Customer Reviews

NETGEAR ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer Edition 6-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage RNDP600E

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was running out of storage space for backups and started asking friends about Network Attached Storage devices. I heard about the new LaCie NAS, Drobo, etc.. At the time I ordered this unit, none of the other NAS systems had enough storage space to backup my system. Looking for a larger NAS led me to Netgear.

I ordered the ReadyNAS late December 2008. It was easy to set up and had way too many business features for my workflow - or so I thought. After using the ReadyNAS to backup my Mac Pro tower files and my PC files, I noticed it could serve media files (iTunes music and Videos). I moved all of my media to the NAS too. I can stream video to all of my computers and my Xbox 360. I can also stream all of my music via iTunes music sharing. I just had to click a few buttons from their web based user interface. It's very cool.

Here are some technical review items:

1. It has fans. They are quiet, but you don't want this NAS next to your TV, in a music studio or in your bedroom. The fans will bug you. It's a lot quieter than my Xbox (my Xbox sounds more like a vacuum), but the ReadyNAS is not quiet enough for a really quiet media room. If you're buying this for your office, you can have it next to your desk and it won't bother you.

2. It's fast. With it's Gigabit Ethernet and robust operating system, I've hit it with everything I have without any noticeable delays.

3. Lots of flexibility. I'm using this unit in a mixed environment. I use Macs (Tiger & Leopard, PowerPCs and Intel Macs) one PC using XP Pro and a HP Digital Sender. So, I've chosen to use AFP (w/ Bonjour) for the Macs and CIFS for the PC and the HP. The ReadyNAS supports multiple File Protocols at the same time. It has been solid since the day I turned it on. There are a lot of other features that I don't plan on using, like printer sharing, a FTP server, user access controls with quotas and other File Sharing Protocols for Unix/Linux among some others.

4. It's expensive. I know it's cheaper to build your own NAS, but I don't have the expertise or patience for that. I just wanted to buy a NAS, get bigger hard drives, plug it in and be done with it. If this sounds like you, this NAS is a great choice.

5. My configuration: I bought the 3x500 ReadyNAS and replaced the drives with 6x1TB SATA drives. It was much cheaper to order the 3x500 drive unit from Netgear and add my own drives than to buy their 6x1TB unit. Check Netgear's website for the recommended drives before you expand this system. It took about 5 minutes to attach the new drives to the drive trays and insert them into the NAS. Very easy. I chose RAID Level X-RAID2 for safety and future expansion. I don't remember how long it took to build it's RAID.

6. Great support. I've only had one issue with the NAS and Netgear went over and above the call of duty to fix it. The power supply fan for my NAS started to make clicking noises. It sounded like the bearing was giving out. I called Netgear, spoke to India first and after they entered my info. they transferred me to someone in the states. He was very helpful. I asked if they could send me a replacement fan and if they'd let me replace it without voiding my warranty - they couldn't. They didn't have a part number for a new fan. So, they shipped out a replacement unit. A BRAND NEW UNIT came via FedEx in about three business days. This is a company that still cares about their customers!!! A++. I moved my hard drives from bay to bay in the replacement unit, bay 1 to bay 1, bay 2 to bay 2, etc. and started it up. All of my files and setup choices were there. No down time. No data lost!

To close, this NAS has a lot of great features. Netgear has made it very easy to configure it via any browser. So, you don't need a computer degree or a network engineering degree if you just want to add a "boat load" of RAID storage, add a great media server or large file server to your home or office network.

December 2010 update: Upgraded unit with 6 Western Digital 2TB Drives (WD2003FYYS). Still running strong. I've had no issues since 1st replacement unit arrived (see #6 above). I performed a factory reset after swapping out the drives to upgrade to 4TB Time Machine support. The cooling fans ramp up more with the WD drives installed. I was almost out of space 90%. Now at 44% capacity. I still highly recommend this NAS.

I have been using ReadyNAS products since August of 2005. I now own a ReadyNAS Pro Business edition in addition to ReadyNAS X6 (circa 2005). This is a device that you can entrust all your valuable files to. I had a hard disk failure on the X6, but because I was running the X6 in RAID1, I had all of my data intact. I replaced the failed drive, and the X6 rebuilt the RAID. Had I not had this device, I would have lost years of pictures that were irreplacable. The data restoration service on one hard drive is equal in price to the price of this device, and there's no guarantee that all of your data can be restored from a filed drive.

The number of features that this device has is so huge that describing them here would take a long time. I just want to mention that besides the features that help Windows users internetwork their computers (such as NetBIOS master browser and WINS server that the ReadyNAS can become), it also provides Mac users with a lot of features that no other NAS does. These features include AFP, Bonjour, Time Machine support (just like Time Capsule does), and iTunes server (provided via the Firefly server). Besides those features, there are several media streaming servers integrated into this device, there's an FTP server, Rsync, Rsync via ssh, etc. Just read the information on their web site to get all the features. It even has such esoteric features as iSCSI and eSATA.

