SimpleTech 250GB SIMPLESHARE OFFICE SERVER ( STI-NAS/250 ) Review

Check Price Now!

When I was looking for my first external hard drive, I obsessed over the reviews and quite frankly, it seemed like every external hard drive I found, there were mixed reviews on it. I finally decided to take the plunge on this one because the price point and storage seemed perfect for my needs. I figured that I would risk it. I bought the drive late last year.

Now, after two major drops (accidents because I am a klutz), the drive is still functioning brilliantly. No exaggeration. I can’t tell you how pleased and shocked I am. Seriously, my expectations that this would work after the accidents… they were low.

The transfer rate of files with Picasa is fine. I don’t wait long for things to be transferred over or back.

The only bit of confusion I have, as a complete novice to external drives, is how do you photo organize on the external without having to reimport back to your C drive? Can you download photo organizing software on the external drive? I think I need to contact SimpleTech about this question.

SimpleTech 250GB SIMPLESHARE OFFICE SERVER ( STI-NAS/250 ) Feature

• SIMPLETECH SIMPLESHARE NAS OFFICE 250GB *NIC*

SimpleTech 250GB SIMPLESHARE OFFICE SERVER ( STI-NAS/250 ) Overview

If you have more than one computer and need to share files, access printers, or just need enhanced storage capability, SimpleShare is the simple solution. No network experience is required. You can start storing and sharing files with multiple users in your office or home immediately. SimpleTech’s NASfinder wizard provides automatic network drive mapping and configuration for easy setup and quick plug-and-play installation.SimpleShare provides plenty of space to store everything from data files and applications to music, photos and videos.

SimpleTech 250GB SIMPLESHARE OFFICE SERVER ( STI-NAS/250 ) Specifications

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jan 05, 2010 08:45:19
no support & does not work well with win7 or Vista – Ronald A. Hartman –
Simple Tech (Hitachi) no longer provides support for any of the SimpleShare Office servers. The servers “do not work well with Vista or Win7″ as per an email I received from Simple Tech.
Reliable and easy to use – Sepak Bola – USA
The SimpleTech Simple Share STI-NAS/250 disk is a network attached storage disk of 250 GB size. It is very reliable and easy to install and hookup. The installation CD will browse your LAN and suggest appropriate names for your new disk. The disk has no cooling fan, which is 1 fewer source of breakdown, but you should keep the disk away from other gadgets as it gets hot; preferably in a well-ventilated spot. It is too bad, Hitachi, the new owner of Simple Tech does not seem to be continuing this product.

Good construction and stable firmware – F. R. Keller – New Jersey USA
This SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS/250, and also NAS/160 and NAS/320, has the best mechanical construction of any network file server I have owned. I had 2 of these, and I bought this third one for a spare. It is just such a fine product. I use one NAS for my home network file server, and the other NAS for daily backup of the first, using robocopy to copy just the updated files and folders. I have tried other products that use RAID, but that caused as many problems as it solved. For my purpose, the better solutuion is just a simple daily copy from primary NAS to backup NAS. Another bonus: I opened the NAS/160 and replaced the 160 GB Western Digital disk with a 500 GB also from Western Digital WD5000AAKB (ide 16mb buffer). It works fine, and it does not get hot. Some folks wondered if overheating would be a problem for the larger disk, but it is not a problem at all if you leave space around them for air circulation.

After a couple weeks hiatus, hard disk drive prices are heading downwards again.

Fry’s is now offering Western Digital’s Element 1.5TB external USB drive for under $100. That’s about $66 per terabyte. A better deal than the already low $78 price tag for SimpleTech’s 1TB drive.

WD beats Seagate on low price

Our last check on the external 1.5TB drive category showed a Seagate disk for $125.

On the same page today, Fry’s is advertising Seagate’s 1.5TB internal drive for $100; still more expensive than Samsung’s 1.5TB drive that sold for $80 in early October!

For next week’s Black Friday, I expect most of the drive makers to align their price to Western Digital’s and perhaps to go as low as $100 for an external 2TB drive or a whopping $50 a terabyte. Currently, an external 2TB drive costs about $170.

Hitachi and Seagate are the price leaders in the 2TB internal drive category

At the current pace, an internal 2TB drive will cost under $100 in about 6 months.

So by the same time next year, it will be as hard to find 1TB  drives as it today for 500GB! And I won’t be surprised to find some Black Friday deals for 2TB drives (internal or external) close to the $100 barrier.

Interestingly, the 1.5TB drive category didn’t really had time to establish itself in the market, squeezed by the super low cost 1TB drives and the 2TB drives.

In the 2TB internal drive category, Hitachi – which also owns the low-cost Simpletech brand – and Seagate are the price leaders. For 1TB internal drives, Western Digital is still the company to beat at less than $60.

An external 2TB disk drive from SimpleTech is only $10 more than its internal equivalent from Seagate

Disk drive prices simply defy gravity… and probably economics too!

Looking at Fry’s Electronics daily ads in the San Jose Mercury News, I couldn’t help but being amazed at how quickly disk drives prices are plunging on a weekly, if not daily basis.

