Customer Reviews

Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 4-Bay 4 TB (4 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage ST340005SHA10G-RK

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is going to be a long review as the product's expectations need to be set right for buyers of this product.

To give you a background from where I come from let me start with the fact that I work for a Global IT company that has been developing and selling Enterprise class RAID storage solutions for years, since the good old SCSI RAID days and since we have been developing Fibre-channel and SAS storage devices and ventured into cloud computing and we very well understand the limitations and expectations from customers.

The most common complaint we have is my NAS is performing slow, The WEB UI sucks, or it takes forever to rebuild my RAID array. But these common complaints are nothing really to do with the product hardware but how customer accesses and uses his NAS storage and what expectations were set during the sale of the solution to customer.

Coming to BlackArmor NAS 440 NAS storage device from Seagate, The product documentation is clear! This was designed for a "shared storage" for small businesses, if someone hopes that they can use it in a home environment they will be disappointed especially if multiple devices trying to stream high bitrates of Blu-Ray or MKV HD video, or Video files out of Hi-Def camcorder etc; out of this box; but for people who edits small word doc or excel files in a shared CIFS environment and backup purposes in a small office environment it is perfect little device that is protected by RAID 1 or 5 redundancy and encryption for peace of mind.

There is a lot of negativity shared by users of this product here on Amazon and elsewhere, But we have to be realistic about the expectations out of 7200 rpm SATA interfaced hard drives in RAID 5 configuration, There is only so much those SATA interfaced drives can do with a severely underpowered RAID/Server controller with multiple possible services that it is running.

Enterprise class RAID storage uses SAS Drives and or Dual channel Fibre Channel drives for redundancy and the spindle RPM of those drives can be as high as 15000 for faster data access and generally supplemented by a very powerful controller (CPU) backed up by a huge data cache and battery backup protected for Power failures etc; But all that comes with a huge cost for small businesses that they may never use the full potential of an enterprise class RAID storage, But for a device that costs little over $600 and has almost all popular access methods of file sharing IMHO is quite adequately priced and performs just okay.

Agreed that the web UI is slow and there is very little one can tinker, But again, remember for whom this was designed for... It was not for people trying to boot off this device and play games, or stream HD video for TV or similar media hungry devices, it was designed for mom and pop shop owners who like to have a backup data storage device in their backroom just in case if their laptops or desktop PC's were to crash.

The included client Backup software component is a pretty good value as it includes 10 licenses and does its job relatively well. The other plethora of services that little device has to offer includes FTP, CIFS, NFS, Printer spooler, WIKI server, Media Streaming, Global access, NTP, ISCSI and Drive encryption is impressive, but again if one decides to use all those services simultaneously you are going to have a performance issue when trying to access data stored on the four HDDs in RAID configuration.

DO's and Don'ts

DO's

RAID Level (Suggest to keep at RAID 5 with 4 HDDs)

1. Make sure that you keep the RAID 5 array that is shipped from factory; this will give you peace of mind if any one of the HDD's was to fail.
Alternatively, RAID 0 offers the full advertised 4TB capacity and slightly better performance, but even if one HDD fails, you will lose all your data. It is not worth that risk for that slight performance gain.

Network speed (All devices must use Gigabit interfaces)

2. Make sure that you have a GIGABIT router or switch to access this NAS, The WEB user interface performs better in Gigabit network and so will be the speed to access your data.

DON'ts

1. Don't have high expectations in terms of data access or web UI speeds, It WEB UI is used for initial setup only and some maintenance activity and does its job slowly but adequately.

2. Don't attempt to change RAID type on the fly if you have already loaded your data on this device, the reconstruction rebuild process may take days and you may even lose data.

3. Don't overload the controller with unnecessary services that you never intent to use, Disable services that you seldom use and you will find slight performance increase.

Off lately, in my spare time at home, I have been building NAS storage for my home network by making Frankenstein versions of commonly available hard disk drives and hacking routers and converting them as NAS servers in an attempt to have a common repository of media files in one place. I have been successful in most of my attempts as long as I keep my expectations right especially when it comes to the speed at which the data can be safely retrieved in a NAS environment. Please read my other reviews on Amazon and you will find products that I purchased to build a Home NAS.

