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Re: Is Netgear's ReadyNAS Products Reliable?

TPTS
Aspirant

Is Netgear's ReadyNAS Products Reliable?

I have had reasonable reliability from Netgear's networking products (routers, hubs, switches, modems, etc.) but have had terrible success with their ReadyNAS Products.  Sure they allow for redundancy to protect data, but this is of no use if they refuse to turn on.

 

I have had to replace power supplies almost every 12-months when the product is only be used 1-hour a month to do backups or look up old client project information of a mirror drive by HP I choose to rely on daily because it always works.

 

I would put the data in the cloud years ago; however, some of my client agreements require that I keep all project data on my local business private network and not store their data in the cloud.  This makes things fun as I have to use two 4 TB USP drives as an offsite backup that are stored in a bank vault. 

At any rate, having owned multiple NetgearNAS products and all having issues with not restarting if turned off it seems that I have an expectation about the life of these products that doesn’t align with Netgear.    My expectation is they should last for 20-years if used lightly used and well maintained.  I have USB drives from 2001 that are still working after 19-years two as well as working Dell servers from 1996, so I don't see this expectation as unreasonable currently.  It seems that Netgear has a 12-month expectation, which in my option does not align with the cost of the product.

 

To make things more fun, my two back up USB 4TB drives have decided to push up daisies at the same time the NetgearNAS decided not to power up.    So I need to get data off my NAS and placed on a dependable location.

 

Is there a way to have access to a working chassis without having to spend absorbent amounts of money just to pull the data off my valid and working drive array (if the box would turn on)?  Looking at Amazon a new matching system is the ReadyNAS Pro6 2 12 TB (6 x 2TB) that costs $9,815.59.

 

My current plan is that I will notify clients that the silly "no cloud" clause in their contracts can no longer be supported and that I will be deleting their project related data unless they sign an addendum to allow cloud storage.  Then move everything over to a cloud provider and be done with a solution that has been at best highly frustrating over the past 12-years. I just need a temporary working chassis to plug my drives in and obtain the data.

 

Thanks in advance for supporting responses to help me get out of this NetgearNAS hole that I have dugged for myself by using the Netgear ReadyNAS products.

Model: ReadyNAS-Ultra 6|ReadyNAS-Ultra 6
Message 1 of 2
StephenB
Guru

Re: Is Netgear's ReadyNAS Products Reliable?


@TPTS wrote:

Looking at Amazon a new matching system is the ReadyNAS Pro6 2 12 TB (6 x 2TB) that costs $9,815.59.

 


Netgear stopped producing the Pro6 in 2013.  Currently shipping models that have similar performance are the RN526 and RN626.  Inventory on several ReadyNAS models has been low for some months now - Netgear hasn't explained whu that is.  However, you can find RN626x for about $900 on Amazon at the moment (though if I were buying right now, I'd spend the extra $100 needed to get the RN628).

 


@TPTS wrote:

It seems that Netgear has a 12-month expectation, which in my option does not align with the cost of the product.

The warranty is 5 years for the x86 platforms, and your view doesn't seem to align with that.  Personally I don't expect my PCs or ReadyNAS to last 20 years.  Some might well last that long, but that doesn't mean they will typically do that. 

 

Though if I needed to replace PSUs every 12 months, I'd certainly be upset.  Is there something unusual about your power?  Personally I have found ReadyNAS hardware to be quite reliable:

  • Duo purchased in 2009, no issues
  • NV+ from 2010, PSU replaced in 2014.
  • Pro6 from 2011, no issues
  • RN102 from 2013, no issues
  • RN202 from 2016, no issues
  • RN524 from 2016, no issues
  • RN526 from 2016, no issues

All of these are still operational.  That is 49 years of operation total, with only one component failure (which was covered under warranty).

 

Disks of course are another matter. I have had my share of disk failures.  Though the disks in the NV+ are all still working.

 


@TPTS wrote:
Is there a way to have access to a working chassis without having to spend absorbent amounts of money just to pull the data off my valid and working drive array (if the box would turn on)?

Is this a hypothetical question, or is your NAS not functioning?

 

If you are running 4.2.x firmware, then an OS-6 x86 NAS (RN300 series or better) can mount your disks as read-only (allowing you to offload data).  If you are running 6.x firmware on your Ultra (it can be converted to run it), then you can directly migrate your disks to another currently shipping ReadyNAS.

 

 

 

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