Customer Reviews

Seagate STM303204SSAB0G-RK Maxtor Shared Storage II 320 GB Shared Storage Drive

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

 

 

I've always wanted a Network drive. I haven't been seriously looking for one, but I picked up the Maxtor 320GB Shared Storage II since it was on sale at Fry's. I saw it when I was there to pick up one of those bullet blenders to make smoothies. It was a spur of the moment purchase. I was looking at network drive enclosures, but they start out at $55 and go past $100. I saw the Maxtor in the aisle and thought it was a decent deal since it included a 7200 rpm drive that can hold 320GB unformatted AND it included the network-capable enclosure (which was all I was looking for initially). I already picked up a 500 GB Hitachi HD half a year ago and really didn't need this, but I really wanted a networkable storage device at home for convenience. When I got it home, I was debating whether or not to keep it. I decided to keep it since it was one of the few network drives that support a gigabit interface, looked nice, and it was on sale.

Install:
The unit was easy to install. I knew how to hook it up and to verify, I checked with the quick start manual. It only takes two connections: AC and ethernet connection. Hook the network cable between the wireless router and new drive and plug it into the AC. That was it. Turned it on.

Oh, it also has a connection for two USB devices. You can hook up a printer to it or another HD to back up this network drive. Pretty cool.

Software:
I installed the software. It first detected my network drive, then it disappeared on me. I found out I don't even need the software. Just use the SW for maintenance. You can acccess the drive with explorer and typing \\nameofdrive or \\nameofdrive\public. You can also search for computer and search the name of the drive. No need to install software unless you want to manage it.

I copied two movies to the drive. It was faster than my usb 1.1 drive which I was surprised since I have a slow network. Imagine how fast it would be if I upgrade to a gigabit network. But don't expect speeds of USB2.0 drives because network is the bottle neck, not the drive. And at least this drive will work on a gigabit network.

I would give this a 5, but I only have owned it for less than 24 hrs and the software could not lock onto the shared drive. You can always find it using explorer or searching for it, but the maxtor software can't even find it's own drive even after it already seen it earlier. And yes, I did turn off my firewall.. Made no difference.

This is a keeper for me.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get my network capable fax/scanner to scan directly to this Maxtor shared storage II drive. I can send pics to my computer, but my computer has software for that. I just want my fax machine to place the images on the HD.

One more thing, the pic on amazon is a picture of the wrong enclosure. Mine is half the size. The one in the photo looks like it could be from the terabyte server which holds two 500GB drive.

Gary

Ps. I've had the drive for almost two weeks now. The reason why I can't connect to the maxtor drive ya EasyManage is because my Cisco VPN client somehow keeps it from working. If I disconnect VPN it works great and I can use the backup feature and the drag and sort feature of drive.

UPDATE 1/22/08:
I have left this drive on 24/7. Once I turn it off and the drive has cooled down, it makes a loud racket, like the bearings are going. After it warms up, it goes away. Not sure what to do about it at the moment since the drive is now over 50% full. I'll call Maxtor and see what they can do about it.

Playing around with my music collection, some time ago I decided a network storage solution would perhaps be a good idea. I tried the Freecom FSG3, which was app. 300 Euros (450 US). That was such a user-unfriendly, complicated device that I sold it again after half a year out of sheer desparation.

With the low cost of this device, I decided to give it another shot. Super simple, out-of-the-box, plug-and-play solution. Amazing. No complicated incomprehensible server lingo. A clean in-browser interface without ambiguity. Even the Maxtor back-up disk (One Touch) that I have from my work integrated into the Maxtor management software.

It doesn't allow me to publish on the web or access my files through the internet. But 320 gigs at this price for this immaculate networking function. I'm really, really pleased with my purchase.

PS. I've recently detected a minor flaw: the media server doesn't stream the content list of individual songs to the PlayStation3 (which is rather annoying). The helpdesk of Maxtor took 2 weeks and 6 different attempts at an answer to confirm that indeed that does not work (apparently making it work isn't a logical next step on the middleware roadmap...).

The drive seems to work perfectly fine. But the software that comes with it is awful, and won't seem to run properly on either XP machine I've tried to install it on. The software is the type that puts a gratuitous, useless skin on top of what ought to be dead simple functionality. Half of the buttons are missing or unclickable, the backup function doesn't seem to run, etc. To make things worse, the server also has a web interface, which has some of the same functions as the desktop software, but not all of them - and changing a setting in one place seems to have no effect on the other, leaving me totally in the dark as to what the actual settings now are. I'm now looking for an alternate backup solution - all I wanted was a simple drive that would do its simple job of backing up my files without fuss or complaint, and while the hardware seems to fit the bill, it's a shame they package it with a more or less worthless software interface.

I just purchasd this couple days ago for my office shared storage.

Installation and backup:

Very easy, this is 5 stars. Just pop in the disk, install, restart and the drive is on the network. I use norton so i don't care for the backup feature.

Price:

Very reasonable. I only need to share maybe no more 5 GB worth of data so this might seem a waste for me with 320GB but I couldn't find anything for less. I was looking at the Linksy NSLU2, but it just didn't seen like a great product.

