The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central offers: An easy and inexpensive way to share hard drive space over a network. Great expandability with room for two hard drives. A 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port for fast data transfers. Options for drive mirroring and spanning. Included backup software.

There is room for two hard drives inside the SC101. View larger.

After the hard drives are installed, plug the device in, attach it to the network, and install the included software. The software guides you through setup step by step. When everything is ready to go, it looks like a new hard drive has been installed on your PC and you use it just as you would any other hard drive. Backup software is included for users who don't already have their own preferred software. Please note that the SC101 is only compatible with Windows machines and won't work with Macs or Linux.

Outstanding Performance with Various Storage Options
The SC101 connects to your network via a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connection for fast data transfers. When you connect two drives to the device, you have the option of having them "mirrored" or "spanned." Mirrored storage lets you keep two copies of every file, one on each drive, so that everything is backed up in case of drive failure. When two drives are set to span, they appear as one volume so they are easy to work with and the device will automatically find your data across both drives.

The front panel has three LEDs to let you know the status of the power, hard disk and network at a glance. The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
SC101 Storage Central, resource CD, power adapter, Ethernet cable, installation guide, SmartSync Pro Backup Software CD, and warranty/support information card.

But the HP Media Vault isn't bound by the limitations of your wired or wireless network. With its powerful remote access features, you can create a URL that authorized users can access via a Web browser to download files. And with Photo Webshare, you can create your own online photo albums from images stored on the Media Vault.

Add another 1 TB of storage to the HP Media Vault thanks to one SATA expansion bay.

The Media Vault provides access to all your networked PCs as well as to remote users via the Internet.

Media Vault Design
The redesigned Media Vault now shares the same black chassis design and glowing blue hard drive indicators as its bigger HP MediaSmart Server sibling. Measuring 5.5 x 9.6 x 5.4 inches (WxDxH) and weighing 7.1 pounds, the MV2120 is smaller than its predecessor (the MV2000 series Media Vault), and it switches to a horizontal orientation for storing its hard drives.

Opening the front grille reveals a slide-out expansion bay on top, which can be fitted with an optional SATA hard drive. The front of the Media Vault also includes blue backlit icon indicators for power, network connectivity, and health of the integrated and optionally installed hard drives, as well as a USB 2.0 port. The back of the device includes an Ethernet jack (10/100/1000 Gigabit), an additional USB 2.0 port, and the power button. You can connect additional USB hard drives to the Media Vault for additional storage and backup options. Note, however, that printers won't work with the Media Vault as it does not include a print server. The MV2120 is powered by the Linux 2.6 kernel operating system and includes 128 MB of internal RAM memory.

A Central Hub for All Your Files
Great for the home, home office or small business that requires a central location for files that devices on the network can share, setting up and using your HP Media Vault is simple. A few quick steps get you up and running 24/7, and it's ready to work for you no matter how many desktop or notebook PCs are on your home network.

For music lovers, you can centralize your iTunes music library and playlists on the Media Vault for playback on any computer running iTunes on your network. And you can stream media files from the Media Vault to your networked TV and other digital devices for high-quality playback. You can access your media files from Windows-, Mac-, and Linux-based computers.

The HP Media Vault also enables direct remote access to your files when you're away from home, or to others connecting from far-flung locales. You can create an online connection to your Media Vault from any computer with access to the Internet. Use it to access your media files while on vacation, a multimedia presentation from a client site, or to share your media with others. You can also authorize visitors to access your Media Vault remotely so they can view the file folders you have designated for sharing. And you can grant permission for visitors to add their own files to designated folders on your Media Vault.

With HP Photo Webshare, it's easy to set up groups for sharing different photo albums. For instance, set up a photo Webshare so friends can view an album of your latest vacation; or allow family from near and far to add photos from your family reunion to create one blockbuster album.

Protect Your Data
The HP Media Vault keeps your digital life organized, accessible and most importantly, more protected. With its 500 GB installed capacity, it stores and protects important media and files on computers throughout your home or small office. And with customizable backup options your files can be automatically protected weekly, daily or continuously. In addition, for ultimate protection, attach a USB hard drive to your Media Vault and backup the most important Media Vault files to take to a separate, secure location.