Please see the pictures that I have posted on the product reviewed here on Amazon and provide feedback in the comments section of this review, if you do not like this review and voted that you did not like it, Please comment why you did not like it! All feedback is welcome.

Thanks for reading this long review.

*** Update May 02, 2011 *** Benchmarking was done!

Read and Write of Large VOB Files in CIFS Samba environment (Mounted Drive letter in Windows)
** Single instance with no other activity on the NAS

Read & Write Speeds

[*] Write speed of 19.1MB/Sec
[*] Read speed of 43.6MB/Sec

Read and Write of small JPEG files in CIFS Samba environment (Mounted Drive letter in Windows)
** Single instance with no other activity on the NAS

[*] Write speed of 13.6MB/Sec
[*] Read speed of 25.4MB/Sec

Performance test results using Latest Firmware File Version: 4000.1211 With RAID-0 with 4-disks (1TB 7200 RPM disks) on a Gigabit only Network, RAID-5 with 4-disks will be slightly slower but very small performance degradation.

*** Update May 09, 2011 *** Streaming HD media is now possible!

I started to play around with various RAID types and even updated Seagate Drive firmware in the hopes that this device can be used to stream HD movies to Western Digital WD TV Live Hub 1 TB Media Center or similar Media streamers like Boxee Box by D-Link, I finally can state this for sure that Steaming HD media is surely possible... Here is how..

1. You will have to delete the RAID 5 that comes from factory (Software RAID 5 using 4 drives)
2. Create individual RAID 0 using single 1TB drives or replace the 1 TB drives with 2 TB drives if you feel 1TB is too less.
3. Connect the Seagate BlackArmor to a Gigabit switch and Viola! Stream your favorite MKV or ISO DVD files to the Media streamers! they work great!

I personally feel that the slowness is due to the Software RAID implementation and many more services one needs to run this in Business environment makes this device slow for Media streaming right out of the box, but if you delete RAID 5 and setup 4 SPAN devices (No data redundancy is available) but the box can be used for media streaming easily in home environment.

I was reading the previous review about it being a nightmare to setup, and I must say it has been as easy as pie for me...Now I haven't put it under massive stress yet, but so far it has been very solid. As far as the software goes, I only installed the Seagate 'discovery' program, used it to get into the web interface, then configured everything from there. Once I configured the basics I uninstalled the discovery program and tossed the disk into the drawer. I am just using it as a file server, but my media center hooked into it effortlessly through SMB/CIFS, and everything else hits it with a hard IP address. So far it hasn't skipped a beat, even with simultaneous Read/Write operations.

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**UPDATE** (JUNE 2010)
It has been nearly a year since I wrote the review above, and I wanted to update my review:
While I have not used any of the ancillary items, (e.g. Global acess, or the seagate backup utility) the unit has been going strong without a single hitch. My setup is very simple, and I highly recommend putting this behind a U.P.S. of some sort (even a small one).

At the time I purchased this unit, I also bought another one (a less expensive one) to have some sort of basis for comparison. Now that it is a year later and I require another NAS for another application, I am going with this one again because performace-wise it has been rock solid, I found the interface to be clear, intuitive and well developed.

The next application I will be placing one in is a much more mission-critical position, and it will be tasked. In this application I will be able to obtain better metrics on it's speed, as I push it to the limit of it's network interface, and hit it with three different protocols simultaneously.

(UPDATE DECEMBER 2011)
After two and half years of service, here is my summary thus-far:
With two units in operation for a combined life of about four years, and have only had one drive go bad, which was easily replaced and rebuilt. (not under load, however) - note** both units were set to 'power saving' mode, which spins down the drives after a period of inactivity)

The BlackArmorNAS can handle multiple clients, but I would suggest limiting it's scope for household or a small business use, as it isn't what I would consider 'enterprise class'. The web interface is intuitive and solid, email notification works well, and it doesn't seem to have any problems dealing with multiple protocols (e.g. FTP transfers, Windows SMB and NFS data requests simultaneously).

Where this system falls incredibly short is in the built in 'media server' - it lacks in compatibility, and has virtually no options. Unfortunately, I imagine a lot of folks would be interested in using it as a media server, so I can't understand why Seagate dropped the ball in this department so badly, it is my only disappointment with this system.

