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Maxtor Shared Storage II

80

Very Good

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3 User Reviews | add yours »

Pros
User-friendly default file setup
Cons
Not user-expandable

$586.97 - $725.17
From 2 Merchants

Pricing: Inexpensive: $500 (6/27/2007)
Performance: Very Good: 84
Features: Good: 76
Design: Very Good: 82

Find out how these four scores, and their relative weights, combine to produce the PC World Rating.

Pricing

Inexpensive: $500

Cost per Gigabyte - $0.5

Performance

Very Good: 84

PC World Tests (seconds)
Interface Tested	Gigabit ethernet
Primary Volume - Virus Scan	233.42
Primary Volume - Windows File Search	244.63
External Read - Files and Folders	251.95
External Read - Large File	182.38
External Write - Files and Folders	333.46
External Write - Large File	299.13

Features

Good: 76

Basics
Drive size (GB)	1000GB
Supported Interface(s)	Gigabit ethernet
Speed (RPM)	7200
Buffer Size (MB)	16

Other
Installation Kit Hardware	Ethernet cable
Bundled Software	Maxtor Backup and Easy Manage software

Support & Reliability
Labor Warranty (years)	One
Parts Warranty (years)	One
Weekday Support Hours	9
Saturday Support Hours	0
Sunday Support Hours	0
Toll-Free Support	Yes

Design

Very Good: 82

User Reviews for Maxtor Shared Storage II

Reviewed by: rgoconnell2003

Duration of ownership: 8 Months

Strengths: The box is the right size and it is very quiet. Good repair program

Weaknesses: Poor Reliability Poor Software Maxtor is now part of Segate and the site navigation is a little complicated.

Overall Evaluation: The unit has failed twice so far and I cannot trust it for my storage needs. After the second failure, I did some additional research and found many complaints about this drive on Amazon. Do not buy this unit. If you do purchase it, plan on purchasing better backup software, the software that comes with the unit is not very smart and will not alert you if the backup did not occur unless you go to the log. I purchased a package from Acronis which seems to be working very well so far. I also purchased a Buffalo TeraStation to replace this drive since I do not trust it any more.
Reviewed by: DavidTheItGuy

Duration of ownership: 5 Days

Strengths: Good looking box . . .

Weaknesses: Very unreliable, backup software does not work, RAID 1 advetized but useless,backup on USB useless

Overall Evaluation: First unit failed after 3 days. Was replaced but all data were lost as even if you configure RAID1 you cannot replace a failed drive as you cannot open the box. Worst, Maxtor does not change the bad drive and keep the good one: they send you a new unit. I find the negative from PCWorld an euphemism as the problems are much worst than what they recognize. (Don't know how much advertizing money they get from Maxtor?). In addition, the backup software included does not work on Windows. (Tried on 2 independent systems: W2K Pro and XP Pro). The software even succeeds in sending XP Pro in such a state that you need to reboot. Last, I tried to backup the data on a USB drive and the end result was all data lost on the NAS box and a USB drive unreadable on any PC I could try. No way to get the backup (if it exists which I don't know) from the USB drive to the NAS box itself!!! I strongly recommend to avoid this unit.

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