The innovative new design lets you easily increase your storage as your needs evolve. Use the expansion bay on the HP Media Vault to add an extra hard drive for greater storage or the additional protection of a second mirrored copy of your data (RAID 1). For enhanced data security, use the expansion drive for creating a full backup copy of your most important files to store in a separate location.

The HP Media Vault Control Center provides easy management and configuration.

User accounts can be created on the HP Media Vault for enhanced security and to provide remote file access. Security is increased on shared folders by requiring passwords and setting read/write permissions for each user.

The HP Media Vault can also be utilized as an iTunes Music server, which will aggregate iTunes libraries from the systems on the local network and make one complete library with all music and playlists available to all iTunes clients. When enabled on a PC, the iTunes library on the PC is periodically polled to discover newly added music or videos. When new media is discovered, the files are copied to the iTunes library on the HP Media Vault where they are added to the aggregated iTunes library. (Note that only music files that are not DRM-protected can be streamed from the Media Vault.)

What's in the Box
HP Media Vault, power cable/AC adapter, Ethernet cable, software installation disc, printed setup poster

What We Think Overall Rating: Pros: Compact design, easy-to-use, built-in RAID capability including X-RAID, provides media streaming for wide variety of devices, excellent online forums for add-ons and support Cons: Insufficient user manuals, add-on software does not always have complete feature set At a Glance Capacity: No disks included Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 8.7 inches (HxWxD) Warranty: 5 years

The ReadyNAS NV+ houses four drive bays in one compact, attractive enclosure. View larger.

The styling is attractive, with a metallic "cheese-grater" look that is reminiscent of Apple's Mac Pros, a design that also allows for heat dissipation. A door panel opens for easy access to the four drive bays, each of which is on its own tray with an easy-to-load push-button mechanism, making disk installation a cinch.

Below the panel door is a backlit LCD display that shows status info such as the IP address and drive capacity. The power button sits on the upper left of the front face, next to four LEDs that give the status of each hard drive, a USB port, and a button labeled "Backup." The back of the NV+ sports a carrying handle, two USB ports, an Ethernet port, the system reset switch, power connector, cooling fan, and Kensington Lock security hole. Overall, the design is attractive, smartly laid out, and clearly labeled. Unlike many other NAS devices that you want to hide in a corner or in a closet, the ReadyNAS NV+ adds a handsome touch to the work area.

Initial Setup and Configuration
Our test unit had four pre-installed 750 GB hard drives for a total of three terabytes of disk space. The drives are hot-swappable, which means that they can be swapped out one-at-a-time without shutting down the NV+, and which also means that upgrading or replacing the drives--if necessary--will be easy.

Share your files, USB disk, and printer with all your computers and networked media player with the NV+.

The initial hardware set up was as simple as plugging the AC cord into the wall and connecting the Ethernet cord into the local network. Installing the included RAIDar software let us find the drive on our network, from which we were able to bring up the Web-based control panel. Set up required an easy jaunt through the Setup Wizard, and once completed, the drive appeared on each of the networked computers as expected.

After we had the X-RAID running successfully, we reconfigured the drive to a RAID 5 configuration. Like X-RAID, RAID 5 reduces overall storage capacity by about 25% but offers redundant protection so everything continues to function even if one of the drives fails. The actual reconfiguration through the control panel took only a few minutes, though the entire process took over eight hours and necessitated deletion of all the existing data on the drives. (Don't worry! The ReadyNAS NV+ did all the work itself after we left the office for the day.)

The one complaint we had during the set-up procedures was with the documentation. In fact, the manual is the weak link of the package. The NV+ has a lot of functionality that is not very well explained or simply not mentioned. Fortunately, the ReadyNAS has its own NETGEAR-supported community Web site (www.readynas.com) with FAQs, forums, firmware updates, add-ons, and other goodies. We found the process of downloading firmware updates and add-ons quick and extremely easy.

NETGEAR's FrontView web-based control panel makes configuration and administration simple. View larger.

