Home > Consumer Reviews > Netgear ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay 500 GB (1 x 500 GB) Network Attached Storage RND2150

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.

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.

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

This product is one of a number of network attached storage (NAS) devices on the market targeted at small offices and home users. If you're not familiar with NAS devices, the concept is simple: A NAS device contains one or more hard drives and plugs directly into your network (i.e., your router). When compared to simple USB hard drives that plug directly into a computer, a NAS offers a number of advantages:

1) It is accessible to any computer on your network. This is convenient at home, since you can use the NAS as a central repository for files (documents, photos, music files, etc.) that you might want to access from any of a number of different PCs. In a small office, having a central storage location for key files (client documents, contact lists, etc.) can be critical.

2) In principle, you could achieve the same benefit by attaching a big USB drive to one PC, setting that PC up to share its files, then leaving that PC on all the time. But these NAS devices are better optimized for file sharing, use far less energy, and take up far less space than a full PC.

3) Most of these NAS devices have something called RAID. They have (or allow you to install) multiple hard drives in the same unit, then they write every bit of data to multiple drives. This way, if one drive fails (as they are prone to do), the NAS can automatically switch over to the other drive and you don't lose any data. One HUGE warning, though - RAID only protects you from drive failure. NAS devices still have plenty of "single points of failure," including the power supply, controller, etc. I lost all of my data on a LaCie Network Disk because of a software glitch in the unit, even though all the individual drivers were fine. RAID reduces your risk of losing files, but it does not eliminate it.

4) Because the NAS is always available to any PC on the network, it's a great solution for backing up individual PCs, in addition to operating as a file server.

I am currently using a number of different NAS products in both my small business and my home. Here is a summary of the pros and cons of the three models I am currently using: Netgear's ReadyNAS Duo, EMC Iomega's ix2, and LaCie's Ethernet Disk RAID NAS. I'll call out only areas in which I see significant differences between the products. Also, this review is intended mainly for small office users - the features you might care about for a home NAS are likely to be different (e.g., you'd probably care about how well it works as an iTunes library or for streaming movies, neither of which is key in our office setting). Here goes:

1) Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. This is a smaller, two-drive version of Netgear's ReadyNAS product (originally developed by a company called Infrant, which Netgear acquired). It takes up very little space, uses relatively little power, and is fairly quiet. Reads and writes to this device are very fast, which is important when running backups. The ReadyNAS has a particularly robust feature set when it comes to backing up the NAS to another device on the network. This is important, since even with RAID, it's possible that the whole device will fail (e.g., if the power supply goes bad), so you want to make sure you back up your NAS regularly. Setup isn't hard, but you have to know what you're doing - this device is clearly targeted at somewhat technical users who know the terminology and are willing to work through all the configuration menus. This is our primary file server in our office, and it has been a reliable workhorse. About once every 2-3 months, I need to log on to fix something that has glitched - other than that, the ReadyNAS Duo has required no effort beyond setup. It's one of the best small NAS products I've used.

2) Iomega ix2. Iomega is now owned by EMC, the company that creates the monster-sized storage devices for big corporations. The ix2 is incredibly small - it takes up about as much space as a tape dispenser. Of the small office NAS products I've installed, it has the easiest setup - the configuration menus aren't quite Mac-like, but they're the closest of any NAS I've used. The ix2 does the best job of setting up multiple users - it automatically creates private folders for each user and makes it very easy to control permissions to shared folders. The ix2 is by far and away the lowest cost NAS I've used, at under $200 for a 1TB configuration. The ix2 comes with two drives preinstalled, but the drives are not user replaceable; I would have liked replaceable drives, but I'm willing to live with this tradeoff since it yields a very small and cheap unit. (Some users think non-replaceable drives are a show stopper. Personally, I'm just counting on my RAID to prevent loss of files if a drive fails. If a drive does fail, I'm more likely to replace the whole NAS, given the rate at which features are improving and prices are dropping, rather than just replacing the drive.) The ix2 excels as a backup solution for PCs - it comes with software to automatically backup any PC on the network to the devices. One important missing feature, though, is the ability to back up the NAS to another storage device on your network - this is very important in an office setting if you are using the NAS as your primary file server, rather than as a backup for your PCs. Because of this missing feature, we use the ix2 as our backup storage device, not as our primary file server. The ix2 has proved highly reliable and trouble free - like the ReadyNAS Duo, it runs for months at a time without anybody having to tweak anything.

3) LaCie 301160U 1TB Ethernet Disk RAID Network Attached Storage. If you've gotten the impression that I love the ReadyNAS Duo and ix2, you're right. Balancing the cosmic scales is the LaCie Ethernet Disk, which caused us nothing but headaches. The LaCie NAS configuration menus are opaque, even to a reasonably knowledgeable person. The device is hard for users to find on the network. The device is painfully slow - backing up large numbers of files to or from the device takes forever. It does not come with software to back up PCs to the device, and it lacks the feature to back itself up to other devices. It's big and noisy. And, most importantly, it's unreliable. On multiple occasions, the device simply disappeared from the network, forcing us to reset the device (which takes a while). The last time this happened, the device couldn't read its hard drives when it rebooted. I spent hours with LaCie tech support, but nothing worked. We ended up losing ALL of the files on the device. LaCie ended up replacing the device, but that didn't save our data. Having read other reviews with similar complaints, I know my experience wasn't a fluke. This is not a reliable product.


4) HP MediaVault. I have a MediaVault 2100 installed at home, and I really like it. It has more consumer-oriented configuration and usage menus than the products reviewed above. It also does a nifty job of handling media files, which is more important at home. In particular, it works as a great central iTunes library, automatically sweeping music files from my individual PCs up to a central shared folder on the NAS. The individual PCs in turn can then access the NAS folder (as if it were an attached iPod). This means that everybody in the house has access to any songs anybody else has downloaded. I tried using the MediaVault briefly in our office, but it didn't work nearly as well as the ReadyNAS or ix2. It wasn't fast enough and (true to its name) the setup options seem clearly designed for a home multimedia environment rather than an office file environment.

5) Buffalo. I haven't used a Buffalo NAS since I installed the Netgear ReadyNAS and EMC/Iomega ix2 devices, so I can't offer an up-to-date comparison. The Buffalo device that I replaced was OK, but it wasn't nearly as fast, compact, or feature rich as the Netgear and Iomega products.

In a nutshell, I've been very pleased with my Netgear ReadyNAS Duo and Iomega ix2 in the office, and with my HP MediaVault at home. The LaCie NAS was very bad, and the Buffalo products I've used have been OK but usually not the best in class. I hope this helps.

It is a shame that the reviewer Kalyan S. Tirumala (below) lost all his/her hard drive data, but please understand that what Kalyan S. Tirumala did was wrong. You are not supposed to take a hard drive that you own AND has your important data on it, and install it into the NAS. Do not do that! If you do this, the NAS will automatically reformat the drive you installed (reformats drive to ext3 file system) which then deletes all data that was on it. Then, Kalyan S. Tirumala goes on to complain about tech support.... OMG. Sorry, but I had to LOL.