Simple network drive

[cdsatpb]

I am looking to buy a RN104 as a simple network backup for files on 2 or 3 PCs on my home network. The Netgear information about the ReadyNAS only talks about accessing the device via "readyCloud". Can someone confirm that it can be seen just as a logical drive on the network and that I don't have to use any Netgear specific software or applications.

Is there a choice of RAID configurations, or does the RN104 come with a pre-configured RAID? (I saw a mention somewhere on the Netgear website of their own RAID set up which always uses the equivalent of one drive capacity to back up all the remaining drives so that 2 4TB drives give 4TB overall capacity, 3 4TB drives give 8TB overall capacity and 4 drives give 12 TB capacity, which seems to my limited understanding to be a mix of different RAID configurations. The main advantage appears to be that failure of any ONE drive results in no loss of data - which is all I want.)

Thanks

[ljung]

You can use it as a regular network share, or map it as a network drive with its own drive letter of you prefer that.

You can also choose between jbod, raid 0, 1, 5, 6 or 10 ( or use netgears xraid2 that is a combination)

[StephenB]

If you want RAID 6 or RAID 10 you ought to get a higher performing NAS than the RN100 series - at least an RN200.

RAID-1 (for 2 drives) and RAID-5 (for 3-4 drives) gives you the protection you want (as does XRAID2).

[cdsatpb]

Thanks for the quick replies. It sounds like the RN104 will meet my needs.