The control panel is clean and intuitive, eliminating the need for administrators to fiddle with a Unix command line to check status or change settings. Though some configuration and management issues can arise that better documentation could easily address, as long as the administrator is comfortable searching out information online when necessary, he or she should find managing the ReadyNAS NV+ relatively easy.

Our Performance Review
We ran the NV+ as our primary file server in our small workgroup -- consisting of both Macs running OS X and PCs running Windows XP -- without any problems or complaints of performance. We were able to access the server to work with, copy, and move files around seamlessly, with no hiccups to speak of. Our computers were all able to connect easily via CIMB and/or AFP protocols. Additionally, the ReadyNAS has support for the Network File System (NFS), but we did not test this as we do not run a Linux/Unix environment.

However, our one caveat is that we do not work heavily with media files such as large video files, so we cannot say for certain if the performance would be acceptable for use in, say, a high-performance video lab or similar setting.

Hard disks are installed on separate drive trays, making upgrades simple. View larger.

Though the RAID configuration we chose has built-in redundant storage, we nonetheless decided to create nightly backups for even more peace of mind. We connected an external USB drive to the front USB port, and once the drive was recognized, it was a matter of seconds and a simple push of a button to schedule a daily backup of our main work folder.

Built-in FTP, iTunes, and Other Features
The NV+ features many add-ons and extras that we were able to easily install, either through the control panel or by downloading software updates and documentation from the ReadyNAS community Web site.

The ReadyNAS includes a built-in print server and an FTP server that were easy to set up. It also features a built-in Web server, which we successfully tested by creating simple Web pages. The built-in iTunes streaming server worked like a charm. After copying over MP3s into the designated folder, the songs automatically showed up in the iTunes folder of the networked computers.

The ReadyNAS NV+ also has built-in support for Squeezebox music players, UPnP AV devices, and streaming playback of videos, music, and photos from networked DVD and media players. Based on the ease of use with the iTunes server, we assume a similarly uncomplicated process. The ReadyNAS also has a built-in BitTorrent client, add-ons for a photo slideshow application, SSH access, and much more.

Included Back-Up Software
NETGEAR bundles a five-user license for EMC Retrospect Professional for Windows and a five-user license for EMC Retrospect Desktop for Macintosh. After installation on a desktop, we could easily automate and schedule backups of our desktops onto the NV+. EMC Retrospect is a pro-grade backup software offering powerful features superior to many bundled backup programs.

As noted, the manual does not give all the answers. Fortunately, the strong online community and Web forums offer excellent support and services. And finally, the ReadyNAS NV+ is backed by an industry-leading 5-year warranty, so you can rest assured that you'll be protected should anything go wrong.

Plug this high-speed Gigabit Ethernet storage system into your small office or home network for centralized storage with plenty of capacity to go around.

This high-speed network-attached storage system with capacities up to 8 TB and a space-saving footprint gives you all the benefits of a big time data center without the need for a big time IT department. Perfect for centralizing and sharing data and multimedia files on a small office or home network.

Big capacity, small footprint - Offered in 2, 4 and 8 TB capacities, this small-footprint four-bay system takes up very little space and provides plenty of storage to go around.

RAID capability - Offers multiple RAID configurations for data protection and speed -- RAID 0 (Striped), RAID 1 (Mirrored) and RAID 5. The RAID 5 mode, only available on the fully-populated 4-drive system, is the recommended mode to achieve both high-performance and data protection through redundancy.

The 4 and 8 TB WD ShareSpace systems are shipped in RAID 5 mode for maximum reliability.

The 2 TB WD ShareSpace system is shipped in Spanning Mode for maximum capacity and the flexibility to add additional drives without reformatting the system.

High-speed access, Ethernet connectivity - Provides data transfer rates up to 1000 Mbit/s when used in a GigE network.

Easy setup and discovery - An intuitive set-up wizard and easy-to-use discovery tool makes installation a snap.

E-mail alert system - Monitors drive and system health and sends you an e-mail if a problem is detected.

Stream digital media anywhere in your home - Built-in media server for streaming music, photos and movies to any DLNA certified multimedia device such as Playstation® 3, Xbox 360®, wireless digital picture frames, and connected audio receivers. DLNA 1.5 & UPnP certified.

iTunes server support - Centralize your music collection and st