Review on 💾 Diskless NETGEAR ReadyNAS 102 RN10200-100NAS - 2-Bay Network Attached Storage by Aaron Allen

I purchased a diskless version of the ReadyNAS 102 to replace an old ReadyNAS Duo that I have had for several years. I was hoping that this new 2-bay consumer NAS would be similar to the older DUO in terms of setup. In the end I found the installation quite easy to understand. As someone not very familiar with networking equipment, the instructions are sparse but effective. Within a day I moved 2 of my own hard drives (2TB each), reformatted and got them working with RAID redundancy. SetupSetting up 102 is easy. The instructions were clear and an ordinary person like me could easily do it. I took 2 old drives from my old ReadyNAS DUO and put them in the ReadyNAS 102. In order to be usable, the 102 told me I would have to reformat them, which I expected. (I copied the data from both drives to an additional external drive I had ahead of time.) After about 10 minutes, both drives were ready. However, to configure them in X-RAID, it took about 4.5 hours to complete the setup. Once the backup between the two drives was complete, I had a few other things to do. By default, several folders are already configured in 102: Music, Videos, Documents and Pictures. I've changed the names of these folders to suit my needs (you can remove or add more folders as well). After liking the folders, I adjusted the include options. My drive would turn on at certain times of the day and turn off late at night. I was also able to set up remote access via NETGEAR ReadyCLOUD. This allows me to access 102 from my workplace even though 102 itself is on my desk at home. This is great because I no longer have to use a third party cloud service - I can just copy my work files straight to 102 over the internet. The Performance 102 is very quiet despite the presence of a fan. I can't hear everything even though it's less than 2 feet away on my desk. The drive bays are easily accessible through the front plastic door. Each drive can be easily "unlocked" using Netgear's custom retention system, which requires only your hands to remove and reinstall (no screwdrivers required). Copying about 1TB of music, videos and documents to 102 took about 5 hours in total. I'm copying about 40-45MB of data per second on 102 on average - it's not very fast, but it suits my needs quite well. I can easily play videos from 102 directly without lag or delay. I transferred all my music from iTunes to 102 and it works perfectly. DLNA media playback for videos and music also works from my various game consoles (Xbox, PS3). NETGEAR offers a phone app that lets you back up 102 photos through their ReadyCLOUD service (free). I tried it with my iPhone 6 Plus. It works fine, but my concern is that I can't specify exactly which photos to back up. However, it's great that every photo I take is automatically backed up. There is also a USB port on the front of the 102 for transferring data from a thumb drive or memory stick. It also has 2 USB 3.0 ports on the back. Unfortunately they are not very convenient to use, although they are significantly faster - I would have to physically deploy 102 to get access to these ports - which is inconvenient as there are other devices nearby. the fastest drive, but I've found it easy to set up and reliable so far. I've been running 102 about 10-12 hours a day and it's been stable so far. I hope it lasts as long or even longer than my old ReadyNAS Duo that I had for 5 years.