File Transfer:

This is where i ran into problems. I am only sharing 2 GB of data, mostly word, excel and pdf files. When i copied the directory to the Maxtor, it would transfer for 10 minutes and then "The specified network name is no longer available" pops up and the transfer process stalls. I tried at least 10 times now and each time, the process will not complete. I know the alternative would be to drag each small folders separately into it (i tried that and i worked great) but that's not what i paid for.

My 2GB USB drive works better than this. If it cannot copy 2gb without dropping connection, how can it tranfer hundreds gb of media file (although that's not what i am paying for here).

I am going to call maxtor and tried to see if this is a long-term problem, if they can fix this, then i will re-rate this product otherwise this rating stands.

Update:

I did fix the above. So now it's running very smooth. I will give a 4 star because it just too long to get this thing going.

The drive itself works as designed and is easy to setup and manage.

The EasyManage software has tons of bugs. When I contacted technical support they were no help. They told me the problems were with Vista. I installed v4.1.0.15 which according to the support site was specifically released for Vista. Also the backup software does not support backing up .pst files. This is one of the main reasons I bought the drive. When I asked why .pst files were excluded the technical support person told me that "it was not designed to backup application data"

If you don't care about using the backup software or Vista compatibility this is the drive for you.

Got this up and running pretty quickly. It basically connects itself and sets up automatically, which is great since the manual is useless. Once it's going, it seems to work flawlessly. The only problem is that I can't get my printer to work with it, which is a bummer since I had hoped to use this NAS as a print server as well.

It turns out that the manual has a small-print warning buried deep that says it won't work with multi-function printers (i.e. printer, scanner, fax). Aren't most home printers multi-function now?? So I either need to buy a single purpose printer or give up on having a print server.

One year ago, I tried and returned two different brands of NAS devices and neither really worked so I gave up. A few days ago I saw this Maxtor device, got it, installed it and it actually does work Hooray!

The instructions are clear but minimal. Here is the trick:
1. Just like the other reviewer said - you need to press the button on the back so the top light goes on. The bottom light only indicates that it is plugged in. The instructions don't cover this.
2. Install the software so it will show up as a local drive. I installed the software on each machine in my network (xp machines). After initial directory setup on the first pc, I selected 'mount' rather than creating a new user, so each machine sees the same directory structure. I use it as a sharing device and a backup device. Automatic backup works perfectly, and it is very simple to set up. I could never figure out the 'one touch backup' setups for maxtor USB drives.

I plugged a usb flash device into one of the flash ports, and it lights up but I have no idea how to access it; thus the title of my review - interesting device. It would be nice if there were comprehensive instructions available; I suspect it can be configured to do a lot of cool things.

No one should assume this is a configurable file server with all sorts of exotic capabilities; it is a network appliance which has limited options. I installed this product about 6 months ago and have been very pleased with the simplicity of installation, the speed of its file performance, and its reliability (it just runs and keeps working). The documentation is poor, but largely unnecessary, as the drive is easy to manage. Both Wintel and MAC devices recognize and access it easily. Printer support is dicey; I tried hooking up two different printers to use it to drive printer access. It worked, but was very slow; I eventually gave up and reattached the printers back to a PC on my home network. Businesses have used network attached storage for some time, but as this unit demonstrates, it is entirely applicable to the home market as well.

I have been using this shared drive for a week now. I have a home network of 5 computers (XP and Wins2000 with wired and wireless WiFi connections) on a T-Mobile (HotSpot@Home Linksys G router). Pretty fast access for the files and print server works too. I am now sharing my HP PSC-950 multifunctions printer too.

Setup:
-Not much instruction is provided but it was pretty easy to setup if you have no firewall issue.
-Make sure you are not connected with both wire and wireless to the router on the same computer.
-I ran into trouble with my computers with firewall software. I couldn't use the EasyManager to configure or manage the drive. I didn't want to spend too much time troubleshooting the firewall so I just use the Ip address to access the drive and Map Network Drive function in Windows Explorer. e.g. \\192.168.x.xxx\Folder

Printer server:
-When I first connect my printer to the drive, I can see it on my drive thru Windows Explorer (as an icon).
-To use the now Network printer, I removed my old printer icon (direct connect) and reinstall the printer as Network Printer. Goto Printer and Faxes to "Add a printer" and select "Network Printer" follow the directions.

Operations:
-Very quiet
-It produces a little heat
-It cannot connect to the computer with the USB port.

Although I cannot use EasyManage software for all my computers, I am able to access the drive thru the ip address. To me it deserves a 5 rating since this is the reason for the purchase.

I purchased the Maxtor external storage drive for my home office and I have both my office and personal computers utilizing it. Set up was fast and easy for both my WindowsXP laptop and my Vista laptop. Speed is good and the ease of use is great. I plugged my old USB external drive into the Maxtor and can access with no problem. I tried to use the 2nd USB port to plug my printer into but wasn't able to get that work - not sure if I did something wrong or if you need a networkable printer. I've had the Maxtor for about 3 weeks and haven't had a problem yet.