I had bought two of these units about a year and a half ago to store my lab's data and to have a backup server for that data. Though these units don't support joining and NIS domain, I was able to make a user on the NAS with the same name and password as the appropriate user on my Linux servers. I set them up in the RAID-5 configuration, and I thought I was set.

All went well...after returning a unit that was essentially DOA for a new one...until about a month ago, when the primary data server started becoming unreachable at random times for unknown reasons. Though the front panel was glowing, I realized that it was hung because pressing the buttons near the display did nothing. Fortunately, my rsync backups kept humming along after a restart, and unplugging the unit seemed to cause it no permanent harm, though it took about 15 hours to resync the drives.

Today, I got my second S.M.A.R.T. drive failure light on drive #2. The onboard error message verified that Drive #2 was failing, so I figured I'd replace it ASAP, not wanting to risk the failure of a second drive. I took it out of the bay...only to be told that Drive #3 was now missing and that the array had failed.

I checked that I had indeed pulled out the drive labeled 2 from the bay labeled 2 that was marked with the orange light. Indeed, *that* was the drive I'd removed. I can only surmise that someone miswired the drives or mislabeled the bays. To add insult to injury, my backup Blackarmor had also been hung for the past couple of days, again without any notice. Fortunately I've got critical scripts backed up elsewhere, but it'll take a while to recover from this.

UPDATE 2011-09-21: The second unit failed within a week of the other one...while I was waiting for a replacement for the first unit to be sent to me. This time, there was no warning, no drive that went bad. Just a failed DataVolume. The unit is accessible, but the volume has failed. All of my data are now gone, except the raw file backups I have on CDs and DVDs. Cindy in data recovery was nice about trying to do something for me with respect to data recovery; I'll update this review when I hear more. She was very nice and sympathetic, and I hope that Friday or Monday brings more than a $4000+ bill to fix this mess.

UPDATE 2011-09-26: True to their word, they contacted me today and offered a substantial discount on data recovery services on account of the utterly bizarre circumstances surrounding this data loss. I'm rebuilding what I can onto external hard drives in the interim, and I hope that the data that require the most post-processing can be salvaged. However, I thank them for being willing to offer discounts on data recovery under truly extraordinary circumstances. I'll be sending the first unit back to fulfill the RMA and see how much data could be recovered.

UPDATE 2011-11-18: Apparently, the second unit cost a bit less to recover data from than the first unit; however, both units had read errors on their drives, meaning that physical corruption of the data occurred. I should be getting all the data back, though still at a fairly substantial cost. And what's amazing is that the third unit failed on 2011-09-26 as I was just looking at the disks through the web interface! Both drives 2 and 4 went missing in the software for a week, only to come back a few days later...but of course, only after the RAID array failed. I hadn't even taken the plastic off the unit, so I know no one could have randomly taken out or jiggled just those drives.

Neither of my Synology DS1511+ units (that occupy exactly the same physical location, network ports, etc. as the Blackarmors did) have given me a lick of trouble in a month and a half, so I'm fairly confident that there isn't anything in my network setup that caused these issues. I cannot recommend these units, as three have all failed in different ways. It seems that the 1101 firmware is the thing they all had in common. I wanted to update the second unit to a later firmware, but it wouldn't resync the array before it died for me to do so.

 

Let me start my review by stating that I am a wedding photographer and a second grade teacher. (Note that I didn't say Network Administrator, Lab Tech, DeVry Grad, etc.)

Here's my experience:

Installation:
I had this thing out of the box and running in less than ten minutes. It came set up for Raid 5, which is what I needed so that was a big plus. If you want another form of raid, you'll have to walk through the steps to set it up yourself.

Size:
The unit itself was smaller that I expected (look in the Amazon description for measurments). This is a plus because it fits nicely ON my desk. With that being said, it is a beautiful looking unit. The shape and design are modern and easy on the eyes. An added bonus of it being able to sit on my desk is that I can glance over at anytime to check its status.

