Netgear ReadyNAS RN426E1-100NES Desktop RN426 Network Storage Device, 6 x 1 TB Enterprise HDD

I have had a Buffalo Terrastation NAS 1TB since 2007, with 4 x 250Gbyte drives configured in RAID5. However, as this was filling up with high-resolution photos from my pro digital SLR, and the network speed was a bit slow, I decided to upgrade.After reading a number of online journal reviews of some other NAS products, I decided to avoid the ones which used a processor model which was susceptible to hardware failure, and opted for the Nether 526x due to the fact that it uses a relatively high-performance Intel processor, and it has 6 drive bays, enabling it to support RAID 6 configuration (and the ability to tolerate failure of 2 drives without loss of data). After reading the BackBlaze disk drive review (which is authoritative, as it uses in-service data from their data centre), I purchased 6 Western Digital Red 4TB drives, providing 24TB capacity minus RAID 6 overhead (resulting in about 14TB of usable storage).I have found the network access speed of the Netgear 526x to be virtually instantaneous (over 1Gbps Cat7 Ethernet and 2G + 5G Wi-Fi), and where photos and files would pause before loading on the old TeraStation, there is no delay with the Netgear 526x.There are a lot of configuration options and features (which you can read about elsewhere), but the ones I most like are:* ability to perform Apple Time Machine backups from multiple Macs simultaneously* ability to configure fan settings for temperature of drives (I run mine cool at no more than 35degC to extend the life of the drives).* ability for perform AES256 encryption of the array (useful when storing financial information)* works well with both PC and Mac clientsThe only thing I don't like is (unlike the Buffalo Terastation), the front door of the NAS is not lockable.Overall it's an excellent NAS.

We already had 3 NAS units, two buffalo and one Synology. This gives us a total of 16 TB of Raid1 NAS storage. I also had several spare hard disks, 2x4 TB and one 1 TB.When these were installed in this new net gear unit in XRAID formulation, I was pleased to find that we now have an extra4.5 TB of NAS storage in RAID X configuration.Netgear recommend adding hard disks in even numbers, and also provides a software tool to allow you to experiment with different configurations. If I was to add the same hard disks again (2X4 TB and 2X1 TB)We will have an extra 12.7 TB accessible from anywhere in the world. We are just about to go on holiday for a month, but this is something I will definitely do when we return.I always use WD red discs but bought from different suppliers to ensure the discs come from different batches.

So much faster to transfer files to than my old Readynas 104 regularly get transfer speeds of 110-120mb per sec compared with the 40-50 of the old 104. Quite heavy and very solidly built. Upto the usual netgear quality. Its so easy to put drives in with it being a tool less operation. The only thing i am not so keen on is those super bright Blue leds that tend to be the in thing at the moment, and even though it is nice and quiet in operation, You still get the blue glow shining through the air vents into the room. And as blue light can be disturbing to sleep patterns, have angled it accordingly. Just wish the 10TB Hdd's were a little cheaper, but they will drop in price eventually like all new technology does.

This is Netgear ReadyNAS with 8 bays of storage space. If you're familiar with Netgear products this is the usual reliable build quality that you will have experienced before and with a pretty user friendly installation process. Inserting drives into the unit is easy to do, even if you're not overly technically gifted, requiring no additional tools or know how. Once the drives are inserted and the software is setup, transferring your data is relatively simple, even if not the fastest of processes. However, if you want to back up large quantities of data and would rather avoid paying ongoing fees for cloud storage, then this is certainly a great option to consider.