like to spend a little more now and avoid having to upgrade later, sometimes finances just don’t allow it..
High Speed, High Quality, High Price
Since a ReadyNAS Duo is typically a home unit, I will not harp on you to buy more expensive enterprise grade hard drives with the 5 year warranty. A good quality drive will have a 3 year warranty and hopefully last even longer than that. The drive spindown option during inactivity, set in the ‘FrontView’ configuration on the NAS, can help save power expense and the life of the drive.
Just do not make the mistake of thinking that since RAID is protecting your data against hard drive failure that you can buy cheap NAS hard drives and not worry about if they fail.
Not only is it possible for two hard drives to fail within a short time frame – they are probably the exact same age with the same amount of wear and tear, but going through the warranty replacement process is not only a big hassle, it can take a couple of weeks before you get the replacement drive.
Saving Money On 5900rpm NAS Hard Drives
There is only one new “green” hard drive, they spin at 5900rpm instead of 7200rpm, and may save you some money on power.
But according to one of the Netgear ReadyNAS support team, expect to lose about 10% or in the performance category. For some, that tradeoff in cost saving may be appropriate and appreciated.
How We Chose These Particular NAS Hard Drives
There are not too many companies even making hard drives, let alone finding themselves on the Netgear hardware compatibility list. All of them are reputable.
All of these drives are 3Gb/s SATA.
The primary distinction is between 1TB and 2TB in size and Enterprise Class versus Consumer in price. Using a NAS in a home environment will not be as demanding anyway; consumer grade should not be a problem.
Footnotes: Some information taken from Netgear HCL and NOT Vendor’s incomplete website or product specification pdf
* Seagate consumer drives have a 3 year warranty if bare drive, 5 year if purchased as drive “kit”
# Western Digital claims “Intellipower” for rotation speed. Translation: “We care more about your impact on the environment than we do your satisfaction with our product” or “So slow we don’t want to admit it“. Take your pick.
Footnotes: Some information taken from Netgear HCL and NOT Vendor’s incomplete website or product specification pdf
* Seagate consumer drives have a 3 year warranty if bare drive, 5 year if purchased as drive “kit”
# Western Digital claims “Intellipower” for rotation speed. Translation: “We care more about your impact on the environment than we do your satisfaction with our product” or “So slow we don’t want to admit it“. Take your pick.
After reading the footnotes (*, #) above, do you see why I like enterprise drives?
Conclusion
Buying NAS hard drives for a Diskless ReadyNAS Duo or adding hard disks to the NAS you own can be an exercise in frustration. Specifications can be hard to find and then once you decide on a drive you may have trouble finding a brand new one in stock at your favorite online store.
I have done my best here to dig through the confusion and lay things out as clearly as possible.
Again, these are not the only hard drives on the ReadyNAS hardware compatibility list (HCL) but it is almost all of the 1TB and 2TB ones on the list as of this date. Hopefully that helps you pickup some NAS hard drives for your Diskless ReadyNAS Duo that will work well for you and bring years of faithful service.
Network storage does cost more money than an external USB hard drive, and a lot of people who use an external hard drive for large file storage simply are not aware of home network storage options.
Recently on the Free Computer Consultant Support Forum there have been lots of people asking for help with external USB hard drives that they can no longer read their critical files and data from. Some have their entire, expensive MP3 collection on that external drive with no backup.
Now, certainly they have asked for trouble by not having a backup of their data, but that is not the issue at hand.
The point is that most external USB hard drive solutions that you buy off the shelf have a slow, 5400rpm hard drive in them, probably with only a 1 year warranty. OK, it’s USB, so who cares that it’s a slower drive?
I do.
Slower, 5400rpm hard drives are cheaper. Cheaper in price and cheaper in quality. The 1 year warranty instead of a 3 year or even 5 year on many quality drives – yes, they cost more – indicates that the manufacturer does not have a lot of faith in the drive’s longevity.
