NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central

by Netgear

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 5.6 inches ; 3.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009RML8S
• Item model number: SC101NA
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central offers: An easy and inexpensive way to share hard drive space over a network. Great expandability with room for two hard drives. A 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port for fast data transfers. Options for drive mirroring and spanning. Included backup software.

The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central is an expandable storage system that allows shared access by all computers on your network. With space for two IDE hard drives, you can set the device up to mirror each other so you have a backup of all your files in case either one fails.

There is room for two hard drives inside the SC101. View larger.

Excellent Value and Easy Setup
Unlike other network-attached storage (NAS) devices, the SC101 does not come with any drives but requires you to purchase your own. This allows for considerable cost savings. Opening up the SC101 only requires turning a latch that can be done with a quarter; no tools are needed. Attach the power connectors and IDE cables, set the jumpers, and slide the drive into place, and that's it.

After the hard drives are installed, plug the device in, attach it to the network, and install the included software. The software guides you through setup step by step. When everything is ready to go, it looks like a new hard drive has been installed on your PC and you use it just as you would any other hard drive. Backup software is included for users who don't already have their own preferred software. Please note that the SC101 is only compatible with Windows machines and won't work with Macs or Linux.

Outstanding Performance with Various Storage Options
The SC101 connects to your network via a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connection for fast data transfers. When you connect two drives to the device, you have the option of having them "mirrored" or "spanned." Mirrored storage lets you keep two copies of every file, one on each drive, so that everything is backed up in case of drive failure. When two drives are set to span, they appear as one volume so they are easy to work with and the device will automatically find your data across both drives.

The front panel has three LEDs to let you know the status of the power, hard disk and network at a glance. The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
SC101 Storage Central, resource CD, power adapter, Ethernet cable, installation guide, SmartSync Pro Backup Software CD, and warranty/support information card.

Product Description

With Storage Central you can add the capacity you need to store, share and back up your valuable digital content—-music, games, photos, videos, and office documents—instantly, easily, and securely, all with the simplicity of your C:drive. IDE drives sold separately. Storage Central is easy to setup and install. Just slide in one or two 3.5” IDE disk drives of any capacity; connect Storage Central to any wired or wireless router or switch from any vendor, then configure with Smart Wizard install assistant. Now you’re ready to access files from any PC on your network, as a simple letter drive. Storage Central automatically stores and duplicates your important digital content such as music, games, photos, and more. Storage Central ensures that no one can access your files but you and delivers the utmost privacy of your valuable data content. With Storage Central, you can expand outgrown storage volumes, and add more capacity whenever you need it—instantly and easily. Storage Central makes real-time copies of your valuable data, ensuring maximum protection against data loss. Additionally, storage can be expanded indefinitely, keeping pace with all your future storage needs. SmartSync™ Pro advanced backup software is included. Storage Central features True SAN technology, an advanced network storage technology. True SANs provide block-level data transfers, delivering sustained performance much faster than low-cost NAS devices. Only NETGEAR Storage Central is True SAN, providing advanced data center technology in an affordable, easy-to-use package.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

426 of 446 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars First Impressions, Very Disapointing, September 21, 2005

By 

Aaron Newsome (Mission Viejo, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central (Personal Computers)

Well I purchased 4 of these units, hoping to make this stack of 40GB, 80GB and 120GB drives I have laying around the house useful again. So far, buying these was not a good idea. I attribute most of my problems to there not being enough real technical review of the product available, and all documentation simply glosses over technical details in exchange for sales-speak. First, I'll say these are niftily crafted units that might have been pretty slick if they'd worked the way I expected them to. Problems encountered and gripes mounted include:

* These are not NAS devices, as some of the documentation might lead you to believe. A NAS device (network attached storage) typically offers clients the ability to connect to the device, using it's native fileshare method. CIFS for Windows, NFS for Linux/Unix, etc. These devices offer none of that.

* Device is available to Windows clients on the network only. If that's not bad enough, check the following gripe.

* Every PC that wants to access the device needs to have the software CD installed. Usually a NAS device will offer a shared filesystem that can be mounted in the OS's native method. With this box, all the PCs need to have a driver installed in order to see the device.

* DHCP only. There is no option to have a static IP address on the device. It is DHCP only.

* On first install, lamely worded error message hindered the install. After installing the device and the driver, it kept failing with the error "Unable to enumerate drive". The help file was useless. After an hour of messing with it and finally deleting all of my mapped drives, the installation suceeded and I was able to use the device.

* You MUST use the included software. Although the device seems to be listening on port 80, there is no web interface to configure it. The included software, running on Windows is the only way.

