Product Description

RND2110 ReadyNAS Duo(1 x 1000GB) Network Attached Storage Device -- Directly streams music, photos and video to existing network media players without a computer. Creates a personal webpage to easily share photos with friends and family. Insert optional "spare" hard drive for automatic file protection and back-up.

Product Details

• Size: 1 TB (1 x 1 TB)
• Color: Black
• Brand: Netgear
• Model: RND2110-100NAS
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: 11.40" h x 6.90" w x 10.00" l, 7.50 pounds
• Hard Disk: 1TB

Features

• Network attached storage device offers 1 TB of storage with GigaBit Ethernet for fast data transfer
• Stream music, photos and video to network media players without a computer
• Access files from anywhere via Internet connection; host your personal Web page to share with friends and family
• Support for extra hard drive, allowing X-RAID data protection
• Measures 4.0 x 5.6 x 8.7 inches (WxHxD); 5-year warranty

Amazon.com Product Description
The NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo is an ideal Network Attached Storage device for use in homes with more than one computer. The ReadyNAS Duo offers an incredible 1 TB of storage and lets you easily share your files, music, and video over a home network and access your data remotely over the Internet. It can even stream music, photos and video to a network media players without a computer.

The NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo: Offers 1 TB (1,000 GB) of storage for Mac and PC sharing. Streams music, pictures, and videos to network media players without a computer. Lets you access and download your data from anywhere via Internet. Includes Gigabit Ethernet for super-fast data transfers. Creates a personal Web page to easily share photos with friends and family.

A Gigabit Ethernet connection means fast speeds when the ReadyNAS is connected to your home network. View larger. View back.

Removable trays make adding another drive a snap.View larger.

The Ideal Home Media Server
With the ReadyNAS duo connected to your home network, you can listen to your digital music without the need for a computer. The device's advanced media streaming features support such media devices as the NETGEAR EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD, Logitech Squeezebox, Apple iTunes clients, Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

The ReadyNAS Duo features a Gigabit Ethernet connector that can provide a fast 1000 Mbps connection to your network, which ensures that you can stream audio and video without any hiccups. Compatible with both Macs and PCs, the ReadyNAS is the perfect solution for media storage, allowing you and your family to easily share media files seamlessly. And with an embedded BitTorrent client for direct downloading from the Internet, the ReadyNAS will ensure that you can publish, discover and download digital entertainment content quickly, easily and securely.

1000 GB of Storage and Remote Access to Your Files
If you have access to a broadband Internet connection, the ReadyNAS Duo also allows you to easily access to all your files no matter where you are. If you forget to bring that one file with you for a meeting, it's simple to retrieve it from your home server, quickly and securely. You can also use the ReadyNAS Duo to host your personal Web page, so you can easily share photos and media with friends and family.

The ReadyNAS Duo comes with 1 TB of hard drive space, enough for 4,000,000 photos, 18,500 hours of music, or 1500 hours of video. (If you don't need quite so much storage space, NETGEAR also offers the ReadyNAS Duo in the ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB and ReadyNAS Duo 750 GB models.) It includes three USB ports that allow you to directly connect USB disk drives, USB flash drives, printers, and wireless network adapters, adding even greater functionality to your home network.

This device also has easily accessible SATA hard disk drive bays with easy-to-use hot-swappable and lockable trays. Simply by adding a second hard disk drive all of your valuable files are automatically duplicated for the ultimate in file protection and back-up. NETGEAR's exclusive X-RAID technology is built into the hardware. A second drive provides full data redundancy for protection against hardware failure and takes over if the first hard drive ever were to fail. A self-managing and monitoring system offers automatic power-up and shutdown, drive monitoring, and problem identification, for even greater peace of mind.

The ReadyNAS Duo requires computers operating on Windows 2000, Windows XP Home or Professional (SP1 or SP2), Windows Vista, Mac OS X, or Linux. It has a Kensington lock security hole and is backed by a 5-year warranty.

What's in the Box
ReadyNAS Duo, 2 hard disk trays, 1 pre-loaded 1 TB (1000 GB) Hard Drive, quick installation guide, warranty card, power adapter, power cable, Ethernet cable, installation CD, ReadyNAS discovery utility, NTI Shadow for ReadyNAS for Windows and Macintosh.

