Customer Reviews
ReadyNas Is Great, Amazon on the other hand... 
2008-10-07
The product works as advertised. Has a great forum and customer support. However the price dropped, within 2 week and Amazon would not refund the difference.
I think amazon should seriously reconsider reinstating their price guarantee
Data loss; recursive MEDIA folder 
2008-10-01
I bought my ReadyNAS Duo 1 month ago. I wanted a product that will
1) protect my data
2) allow me to access it from my various devices within my home wireless network (laptop, PS3, mobile phone)
Less than 1 month after using the Netgear ReadyNAS, this is the consequence:
* I now have lost 400GB+ of data stored on Netgear ReadyNAS, including pictures and videos of my precious baby boy -- something which is now forever lost
* In that one month, I had to put up with a ReadyNAS that is very unstable and very often, i lost the connection to ReadyNAS in the midst of trying to access data
Other things that you should consider:
- ReadyNAS has a "media" folder, which recursively reproduces everything within itself, including all the content (I'm not sure if it actually occupies that same amount of disk space). I tried deleting it, but it keeps coming back, like Freddy Krueger. It is a mess to deal with. You can find countless consumer posts about this problem online. Unfortunately I didn't know till I've bought the ReadyNAS
- ReadyNAS makes loud whirring noises after a period of operation, and then I'll have to reboot it
- I called international IDD to get help from NetGear ReadyNAS tech support and their advise caused me to lose all my data (I was told, if I hold the RESET button for 5 secs, it will perform a normal reset. But I was warned that holding the RESET button for 30 secs will cause all data to be erased. I figured I have a 25-second buffer before data erasure occurs --- quite a safe margin, so I performed a reset over the phone with Netgear Tech Support's guidance; to cut the long story short, I realized I still couldn't access my drive, and after several calls to both local and international Netgear helplines, I finally was escalated to Level 2 support where a guy apologized and told me I've to seek help from a local data recovery center. I had to pay the cost of the data recovery myself. It was hinted that the previous Tech Support guy gave me wrong information --- data erasure happens after SIX seconds of holding the RESET button, not 30 seconds as I was told. I spent > 3 hours on IDD phone calls with Netgear tech support, plus additional time spent following their instructions which mostly didn't work for me, and in the end, I lost all my data)
I understand there are many other good reviews of this product, so consider carefully. Netgear has offered me a replacement product, but I'm not taking it
Great product - poor computer interface 2008-09-17
Product performs well - very well... As a wireless server - I use the system as a music source for a Logitech Squeezebox setup. Love it - but found the installation a bit confusing and it is difficult to find the drive once installed - but going to your computer and finding attached drives is easy enough once you get the hang of it. Manuals and installation tools are poor - I use an iMac and nothing was written for Apple... But once you get through the setup issues - it works like a champ!!
Nice product with rooms to improve 2008-09-10
Almost give up on Netgear tech support and return this product but they finally answered my call and resolved my issues. Now I am happy to keep it. Here are problems
- "media" folder will repeatly shown up to 25 subdirectory deep, you must install new photo add-on to fix it
- Can't turn off "optimize for OS X" unless you install beta firmware
- recommand UPS to avoid hd out of sync problem after power hit
- Tech support is really slow, be ready to be put on hold for one hour before the real tech talks to you.
- Do upgrade firmware, do read up on their website for tips....
- USB port can work as printer server but don't expect all-in-one to work with it well,
- Refresh buttom might not give you real status under Volume info..
- Do download the Twonky add-on to get better view of itune/Ipod stuff from PS3.
After all, this is a keeper, can't see any other product at this price range with these many feature.
Very Good Product 2008-08-25
This is my second NAS drive. I upgraded from a Maxtor Shared plus drive, (also good). The Netgear was my choice for having the option of expandability and redundancy. I also liked the add on features it offers.
The Drive installed relatively easily. The only problem I have had is the interface for media streaming does not work very well with my Netgear EVA700. I have installed Twonky media to over come this. Very Happy.
Very disappointing, slow drive 2008-08-23
The ReadyNAS Duo is perfect for homes with more than one computer. Unlike a USB drive, the ReadyNAS connects to the network and is simultaneously accessible via all connected Windows or Macintosh computers. If there is a broadband Internet connection and a home router, the ReadyNAS can be set up to provide secure access to all the stored files remotely via the Internet.For added protection of stored data, an optional second hard disk drive can be installed. The spare hard drive will keep an extra copy of all the data and instantly take over if the first hard drive should fail. Advanced media streaming support allows the ReadyNAS to directly serve media, with no PC required. Officially licensed BitTorrent client allows downloading to occur without the need for an additional computer. A web-based interface facilitates download management from computers, and a special NETGEAR digital entertainer interface allows management from the select NETGEAR device.