If you think the price of the ReadyNAS Pro is too steep, consider ReadyNAS NVX instead. If the NVX is too expensive for you, then look at ReadyNAS NV+ or ReadyNAS Duo. The latter can be had for less than $350 with one 500 GB drive. Add another 500 GB drive, for $50 or less, and you will get a RAID1 device that has most of the same features that the ReadyNAS Pro has for less than $400. So, I really don't understand the negative review here. It seems that the reviewer did not research the line of ReadyNAS server offerings. There's a ReadyNAS server for every budget here.

This is my second unit. After moving all my data and getting it running it went belly up. I am once again waiting for netgear to telnet into the box to see if I can get my data back. Thank god for carbonite. I backup everything to them. The waiting period for Netgear to "figure out" what is wrong is 24-48 hours. So it has to sit there and wait for them to dail in from China. Not tawain, China. My first unit was 2 weeks in this telnet mode. That is what they use to get into the box. If they can not get in they do not call you and tell you. You can not talk with the level 3 guy, even if you speak chinese. They are walled off. If they can not see you box or can not get in you go to the back of the que. Oh and you have to call them to find this out. Seems that they can not pick up the phone. As soon as I get the data off. Hello returns....... This is a peice of junk. No ISCSI load balancing etc....

I bought two of these Pro Pioneer Ed. from Amazon. One of them is still running great but the second one has loud fan from day one and the system fan is now dead after 9-months of about 6 hour per week of power-on time.

Calling tech support was easy and painless with the exception that the free support only covers the first 3 months while the warranty period is a lot longer (the brochure says 3 years but when you register it, it shows 2030 as the expiration date). However, they will let you slide on the first call even if it's after 90-day; though I would say if it's a warranty repair it shouldn't cost anything to call tech. support for an RMA.

Features and performance-wise, it has everything you could ask for; like support for both Windows and MacOS, Timemachine, DLNA streaming, online backup to Netgear's service (at additional cost), etc.

I bought this unit to back up 3 computers, as well as to store all entertainment media (movies, music, video) to feed a dedicated HTPC.

My experience: I love this product! Started with a couple of 1TB drives, went to four, and yesterday added two 2TB drives. All additions/upgrades of capacity happened flawlessly -- no loss of access to data (x-raid2).

I'm using iSCSI for system backups -- again, flawless operation (and BTW, the instructions for doing this were crystal clear).

I highly recommend this product for those who need data storage, but don't want or need to become storage technology experts. The thing just works!

I am very pleased with the purchase of this product with the following exception, the CPU fan went bad after a few days. I called Tech Support to process the RMA with Netgear and was informed that I would have to cough up $20.00 for them to ship a replacement empty chassis. I think Netgear should reevaluate their shipping fees for items returned so soon after purchase.

From a product standpoint, very solid (new chassis' fan is quiet!). I would hope Netgear streamlines their UI to make managing users/groups/shares more intuitive and easy.

I installed this server for a small business. When plugged to a Gigabit network, the speed is amazing. In the past, I had played with ReadyNAS Duo and in term of speed, you cannot compare those 2 products. I had some issues backing up the server to an attached USB drive and I am still working on solving this issue. Hopefully, the netgear customer service will be able to help me.

After researching the ReadyNAS line of NAS devices, I went for the PRO version given its integration with Active Directory. I then selected the storage capacity and went for the diskless version. To my surprise, when I received the unit I realized that the diskless version does not have certain enterprise-level features that only the "Business Edition" models (i.e. models with pre-loaded disks) have. This is very deceiving and it's something that should be stated clear on the product details page. I promptly returned the unit and proceeded to buy one of the "Business Edition" models. Besides this complaint, the unit is solid, and the setup process is straight forward.

If you are trying to use this with iSCSI or TimeMachine etc, beware that backups are limited to 2TB even with more space on the ReadyNAS Pro - for example a ReadyNAS Pro with 6 x 1.5 TB drives will only back up 2TB with iSCSI or TimeMachine. (It does the same on a ReadyNAS NV).

I purchased this and it took about 3 months to figure this out and then it was disclosed in their forums in April 2009. As of August 2009 it is still not working with backups larger than 2 TB -- which isn't much use with 2 TB drives available, you might as well just get a 2TB drive. So, instead of wasting money on this with no timeframe on a fix for the issue, I have to recommend staying away from the ReadyNAS Pro (and NV) until NetGear fixes the issues. Back in April 2009 they stated "RAIDiator 4.2.6 road map is to support 2TB+ volumes for iSCSI/TimeMachine/etc, I don't have a timeframe for that release yet." You can search their forums for discussions of the issue.

The device looks great and is pretty easy to set up, but this is a big stumbling point since this limit was not (or is not) disclosed. But it does look nice sitting on the shelf since it was past the return point once they figured out it was an issue with the ReadyNAS and not the computer.

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I have been using a full year already and no one single complain, everthing works perfect. The device is as described and promoted. No better option to store all your files in a central saved place.