Customer Reviews

RAID works, survives hard disk failure
What is Amazon Vine and why do these reviewers write so much stuff without saying anything? This review is for people who want to know only one thing: Does this device actually survive a disk failure? The answer is Yes.

My sister recently lost 2 of her external USB hard drives. She had to pay $3000 to a data recovery company to retrieve her data. I figure that $400 for a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo is small change, if it actually did what it claimed to do, which is survive a disk crash. The only way to know was to test it out.

I have about 40 GB worth of MP3 files stored on my Linux server, accessible to my Windows laptop using Samba as a network shared folder.

From my Windows laptop, I started copying the MP3 files into the \media share folder on the Duo. Over gigabit ethernet, I estimated a transfer speed of about 15-20 MB/second. More than I expected, considering the weak processing power of the embedded Linux computer on the Duo, and because there are 2 concurrent network copies going on, from Linux to Windows, then from Windows to Netgear. Gigabit ethernet is awesome.

While the copy was in progress, I inserted a second 750 GB hard disk (a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 series if you are curious; my Duo came with one 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 installed) into the second slot. The Netgear recognized it and started to incorporate it into the RAID system in 2 steps: first, format the drive (an ext3 Linux filesystem I think), took about 2.5 hours; second, synchronize the data from the first disk to the second disk, took another 2.5 hours. During this time, the 40 GB MP3 file transfer continued without a hitch.

Next, I configured the Duo to enable NFS (Network File System) and mounted the /media folder onto my Linux box. Now I had access to both the original and the copy on the Duo. I ran a "diff -r" command to do a recursive binary diff between the two directories. Came out perfect, no file corruptions.

I went back to my Windows laptop, and started another 40 GB copy of my MP3 files to the Duo. While the write was in progress, I _removed_ the 500 GB disk. The Duo detected a disk failure within a few seconds, and sent off a notification email to my GMail account, warning me of a disk failure. You can configure the notification email address to send the message to, say, your SMS on your mobile phone. As before, the MP3 copy to the Duo continued without a burp.

I then inserted a second 750 GB drive into the first slot, while the copying was still in progress. The Duo formatted and synchronized the new disk, and after about 5-6 hours, I once again had a fully redundant RAID system. Did another 'diff -r' just to make sure the data was not corrupted. None found.

When upgrading from a single 500 GB to dual 750 GB disks, the proprietary Netgear X-RAID filesystem makes the process as painless as possible. After both disks are formatted and synchronized, all you need to do is click on a button in the admin web interface (don't remmeber the exact wording, something like "Expand Volume") to take advantage of the bigger disks.

In conclusion, I tested the Netgear Duo through a simulated hard disk crash and hot-swapping disk upgrade, and found that it performed perfectly, did not corrupt the files which were being written to it during the process. The Duo performs reasonably well (15-20 MB/sec write speed over gigabit ethernet) and costs only about $400, far cheaper than what you'd pay to recover your data after your disk crashes. It has an impressive list of other useful features (USB backup, USB printer, NFS, Rsync, FTP, Bittorrent, etc) that you can read about in other reviews. The most important question for me was, will it survive a disk crash? I won't know for sure until a disk really does crash, but based on my testing, I think the answer is Yes.

An UltraSPARC server
The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo appears to based on the old UltraSPARC architecture, complemented with a SATA controller. It runs Debian for SPARC and Netgear permits root access to the box to install whatever you want. The box is quiet nice. It does Netgear's own proprietary XRAID mirroring (but not RAID 0). XRAID apparently allows the automatic upgrade to more then two drives, if you would use it in a Netgear box, which supports more then two drives. Unlike with other home office NAS, the firmware is saved in a flash and not on the drives itself. The drives are hot swappable and rebuild themselves automatically unlike with many other personal NAS products. The NAS can share directories via CIFS, NFS, AFP, and HTTP. It also can do FTP and TFTP, which comes in handy in the lab. The ReadyNAS comes with a print server, which is useless as it does not support bi-directional communication, required by most printers these days. You can also share USB 2.0 HD or flash drives, which the ReadyNAS will make available as a share. It can be configured via the WebUI or via standard Linux CLI at your own risk.