Software:
As far as changing the settings on the unit, I found it to be pretty straightforward. I would describe it like changing the settings on a router, except instead of going to an IP address, you click an shortcut that installs on your desktop.

Instructions:
The instructions that come with the unit are very minimal. They were enough for me to get the Raid 5 going and install the software. I did peek at their online documentation and I found it to be satistfactory to me. Because I didn't set up an iTunes server, use encryption, etc. I cannot speak about the ease in which these feature are set up.

Summary:
All in all, I am 100% satisfied with my Seagate Barracuda NAS. It was a turnkey solution for adding redundancy (backing up) my important files.

I ordered this NAS and used it for about a year with no issues.
After updating to firmware 1101 (whether a coincidence or not), my problems started: a first drive failed, then I replaced it. A couple months later, another drive failed - it would make clicking sounds, and eventually the whole unit would just lock up (the led for that drive would turn off, and I'd get no response at all from the unit). Luckily I got all my data out in time, 'cause just a few hours after, a third one failed (2nd disk that was still in the volume, effectively making my RAID5 volume useless), so I sent it all for warranty replacement. A new (not sure if new or refurbished) unit came back (Seagate, your warranty program works well, I'll give you that), and while restoring the data onto that new one, it locked up again. Currently letting the drives resync, and will try to use it one last time before I decide to send the whole thing for recycling (since I can't get a refund and don't wanna spend $50 on shipping for warranty again when the issue is probably not bad luck).

 

I have been battling with this thing for months. When it does work, it is VERY slow and file transfers in either direction take forever. There are some great features on this thing, like a media server and a wiki server. But if you are lucky enough to get the media server to show up on your other devices, no media is ever listed. This NAS has a program on your computer called "BlackArmor Discovery" and about 90% of the time, it reports "no servers found on your network", and offers no further explanation. When you dig in to the support site, there is a troubleshooter that walks you through a few steps and each page ends with "does it work now?". Then when you get to the end, it just says something like "uh, sorry, we don't know what the problem is". If you check the forums for this product, there are similar complaints. Tech support hasn't been able to solve the issue. Backups fail, and the backup program is so unhelpful as the log just says something generic like "a problem was encountered, backup canceled". I sent the log to Seagate support and got no response. I tried updating the software and firmware to the latest versions, and still nothing. I eventually just gave up.

 

On the surface, this looks like a very powerful network backup -- 4gb raid with a killer network enclosure and blistering HD capability. I love how the drives can easily be popped in and out with no screws or fuss -- perfect! I also love that the enclosure is virtually silent. I've read other reviews that say this thing is loud; I can only imagine they have a defective fan in their enclosures, because mine is whisper quiet. I literally have to put my ear right next to it to hear the fan whirring, and even then, I have to strain to hear it. The LED display is an added plus. And the drives themselves are top notch. So far so good on the surface and under the hood; shame the software is where everything plummets.

Gimmie Some Bug Spray For This Glitchy Program

The BlackArmor Discovery program is indeed very slow and somewhat buggy. Every time I click on it, it takes a good while before it recognizes and finds my NAS. Several times, I had to unplug/replug the network cable just so the program would find the drive faster. Don't get me wrong, it does find it without the need to unplug the cable, but it's just so darn sloooooooooow that I'd never want to use this on a daily basis. I have a brand new, top of the line, laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate, so there's really no excuses there -- the BlackArmor Discovery program is a dud.

Definitely NOT Plug 'n' Play

I have this networked into a switch that links several computers and peripherals in my setup. So I know my network is rock solid. The BlackArmor Discovery Program does automatically detect my NAS (eventually) but for some reason, the backup software refuses to connect to the drive. It sees that it's there, but that's about as far as it goes. So I have yet to test the backup software, because it doesn't work.

Small Business Nightmare

I've run small businesses, and I know how busy it gets, and how you're pulled in so many different directions. And that's why I don't think anyone with a small business should waste their time with this product, until they improve the software. As it is, I have wasted far too much time trying to drag this software kicking and screaming toward what I need it to do. Small business owners won't have the time or patience for this, nor should they. It's 2011, and the days of having to fight with your hardware and software should be long gone. At this price point, and all the hype, I expect to plug a product like this in, and have it work as it should, straight away. Anyone with average computing skills should be able to operate stuff like this with little trouble. Unfortunately, I've wasted numerous hours reading and tinkering with this thing, and it's all been a waste of time. The software just isn't good enough in its current state. Another personal pet peeve, is I hate programs that don't have a frame around their border. It makes it needlessly cumbersome to move and size windows; and to me, it's just another attempt at controlling the end user. Not a fan. And it's not a matter of needing an IT department.

