I have 3 machines on my home network, each with four users. Backups of each machine should be private, while shared data (pictures, music, etc) should be public. The 110 claims to be able to do just this. However, I could never get it to work. Users had to enter their password even to access the public share. Some user passwords were not accepted, despite numerous attempts and careful verification that the user was typing the password correctly. When I finally gave up and deleted all the private shares and just put all the data in the public share, some users still had to enter their passwords to get access. The only way to resolve this was to delete their windows accounts and create a new ones. Needless to say, when you have a highly customized account, this is rather painful!
I do not use the Seagate backup software so I can't comment on that except to say that it doesn't give the user much control, and stores the files in a format that isn't easily accessible if you just want to find one or a couple of files. I am using Allway Sync which provides more control and makes it easy to recover individual files.
In my experience so far the device is impressively quite; the only time I hear it is when it clicks as it sleeps or wakes up. No big deal.
The one thing I find unfathomable is why they made the front USB port only available as a one-way backup of thumb drives. This is just stupid. I want to plug in a portable drive to back up the NAS but I can't use the front port and the rear port is very inconvenient to reach. Why not make the front port universal, as in Universal Serial Bus, instead of limiting it? Just weird.
Finally, I'd like to suggest to Seagate that they offer some kind of on-line backup service. None of the existing services work with NAS drives, but Netgear offers a proprietary service for their NAS drives. Online backup would be the final step in absolute data security and I'm surprised Seagate hasn't thought of this easy revenue stream.
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Short story: Nice hardware, great potential (FPT, wiki, etc). Software unforgiving and difficult to decipher.
Software is lacking and unclear and the instructions alternate between being very simple and helpful to abstract and cryptic or disjointed. I feel there are things I really just had to figure out for myself and while I'm not a computer newbie, I'm certainly no IT professional. Definitely had some trial and error --which is time consuming when backing up 1/4 of a terabyte...
-In some cases there are five different ways to do the same thing (like I can't count the number of menu's where "Validate backup" is an option) --whereas in other cases I had to hunt and hunt to finally locate the obscure reference in the HTML help files that pointed me towards some buried part of the stripped down hardware GUI.
-In some cases you're bombarded with backup options. In other cases, you do a backup (such as USB->NAS) and it doesn't ask you one thing, it just starts backing up. There's not even a "stop" button in that latter example ...!
And so on ...lot's of strange things like this. I would prefer a really stripped down interface where I had to learn to be an IT professional, or I would prefer something where my hand is held the entire time. But Seagate BlackArmor tries to straddle the line ...
(I feel most comfortable just mapping drives with a letter name, but that just reduces it to being a portable hard drive. And good luck figuring out the permissions --because it doesn't tell you how, just tells you "can't do that". ...)
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I am happy with this drive for many reasons, and disappointed for two. This is a very well-built drive that seems like it will perform quite well for my purposes, which are media streaming. It has a browser-based management utility that is streamlined and easy to use. However, the documentation is very vague, as are the online forums that don't function well. My drive was set up in under 30 minutes with no problems. My dad bought two of these as well, and is having issues setting up the Global Access feature for some reason. I didn't have any issue with that. The two issues that are concerning have to deal with documentation and Media Server functionality. Seagate does not list what file formats/codecs are supported for DLNA streaming. Unfortunately, it appears it is limited to AVI and Windows Media. It will not stream MP4 files of any sort. This is a huge loss for me, since I bought the drive to avoid having my computer on all the time. The details of this issue are not documented anywhere. However, it appears that very few drives out there function properly in this respect. For now, I am streaming through Connect360 while waiting for a firmware update that may offer hope. I recommend this drive as a solid network drive, but must warn you that it does not perform as a DLNA server. I will update this as I get more information.
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Simply doesn't work (properly - if at all) with Mac, even if the box says it does. (I haven't tried it with Windows, so this review - and the star rating - apply only to my experience attempting to use it with a Mac running Snow Leopard.)
- You will have immense trouble accessing the drive and the folders you create on it, because it doesn't support the Mac file system, and because it has a very cryptic implementation of NFS (an appropriate file system for UNIX-based machines.) I couldn't get NFS mounts to read or write properly, or stay connected.