Nice Product with a few potential improvements possible. 2008-07-28
This was pretty easy product to setup and worked flawlessly with my desktop PC delivering transfer speeds of 12-15MB/s when connected via a D-Link DGS-2208 Gigabit switch. There is a bit of low pitch whine from the fan and it's scary noisy when you first boot it (it calms down after it is done booting) but overall it's very quiet.
I had some trouble setting it up until I realized that you have to create a DLNA media share directory in order for the PS3 to see the files. Confusing because the bittorrent samples were visible, albeit the PS3 played them without sound for some reason. Needless to say the manual is non-existent and the help is pretty useless if you don't know what you are doing. I'm a computer engineer and managed to figure it out, others might not be so lucky.
It works well with my two Playstation 3s with the exception that when you add new music or video the PS3 won't see it until you go into services and run 'rescan' under UpNP. Annoying because that takes about 10 minutes on my collection and odd because I thought the PS3 was a DLNA device.
The down side is my Yamaha RX-V3800 doesn't see it at all. Not a major problem because navigating a large music collection on the Yamaha is like doing butterfly through the red sea but it would have been nice if it worked. Their higher end models have third party drivers for the Yamaha but the Duo seems to be out of luck.
Power wise it's very good, with plenty of options for putting the drives into standby and even shutting the unit on/off at fixed times. I just don't get their rationale for not allowing two drives to be used to double capacity, even if it's two volumes it would be better than nothing. Sure, RAID 0 is dangerous if one drive goes down you lose the lot but give me a choice, I know what I'm doing and my data is already backed up elsewhere.
Lastly their pricing is stupid, I bought the 500GB for $359 but I would much rather have gotten the 1GB. At $600+ though it's cheaper for me to buy a ($180) WD 1TB Green Drive and put it in than buy their 1TB configuration - and then I have to throw away what is at least $100 worth of 500GB drive (because they cleverly prevent me from using it in the second slot). Dear Netgear Marketing department, please get a clue.
Best NAS I've owned. 
2008-07-27
I've owned 3 NAS (HP,Buffalo, and this). This is the best one for many reasons. First off, it's tiny, and quiet. About the size of 3 bare drives in width and about 1.5x the drive in length. Construction is out of metal and looks very sturdy. Metal should help with heat dissipation as well. The hot swappable drive is unique in this price range. I do wish that the drive's status light is a bit bigger.It's like a tiny dot.
The reason that I like this drive the most is that it's the first one I've used that is completely trouble-free in setting up. Adding a second drive is as simple as popping in another HDD. It recognizes the drive and automatically builds a mirror. Software works great. It detects the drives right away and every function works without a flaw. I've had all sorts of set up problems with the HP and buffalo. Transfer rate is as good or better than all my current NAS.
I've had the 500g drive for a couple of months and it served my 8 station music system without a hitch. I bought 3 more for use in the office as a file server, and it's a hit. Tiny, silent, cool running and totally reliable up to this point.
Look for 2008-07-25
Great product whose price varies widely from site to site. Setup was not easy but not extremely difficult. When I started using my ReadyNAS to serve files to my XBox 360, the large number of files I had caused the DLNA to choke (I had already installed the latest stable firmware on inital setup). I then installed newest beta firmware which not only fixed the DNLA problems but added a feature for auto-updating of the DNLA database on addition or removal of files, which was absolutely key. Installation of a second hard drive was easy but I have not had a failure to test out the RAID X configuration. Prepare to spend a little time on the ReadyNAS site trying to figure out what you want to do.
Big Pluses:
* Size (smaller than a toaster)
* Quiet (virtually unnoticable except on initial power-on)
* Power Consumption
* Easy to add additional drive
* DNLA support (using the latest beta firmware) (serves file to other digital appliances i.e. Xbox 360, PS3, etc.)
* Bittorrent client
Minuses:
* Slow until you follow the tweaking tips on the ReadyNas site
* Hard to set up private shares
* Certificate hassles
* Nonfriendly web interface
Great Device With Minor Flaws 2008-07-23
PROS:
Initial setup is very simple and straightforward
Very quiet
Very small footprint
User interface is intuitive and easy to navigate
Speedy network access once configured correctly - see below
Forum support is helpful
Music and video playback is smooth and reliable
CONS:
Network tweaking is almost a must - this is a heavy forum topic. The tweaks for the device are straightforward, most changes need to occur client side
Full scan of your media can take quite awhile - 2 to 4 hours. Also, there is no built in way to do a quick scan of your media to index deletes or name changes, this requires a full scan
MP3 track output to a 360, what I'm using, is sorted alphabetically - NOT by track. I have an open thread in the support forum regarding this but have not received a response from the developers yet.
OVERALL:
I wanted a device to take over the job of delivering media to my 360 that was redundant, fast and reliable. This device was able to meet all of my needs. If it werent for a few minor annoyances I wouldve rated this device a solid 5.