Forced Registration

It's a personal pet peeve -- I hate it when products have a forced registration process; one that prevents use and installation of a product until they gather your name, email etc. It's just an outlet for spam and I shouldn't be forced to participate if I don't want to; especially with a pricey product like this! Sorry, just not a fan of this practice and it diminishes my enjoyment of any product -- feels like Big Brother.

Ignores Default Browser Settings

I hate that the software forces you to use Internet Explorer as the help browser. Lots of programs do this, but none of them, to my recollection, ignore the user's personal default settings. I use Firefox by default, yet this program overrides my default browser setting and launches Internet Explorer instead -- very annoying.

Bottom Line -- these drives are capable of performing at much higher speeds, but software keeps them on a pretty tight leash. Overall, there's got to be a better solution. Hopefully Seagate will make some improvements via software and firmware updates. I was really looking forward to using this NAS. As it is, I may just reconfigure it or wait until the updates come and all the bugs are squashed. ...disappointed. The poor software performance alone forces me to give this 3 stars. If you're looking to buy it, be prepared to devote several days to getting it running properly; and additional wasted time, each and every time you need to use it.

I had my organization get two of these to store redundant backups. So far I have had four drive failures. After the first two, both on the same unit, Seagate replaced the whole unit. Then a drive failed on the other unit. I replaced it, and while attempting to recopy the backups from the other unit, that unit failed as well.
This is completely unacceptable for any drive array unit. I would recommend against buying anything else from Seagate, ever. One drive failure, even two is within the realm of possibility, but four in less than a year indicates shoddy workmanship and/or bad design. I have relied on Seagate drives for the twenty+ years I've spent as computer technician, builder and systems administrator, but this experience has convinced me that the old dedication to quality is gone from this company.

First, let me agree with other that tech support and customer service is outstanding. Patient, polite, ENGLISH speaking USA based support. I wish it ended there.

I bought both the 440 and 220 models. one for the office, and one for home. purpose was essetially online backups (not using their backup s/w just additional disk space.)

And while expensive, or maybe becuase these are expensive, I was lulled into belief that this/these are relable technology. Not.

If you already have one (or more) be sure and check for firmware updates ... frequently. And if you find yourself needing a restore, do not trust the manangement page, also check the website, download the most current firware, and do a manual upgrade.

Certainly not the fastest product on the market, but for its stated purpose acceptable, BUT in my case one day the drive became unresponsive. No longer available on the network, could no longer access the web console, and could NOT even power down by the front panel ... had to unplug it.

the bottom line for me is that the unit would not come back up, telling me 2 drives were bad. Really? TWO drives? And that explains why the console froze up? Right ... so this puts me 1 year down the road, and the box has now 'eaten' 3 drives. Really? That's more drive consumption than the other 20 PC's and servers in our office combined over the last 10 years. I gotta think that there is something wrong with the enclosure. And warranty or not, I just want it to work ... not to spend my evenings writing Amazon reviews!

At the end of the day, the display console on this unit is frustrating devoid of any meaningful information. And while that should not be a deal breaker, if anybody at Seagate actually reads these ... don't you think for a couple grand you could add a couple more buttons and improve the interface.

Just a a point of reference, I have an old 100 GB SimpleTech NAS unit that has been running for 3+ years now and never missed a beat. Domain friendly, User friendly, Quality product.

Maybe it is not time to give up on the product, as much as it is Seagate, the company as a whole.

I had problems with my BlackArmor 440 which necessitated three calls to support at different times. All three calls were promptly answered by knowledgeable and friendly techs and once it was determined the unit was faulty and still under warranty, the return process was easy and flawless. All calls for NAS products (only) to Seagate support are free, no matter when or how long. Seagate doesn't deserve the support knocking they're getting here on this product.