It comes with some "services" pre installed: iTunes server, Logitech Squeezecenter, and industry standard Home Media Streaming server and UPnP AV server. It features the BitTorrent server and some proprietary photo sharing server. Since it is Linux you can run your own Webserver. Apache is preinstalled and Netgear tells you how can activate it via CLI you. You can also use it as DNS or DHCP server but you need to install it via CLI yourself. I would be careful to activate too many services as those tax CPU of course. It is a server, but by modern standards a small one. Performance is decent though.

I notice some time lack when opening a file but read and writes are just under 9 MB/s, just about under 100Mbps Ethernet. Writes are a bit slower when journaling is turned on. You can also turn off journaling and connect the box to an UPS. It works with the newer home and commercial APC UPS with USB port. You have granular control over rights and quotas in the framework of the EXT Linux file system. You can manage those rights via the WebUI or the good old Unix way via CLI.

The most important application for me is the built-in backup. It does RSYNC, FTP, HTTP, NFS and a CIFS based clientless backup. You only need to share your files on your notebook/desktop/server, and it will diff it every night and you do not have to worry to loose any files in case your HD should crash. I am still backing up to DVD on regular intervals.

Basically it is Linux server, based in the UltraSPAR, a top of the line server technology 10 years ago. It is better then just building a Linux server, because the box is small, cheap, and only uses up 20W opposed to 200W or more of a real server, which makes a difference when it runs 24/7. The box is slightly larger the two 3.5" HDs stacked. The ReadyNAS is very quiet. When it first was formatting the drives the fan ran at full speed and was noisy but then they slowed down to 1500 RPM and you hardly can hear it. The box stays cool. Most people will not use the Linux CLI but rather the intuitive and easy WebUI.

It is cheaper to build your own then by the loaded version. Believe it or not the 500GB version is cheaper then the on without drives. I configured the system with mirrored 1TB drives:

- Netgear ReadyNAS RND-2150
- 2x Seagate ST31000340AS
- Crucial CT12864X335 1GB RAM
- APC Back-UPS ES BE750G

The ReadyNAS is reportedly very picky on hardware combinations and you need to check Netgear's hardware compatibility list.

What a great product and Amazon Price !
I purchased this Netgear ReadyNAS DUO RND-2150 to replace a D-Link NAS DNS-323. I wanted the ability to increase my drive size without having to restore the current files from an off NAS backup. (Not available with the D-Link product. I had read several reviews and I was impressed with what I had learned from the reviews.
My oreder from Amazon arrived within 2 days and I was up and running with the Originally Purchased hardware. The RND-2150 comes with 1 500 Gig HD. After I had set it up and got it working, I was up and running in 15 minutes, I copied the files over from the D-Link NAS and then checked to make sure everything was as it was supposed to be, I took down the D-Link NAS. My next step 3 days later, was to install a 750 Gig HD and see what happened. This is where the wonder started. The RND-2150 is hot swappable. So I installed the newer larger drive in the removable drive tray and plugged it into the device. The RND-2150 took care of the who thing automatically. Mirroring the new drive did take about 5 hours BUT the unit was still accessible while the mirroring was going on. A week later, I wanted to replace the 500 Gig with an identical 750 Gig. With the system running, I removed the 500 Gig, secured the new 750 Gig into the tray and plugged it in. Once again the RND-2150 was off and running automatically. Progress is monitored by a Windows Netgear Interface "RAIDAR" that comes along with the package and buy e-mail notifications sent out buy the RND-2150 as things progress.
Everything turned out just perfect after I did a reboot of the NAS after the mirroring was completed. The RND-2150 expanded the mirror to utilize the full size of the mirrored 750 Gig drives.
Now the 500 Gig drive is off to ebay and I am extremely happy.
I am using StorageCrafts ShadowProtect to do weekly backups of the 2 main home computers and I am using the included NTI Shadow for ReadyNAS to do realtime backups of both systems My Documents. Along with storage for the Music and Family Photos, this is a great product