- If you end up using SMB (Windows style) as your file system, be prepared for SLOW transfers. Beyond slow. Impossible.
- As an iTunes music server, also no good, especially if you hope to use a second drive attached to the USB port, which you cannot do much with in terms of file systems, folder creation, or anything else.
- The manual is rotten. It is super bare-bones and doesn't explain anything.
- Check the Seagate NAS forums to see how many Mac owners have bought this thing and are now weeping for their lost time and money.
I suspect it is better for Windows; and maybe - since the firmware is open-source - somebody will come up with a nice Mac implementation. But not today. Skip it.
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A Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 has been installed in my (Windows XP) home network for about a week. It does everything I want it to, with very little work on my part. I installed it in less than 10 minutes using the supplied BlackArmor Discovery software and painlessly back up my desktop, using the supplied BackArmor Backup software. I created a Global Access account and have been easily able to access data on the NAS 110 remotely over the web; I plan to use this capability to share data with colleagues. I use its "one-button" backup for my USB thumb drive, which works exactly as advertised. The NAS 110 also allows me to share a favorite USB printer on my network. After reading other reviews, I was concerned about heat and noise, but I have it installed on a shelf over my desk, in a well-ventilated location with no obstructions on any side and it runs only a few degrees above ambient. It's also very quiet. I am a college instructor and musician, and use my home network for lecture preparation, administrative work (Microsoft Office) and music arrangement (Finale). Storing and retrieving data is sufficiently fast for all of my work. I greatly appreciate the intelligent design that has gone into this no-nonsense product.
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This is not a full-featured NAS (by today's standards at least) and it's really nothing to get all that excited about, but if you want 1TB of network storage then this Seagate BlackArmor 110 will give it to you.
I want to first address Mac compatibility as I'm a Mac user and had absolutely no issues with this NAS (it worked fine with Windows, too, of course, but I mainly used it with Macs when testing). You connect via SMB/CIFS but it works fine. There's not really much more to say other than that. I'm not sure why other people were having issues with it but under OS X 10.5 and 10.6 is works just fine. The only snag I ran into was when it didn't show up as a Bonjour device immediately. I had to manually connect to it before I could see it as a Bonjour device but after that it wasn't an issue at all whatsoever.
If you're going to buy this thing I think it's important to figure out what you're going to use it for. If you have a machine or two and want to backup the contents of those machines to this NAS, then it'll do. It's a pretty reasonably priced NAS solution when used for backup. You get a good amount of space and if you're primarily dealing with laptops, you can backup a few of them over the network while you sleep.
But not everyone wants to use their network attached storage or directly attached storage for backup, and so there's the problem. I like to use my NAS devices to store things I'm actually working on. I don't like to use them for backup. I prefer other ways of backing up, but that's not really relevant here. My main NAS is a Synology Cubestation with four 1TB drives configured in a RAID 5 array. (If you don't know what this means, it basically means one of those four disks can fail without my data being lost.) Although that's not going to ensure that my data is going to be there forever and I'll never lose it, having the peace of mind that RAID 5 provides makes me a lot more comfortable saving certain files in a single location (which I wouldn't recommend doing if you can afford to keep them multiple places--I can't when it comes to my video projects because of the disk space requirements and the associated cost). I keep multiple backups of the really important stuff but can't do that with everything, so having RAID 5 protection makes me feel a bit safer. I'm mentioning this because if your Seagate BlackArmor 110 craps out on you, you can say goodbye to your data. If you lose a backup, it's not a big deal because you should have those files on your machine already. If you lose things you were working on, they're gone. You're not protected. Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable saving important data on a drive like this. Whether or not you do is something you'll have to reconcile with yourself.