That’s OK, if you bought it cheap enough, and JUST use the external USB drive as a BACKUP for other data. That way, if the drive dies, nothing lost; you still have the original data.
But if you think an external USB hard drive is a substitute for storing your important files on a home network storage device that has RAID (hard drive redundancy) that will notify you of any impending problems that might put your data at risk, then I am here to help educate you otherwise.
When you place important files on a home NAS that has multiple hard drives, possibly of a higher quality than those in most external USB drives – then backup that data to an online backup service – NOW you can have some confidence that your data, files, music, pics, movies, etc are safe and secure.
Lost Data, Corrupt Data, Cannot Transfer RAID Array
I spend some time on network storage forums and I frequently see threads regarding workstation RAID and lost data, RAID corruption or, why-oh-why do they even use it, RAID 0 problems.
RAID on a workstation, i.e. normal PC running a non-server version of Windows, is NOT recommended.
Yes, I have used it on RARE occasion, but here is the thing:
RAID relies on drivers, and workstation RAID drivers are notorious for being buggy. In the cases where I have used workstation RAID (RAID1) successfully has been on Promise brand controllers – either add-in cards or built-in to the motherboard.
BUT! In those cases, when I ran the RAID monitor utility to let me know if a drive had failed, the monitoring utility had a memory leak that required at least a weekly reboot! Otherwise the system would crash. (It was never fixed on that product.)
Further, server RAID manufacturers now (in the last 10 years) pretty much conform to standards such that you can move a RAID array from one controller to another without having to backup/restore. THIS IS CRITICAL!
Otherwise, what if your RAID controller fails, but your data is salvageable, yet you cannot find an identical controller to replace it with? Back in the late 1990′s I had this situation with an Adaptec controller that failed. Adaptec tech support told me my only option was to restore from a backup – and lose that day’s data (it was after 3 p.m.). Totally unacceptable.
The RAID0 Trap
RAID0 is awful. Now, instead of the potential for one drive to fail and lose data, one of TWO drives can fail and you lose data. You have just doubled your chances of losing data. RAID0 is NOT redundancy. People do it for speed, yet, on all those threads I read, folks just are not seeing blazing speed.
RAID0 is a huge time hassle, extra expense, for little to no benefit.
If you want speed, buy an SSD (solid state drive). Buy a small (64, 80GB – currently around $100 with rebates) SSD drive and install that for your Windows (C:) boot drive. Put anything of any size that does not fit on the SSD on either a 2nd internal hard drive or an external hard drive. DON’T FORGET TO BACKUP!
Or, better yet, put those large files which are probably valuable to you on a network storage device (click here for home or here for small business).
Save yourself time, money and frustration, do NOT install workstation RAID and NEVER use RAID0.
Server RAID Is The Answer
Server RAID is the answer; the only problem is that it can be very expensive on a Dell or HP server running Windows!
Enter the NAS device. MUCH lower cost, rock solid RAID protection. Make sure you choose RAID1 (mirroring), RAID5 (with 3 or more drives), RAID6 (4 drive minimum, DUAL REDUNDANCY) or the equivalent in Netgear ReadyNAS products using X-RAID2 (which has more features than standard RAID, but still fully compatible).
Search on Netgear ReadyNAS Pro if you really want to be confused about one of the top small business network storage devices on the market. Under the same root model name we have a consumer device that I do not recommend, a small business NAS device that I highly recommend, and 3 newcomers that have some odd distinctions between them.
In fact, despite promised to ship imminently, Netgear’s site shows nothing but the older Business Edition model in the product drop down. So hop over to the ReadyNAS.com and you will find two product drop downs to choose from, “ReadyNAS Pro” and “ReadyNAS Pro Series”.
Confused yet? Keep going and hopefully it really will be crystal clear by the time you get to the bottom of the page.
Current Netgear ReadyNAS Pro Models Offered
ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer Edition
– Lowest level, consumer grade, NAS that unlike all other ReadyNAS Pro’s only comes with a 3 year warranty, not the 5 year, nor does it have the ability to join an Active Directory domain. Frankly I wish Netgear would not confuse us by offering a consumer NAS with business NAS name.
ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition
– This is probably the unit that comes to mind when talking about ReadyNAS Pro because it is the stalwart performer that has been around a while and gained lots of accolades and recognition. This 6 hot swap hard drive by has become the standard by which others are measured; so why is it being replaced?
The newer ReadyNAS Pro lineup doesn’t really offer anything that the Pro Business Edition doesn’t except for a faster processor; which, you probably would not even notice.
I think ReadyNAS just wanted to freshen the lineup and offer what others have been clamoring for: the Pro quality in a 2 drive bay and 4 drive bay configuration to save a little space and some money.
Some workgroups really want the business features of the Pro lineup but not have a big honking 6 drive bay unit on the desktop when 2 will do. The ReadyNAS Duo which might otherwise have been chosen for the task simply does not measure up for many small business needs.
When it comes to 4 drive bay small business performance, the NVX has been filling this space quite nicely, and all the ReadyNAS Pro 4 offers over it is a little power savings and a faster processor.
ReadyNAS Pro 2
– The baby of the new lineup, the Pro 2 has some interesting features the others don’t have!
Due to it being the last of the model family to be released, it sports a faster processor than the Pro 4 and has a USB 3.0 port on the front of the unit that no other ReadyNAS device currently has.
The Pro 2 is a great upgrade if someone has or has been considering a ReadyNAS Duo. Unlike the Duo, there is essentially nothing the Pro 2 cannot do, other than RAID5, RAID6 or X-RAID2 dual redundancy – and that is due, obviously, to an insufficient number of hard drives.
Note: The Pro 2 has an external power supply (brick) and consumer grade hard drives on prepopulated systems. The Pro 4 and Pro 6 have internal server grade power supplies and enterprise class hard drives.
ReadyNAS Pro 4
– As stated above the Pro 4 has a faster processor than the very similar NVX, but slower than the Pro 2 (and no USB 3.0). Having 4 drive bays, if populated with 3 drives or more will do RAID5 or the X-RAID2 equivalent thereof.
ReadyNAS Pro 6
– Small upgrade to the ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition, so small it carries almost the exact same model number. Both use the RNDP prefix, the Business Edition uses the -100 suffix and the new Pro uses the -200 suffix. Don’t be confused.
The biggest difference currently between the older ReadyNAS Pro and the new family lineup is availability.
Despite being promised to ship in November 2010, November is about gone (all but the Turkey & leftovers) and still no sign at the major online retailers like Amazon.com and Buy.com.
The venerable ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition has been replaced!
Netgear has announced and promised to ship this month the new ReadyNAS Pro lineup of 2, 4 and 6 drive business class NAS devices.
These are fantastic small business network storage devices and now you can save a few bucks if you don’t need 6 drives by buying a more affordable 2 bay or 4 bay unit. (Note: Enterprise drives in 4 and 6 bay Pro’s only)
So the obvious question is:
What is the difference between the old Netgear ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition and the new ReadyNAS Pro 6?
Answer: Not Much
Here is the rundown of differences:
The new ReadyNAS Pro 6 has a faster CPU (both are multicore)
The new Pro 6 comes with a one year 100GB subscription to ReadyNAS Vault online backup service
The part number prefix is the same: RNDP. The old Business Edition’s part number suffix is -100, the newer Pro 6 is -200. There’s clarity for you!
The older Business Edition is available for purchase here. The new Pro 6, we’re still waiting as of now.
Unless the price comes out to be a huge difference, I would buy the newer Pro 6 and try the ReadyNAS Vault. I doubt you will notice any speed difference, but we’ll always take a faster CPU!
Netgear has announced the new ReadyNAS Pro Series lineup and they are expected to start shipping by the end of November 2010 (wishful thinking?).
