I used to own the HP MediaSmart Home Server and loved the idea of scalable home storage, but a (since corrected) data corruption bug had me send it back to HP. I was tempted to reinvest in the unit since the problem was corrected, but I became very aware of my home electric usage and didn't like the fact that it sucked 40W at idle 24/7. Storage appliances should be energy efficient if always-on!That's why I was intrigued by the Stora. It's a simpler, though not quite as robust solution that does exactly what I want and, as it turns out, draws about a quarter of the electricity of the MediaSmart at idle (and is documented to have a sleep mode besides).
All of this, plus it's only $200, which is much less than the MediaSmart's $400-600 price tag and isn't too much more than some non-network ready external hard drives of similar size!
As for my impression of the capabilities of the Stora, for me, I don't need a lot of frills in a NAS, I mainly want a lot of storage for all the iTunes video I buy and I want the ability to back it up, since I amassed about $1,000 worth of digital media that I don't want to lose.
In this regard, the Stora delivers! 1 TB is a decent amount of space, and having your content automatically backed up is as simple as adding any old 1 TB drive to the second hot-swappable bay. You can add an additional disk via USB and the performance of the Stora is good enough to be the source of my iTunes library and stream video and music over my wireless network to my Apple TV/computer with no skipping.
The Stora was also instantly recognized by iTunes on my computer (shared playlist) and my PS3 (video share) with no effort on my part! For my purposes I need to have the Stora be the source of my iTunes library vs. just having that shared playlist (so I can also stream video/use an Airport Express' speakers, etc.), but it's nice to know the feature works effortlessly.
The Stora also offers some value-added capability that some may find compelling. It's possible to use it as a source for computer backups, including Time Machine compatibility for we Mac users, you can enable FTP access locally and/or over the internet, and if you pay for a subscription service, you have the ability to do things like have your photos automatically added to Facebook. However, since I use iPhoto to do the same thing for free, I'm not really sold on the value of such a service.
I do have a few gripes with the unit, however, and they're worth considering both as part of your purchasing decision, and in case you run into the same problems I did.
First, the setup program is currently incompatible with Airport Extreme routers (because of lack of UPnP?). The installer doesn't give any user feedback so it's difficult to tell what's happening, but basically it has trouble finding the Stora.
Because of this quirk, I spent an hour on the phone with a not-so-helpful support rep before I ended up suggesting that we try to access the Stora by IP address to see if we can set it up that way, which, luckily, it turns out you can. For those wondering, to determine the IP address of the Stora if you have an Airport Extreme, you need to go to "Airport Utility" then select your router, click the "Wireless Clients" label to see detailed information, then lookup the Stora under DHCP clients. Once you have the IP address, you can type it into your browser and run setup on the unit.
A second gripe is that authentication happens through Netgear's servers if you want to reach the administration pages of your router. This isn't a problem if you're just accessing the NAS on your local network (despite what some other reviewers have claimed), but it is an issue if you want to change the unit's settings. You have to rely on Netgear to maintain their servers indefinitely or there may be problems tweaking the units in the future.
Lastly, the drives in the Stora are apparently formatted with some kind of proprietary file format... UPDATE/CORRECTION: I've been informed that the file format is simply XFS, so if your Stora fails, getting data off the drives may be complicated for non-Linux users, but not impossible.
All in all, however, the Stora is a great, relatively energy-efficient home storage solution that gets the job done capably, but may require a little bit of technical knowhow for fringe situations. I'd recommend it, despite its limitations.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Netgear Stora 2-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage MS2110
Product Description:
Includes one 3.5-Inch SATA drive and one open hot-swap bay. Add a spare disk drive at your convenience for automatic data mirroring. Acts as a multimedia hub that serves music, video, photos and files to any device on your home network. High-speed network connection for fast data transfers and streaming performance. Access files and play or view content at home and over the Internet. Integrates with Facebook, iTunes, Picasa2 and Web-enabled phones2
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