* Non-Windows systems are out of luck. This is a Windows only device. Do not try to connect to it with Mac OSX or Linux (both of which I have). The device can be connected and re-shared by a Windows PC, allowing Macs and Linux to get to it, but this has proved painstakingly slow.

* Painstakingly slow. I connected the device to an older Windows PC and the best sustained data transfer I could get (read or write) was around 3MB/s. Hardly a speed demon. My linux fileserver on the same network can easily sustain 10MB/s. I am going to connect the device to a faster Xeon based system and see how speedy it is then.

* Simple security. I saw no method of creating usernames or any kind of security on the device other than the single password that can be setup to access the device. Probably because this is designed for the home where there are not a bunch of users and passwords to manage.

Now this is a pretty new product, so hopefully it will get better with time. It seemed like such a good idea (obviously, I bought 4 of them), but I'm not convinced it was the best execution. Buyer beware.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Believe the reviews and save some time in your life, May 10, 2006

By 

Leonardo (London UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central (Personal Computers)

I decided to return this device after using it for fourteen days.

Some of the reviews talk about replacing file servers with this device, which is probably too much to ask. The SC101 actually offers a great feature set for its price and, for the home user, it certainly looks good on paper.

Installation was easy, upgrading the firmware was easy, and the backup software that comes with it is among the best I have seem in terms of being user friendly and having a nice feature set.

If you are a home user, the fact that static IP addresses are not supported is almost irrelevant. The beginners probably have DHCP on their network already, so this should not even be an issue. If you do not, any cheap router will let you create static DHCP leases that will keep security while supporting this device. All you have to do is create a range with four IP addresses per SC101 on your home network. This can be much more difficult to pull off on an office/corporate network--again, this is a device for the home and small business user.

There is plenty of documentation in Netgear's site. Believe me: I bought and returned a couple of enclosures before I got this one. They were more expensive, worked erratically, and had NO documentation WHATSOEVER. Manufacturers think these devices are simple enough so they cut corners in documentation. Well, turns out they are not. I bought a quad drive icebox 800 enclosure and it was the worst piece of equipment I have seen in ten years of experience in IT.

The device is very silent and powers itself off when sees no activity.

Some of the cons include a relatively big AC adapter, and the fact that the file system is proprietary (not readable without the Netgear software). This should not matter for most home users. Make sure the drives you attach to the enclosure are clean and all the data in them has been backed up BEFORE you install them in the SC101.

My overall rating is low because I could not get any write speeds better than 600Kb--much less than the almost 7Mb advertised. Netgear support blamed it on spyware. On a freshly installed machine? At this speed, it takes up to two days to copy 100GB of data. Some people claim they have seen better performance, but I tried troubleshooting this device for two weeks with little improvement.

This device is not supported under Windows XP Media Center Edition.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shame Shame on you NETGEAR (Test your products!), April 12, 2006

By 

wwh "who wants hassles?" (boston ma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central (Personal Computers)

Hmmmm. Where to start?

NETGEAR - Big company with reliable COMMODITY datacomm equipment. Great idea: network drive enclosure for multiple disks at reasonable price So I bought the SC101 for use as backup network drive. ...... what's not to like?

1) almost non-existent documentation in the box

2) wizard that didn't display completely within the window boundaries (and adjust sizes (excuse me, i guess that was a learning experience) only some user configuration time lost readjusting font sizes)

3) initial backup was 20 hours and still ticking when i pulled the plug ..... upon investigation (at the NETGEAR site) it was duly noted that "alas" the SC101 does not perform well on wireless networks. This was especially ironic since the packaging illustrates my EXACT laptop to wireless router to network over ethernet cable configuration....... After wiring my laptop DIRECTLY to the wireless router, the backup took only 3 hours.

4) But then I lost connectivity - repowering the SC101 brought connectivity back. Upon investigation (at the NETGEAR users group) i noted that the unit has a tendency to go to sleep.

(never did get an idea about the timeout period - but would be willing to investigate and document as an SQA consultant at a reasonable rate (:-)) The NETGEAR users group did suggest a number of work arounds of which i didn't feel i had adequate skill set - but I did find that using my backup software to provide a periodic backup in advance of the timeout kept the unit alive.

5) contacted "official" NETGEAR support (by email) waited a day for responses like:

"We apologize for the inconvenience it might have caused. Regards." ........

6) After noting from user's group that others had similar problems for a few months, I asked support when the issues might

be addressed. "Look to our website....." was the response.

BOTTOM LINE: Product does not operate as advertised, Support is non-existent. You're on your own.....