Confusingly, these models still go by the RNDP prefix but instead of a -100 at the end of the model number, these sport a -200.
There seems to be little difference between the ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition (6 Bay) and the new ReadyNAS Pro 6; which is fine, there really was not much needed improving in the older model – EXCEPT, they could have added USB 3.0
Interestingly, only the ReadNAS Pro 2 (not the 4 or 6) has one USB 3.0 port on the front of the unit, with two USB 2.0 ports on the rear.
According to Netgear, the Pro 2 was the last of the three to be designed and they were able to stuff in the USB 3.0 function, but it was too late for the 4 and 6.
For some people, this is a deal breaker. ReadyNAS has said they are NOT going to do eSATA connections for external drives, but use USB instead. Not having USB on their latest models is a definite buzz kill.
Well, I thought I would start the recommendation list with a ReadyNAS plug. I have in the past used NASes from Netgear (Infrant), Thecus, QNAP, Buffalo, Sans Digital, Data Robotics, Linksys, HP, Dlink, and Norco; as well as quite a few D.I.Y. solutions. By far, the two companies that stand out for me are Netgear and QNAP. But of these two, I must give the nod to Netgear.
The Netgear ReadyNAS product line is the most reliable, feature-rich, and dependable NAS solution I have ever used. And most recently they are also the fastest. I have, at home and at work, run 4 different models of theirs, and they have all been amazing. I like how they run – literally for months at a time, without the slightest issue. They support a VERY wide array of network protocols. Their AD integration is solid. They let you edit UIDs for users. Their quota support works as advertised.
In addition, their resilience to drive loss is fabulous! To demonstrate: I have run a ReadyNAS 600, ReadyNAS NV, two ReadyNAS 1100′s and a ReadyNAS Pro for over 30 months now. In that time I have lost at least one drive in each NAS per year (had major reliability problems with some early Seagate 750G drives) and to this moment I have not lost one byte of data on a ReadyNAS.
But the place where they really shine is their backup capability. In this area, Netgear leaves all other NASes in the dust. The ReadyNAS products (all of them, because their firmwares are amazingly standard across the line) support NAS-to-NAS backups (both push and pull) over rsync, ftp, http, nfs, and smb (smb support by time-stamp or by archive bit). No other NAS product even comes close. I even use an old ReadyNAS 1100 to back up my other newer NASes (HP MSS, QNAP, and Drobo) by “pull” because some of them don’t have any facility at all for LAN backup.
The ReadyNAS products are not cheap, but if your data means anything at all to you (imagine the look on your wife’s face when you tell her you’ve lost 10 years of digital photos and family videos and you’ll know what I mean) then you owe it to yourself to get one. Even if you get another NAS, get an older, slower ReadyNAS also as a backup. They ARE that good!
D-Link is not know especially for network attached storage, but D-Link NAS units are an economical way to get started in network storage.
D-Link has long been known for reasonably priced network cards, hubs, switches, etc and now are also into network storage and even network cameras.
The home NAS and low budget small office NAS is where D-Link NAS products are typically found. Their DNS-323 two hard drive network storage is a very popular unit with a good feature set and reliability rating. The DNS-343 gives you pretty much the same in a 4 hard drive version.
Like many network storage servers, D-Link network attached storage products can offer USB printer sharing, RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID5 (in the 4 drive unit) and automatic backups of workstations to the NAS device.
Interestingly, the D-Link NAS product line has the basic, simple units for home, home office or small business, then they jump to the xStack rackmount network storage offerings without really anything in between.
Currently, the D-Link storage products that have hard drives included seem to be limited to 1TB in size, or 4TB total in a 4 drive unit.
Fortunately, they do offer enclosures that allow you to choose your own hard drives as more and more are choosing 1.5 – 2.0TB hard drives as network storage needs increase dramatically.
The D-Link DNS-323 is one of the recommended products we have for home network storage.
When you buy a New ReadyNAS and power it up, it takes the IP address 192.168.168.168. What do you do with that?