It's important to remember you're buying a storage device and that's what you're getting. Seagate likes to try and add some value with silly features like a wiki server (which you cannot delete) but hopefully that's not why you're buying this. I'd be surprised if anyone even uses it, but it's there. Knock yourself out if you want to. There are a couple of added benefits, though. The NAS provides DLNA streaming and connects with iTunes. If you do store media on here (that you wouldn't mind losing in the event of a crash, assuming you're not backing up this NAS) you can access that media through iTunes (if iTunes can read it, of course) or any DLNA-compatible device. This is great if you want to have a music server for your apartment or family that everyone can contribute to and listen to when they're at home. You are, of course, not limited to music, but music is a nice and easy thing to share with this device. Because of copy protection and other possible issues too numerous to go into in a review like this, sharing video content in your home probably won't be as seamless (unless you're know exactly what you're doing, in which case you're probably buying a NAS with data redundancy and not a single-disk NAS like this one). Another feature worth noting is the FTP server. There isn't much to say about it because it works just fine. If you know how to use FTP and want to enable the ability to FTP content to this NAS then you're good to go. Personally, I had no use for FTP but if you do you've got it ready and waiting. Lastly, this NAS is called BlackArmor (I assume) because of its hardware-based encryption. If you're afraid of your data falling into the wrong hands, I guess this will give you some peace of mind? I say keep it off the network if you're really paranoid, but I guess for the somewhat paranoid this is a good solution. I don't know. I think it's kind of silly but I don't put sensitive data on my NAS devices so I'll admit that I'm not the best person to ask about this feature.
Lastly, I feel I should mention that you can expand storage via the two USB ports on the device. You have that option, should 1TB be too little for you.
Overall this is a pretty solid device. It's not great but it's not bad either. It's just an average, single-disk NAS. If that's what you're looking for you can get it for a pretty decent price. If you're worried you'll want more than it provides, you'll probably wish you spent the extra money on something more sophisticated. But for an external 1TB drive with an Ethernet port, you'll probably do just fine with the BlackArmor 110.
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I am a technology enthusiast as well as a writer who contributes to multiple consumer technology publications. With that said, the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 is a network attached storage device that isn't particularly consumer friendly.
For those who don't know what a NAS is, this is essentially a 1TB hard drive that connects to your home network (your wireless router) and allows any computer on your home network the ability to access the files stored on the hard drive. In essence, a NAS is a low-cost alternative to a home server.
This is the 8th consumer-oriented network attached storage device that I have used and it's one of the most difficult to setup for automated activities (automated backups) or simple network file sharing (such as sharing a music or video library with multiple PCs or devices on a home network). If you are an IT professional or someone familiar with setting up NAS and server connections then you can probably setup the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 without too much difficulty.
However, if you're an ordinary consumer you need to understand this is NOT a "plug-and-play" device. You can't just plug this into your router and expect it to work as advertised. Even the included software that is designed to simplify setup actually makes things a little more complicated than similar NAS devices I've seen from Iomega and Western Digital.
The overall data transfer rate for this NAS is pretty good when it's setup on a quality network connection, but if you're looking for a simple network storage solution this isn't it.
Bottom line, if this isn't your first NAS then the BlackArmor is a good purchase. If you're not familiar with setting up network storage then you should consider another NAS from Western Digital or Iomega.
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I bought this "file server" to run in Vista but:
1. The Server does not show in the Network and Sharing Center, only visible using the "Discovery" software that comes with the product (see 2.b below)
2. There are three different interfaces to access the "server", that is, the device, which apparently don't talk to each other:
a. At boot time
b. Using "Black Armor Discovery" and from them going to the browser using the server's IP address
c. Using BlackArmor Backup programs which is similar, if not the same as a) above.
3. Software in general is very inconsistent
4. Many errors, including I/O, occur while backing up.
5. Hardware: the unit gets hot easily
7. Hardware: the internal disk is not replaceable
8. No answers to some questions of other customers online, e.g. [...]9. Dynamic DNS service provider is limited to two companies: [...]
I'm going back to the store to return it, but I'm not sure if my data is going to be in the disk even though I formatted the volume (twice). The whole unit runs using Linux and when I tried to use a bootable disc created with the accompanying software I got "kernel panic" more than once. The software in general is inconsistent and not well thought out as everything Linux as far as I am concerned.
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This is basic, reliable protection that's fairly easy to set up and quite easy to operate that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. For Windows or Mac. If you're reasonably hardware-proficient the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 110 is well worth considering.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
This Seagate BlackArmor NAS is okay in my opinion. I found this a bit frustrating to get set up (not being a real expert on cumputer accessories and such), but I eventually did get it up and going. I would say it's a good product, but not a great one. It serves it's purpose, but I really prefer Western Digital over Seagate for an NAS.
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