Today, the best value for an internal drive, is the 1.5TB 3.5″ Samsung drive at only $80. If you prefer an external drive, SimpleTech’s 2TB Duo Pro Drive Quad (Firewire, eSATA and USB) is hard to beat at only $180. And an external 2TB Seagate desktop drive will cost you $180.

If that’s still too much, I’m sure you can still find SimpleTech’s 1TB external drive for under $90 or its internal cousin (from Hitachi) at $85!

For laptops, Hitachi is still the king of the hill with a 500GB notebook hard drive at just $80 (and just $10 more on Amazon). I also liked Seagate’s 1.5TB Expansion drive for $125, although it’s only $5 more at Amazon with free shipping.

Really no matter where you buy your drive, you’ll almost certain to get a bargain. Happy shopping!

Backing up your data is a must for student, businessman, travelers or any people that do have a sensitive and important data stored in their desktop computer, net book and laptop. We all know that machines such us computer aren’t perfect and they do tend to break somehow or worst in the most time that you really need it. To safe guard all this information and to protect you for future lost of data in your laptop, net book and desktop computer you need to invest for an external hard drive portable wise or a stand alone external hard drive will do. The storage capacity of these hard drives varies from the cost of the unit. The cheapest one starts as low as $70 and will give you a storage capacity of approximately 80gb and it varies on where you buy and what manufacturer you choose. The Highest price would be $200 and up and that will give you a storage capacity of approximately 500gb and higher, again it depends on the store that sells it and the manufacturer that you choose. For those that have a tight budget you could also back-up your data using a DVD disc if you have a DVD burner. This will take time and effort since each disc could only carry a storage capacity of 4.2gb. Another Option is to use a USB flash drive or “Thumb Drive” which other people call this because of its size and look. This Storage device is cheap and works the same way as an external hard drive. It cost for about $10 and higher depending on the size that you like. The smallest size nowadays is 1gb and the highest so far in the market is 32gb. These two alternative ways is good for those people that have a small amount of data files to be back up.

Be prepared you never no this might happened to you:

•    Your desktop computer, net book and laptop break down.
•    Your desktop computer, net book and laptop are stolen.
•    A power surge happen and fries your machine.
•    A friend, classmate, co-worker or anybody might accidentally or intentionally erases your data.
•    A virus or a spyware affected your system wiping out your data files
•    Your hard drive crashes.
•    You forgot to save something.
•    Files are corrupted and can’t be open due to software issues, bugs and glitch.

Check out the new [re]drive™ from SimpleTech. It’s an energy-efficient, resource-conscious, external hard drive made with renewable, naturally grown bamboo and recyclable aluminum. I think we all know the importance of backing up our hard drives, but it’s the super geeks and tree huggers who’ll really appreciate this one! It stores up to 500GB and is both Mac and PC compatible. Not only that, but the thing looks hot too. If you’re going to have a bunch of crap cluttering up your desktop, it might as well be nice to look at! Santa, are you listening?

At the Seagate enterprise and security event

Not that this come as a surprise these days, but uncertainty about consumer spending this holiday season was the hot topic “du jour” at last night “enterprise and security” event hosted by Seagate.

At the meeting, attended by the San Francisco press and analysts corps as well as executives from the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company, I was surprised to hear that October was actually a very good month for the hard-disk drive maker.

Inspite of having any idea if consumers will actually rush to retail stores (online or not) to purchase electronic goods, PC makers and consumer electronics companies are fiercely building products in preparation for the holiday season. “The goal is to have them on retail shelves as soon as possible and hope consumers will come”, said one of the Seagate exec.

Credit is scarce, but hard-disk drives are really cheap these days!

At the meeting there were also fears that credit card companies start squeezing consumers, cutting back credit limits and increasing interest rates, as the New York Times reports today.

But disk drives are cheap and may even come out a lot cheaper on Black Friday – the biggest retail day of the year – thanks to “price leaders” like Simpletech or Iomega. “Sometimes prices fluctuate week over week. That’s so different from last year, when we had 6 months of price stability dues to a lack of products to sell”, added another Seagate exec.

And in these times, cheap is perhaps the only thing consumers may be willing to spend!

The first indicator of how this holiday season will turn out will be on the first Tuesday post-Thanksgiving, when retailers post their Thanksgiving weekend sales figures… It will set the trend for Christmas to come. But if its really bad, the U.S. Government might step in again to un-squeeze the credit crunch to save this holiday season.

But the fall out will eventually come… and that’s in January. I wonder what will happen at CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics show happening in Las Vegas the second week of January. No more parties maybe?!

A companhia SimpleTech nos oferece a opção de adquirir um disco rígido externo de 500 GB de armazenamento, projetado para ser o mais ecológico do mundo, já que utiliza materiais como o alumínio e o bambú.

Este disco batizado com o nome de (re)drive não dispõe de interruptor para ligar/desligar, sendo que passa ao estado de hibernação quando não está sendo utilizado, economizando energia e sem desperdício.

Não dispõe de ventiladores internos, já que todo o calor será dissipado através de seu chassi metálico. Além de vir acompanhado de 2 GB de armazenamento gratuíto online, mas se este  espaço não for suficiente, pode-se contratar um serviço ilimitado por uma mensalidade de US$ 5. O preço do (re)drive é de US$ 159.

Via Gizmotika

SimpleTech’s [re]drive was designed to be easy on the eyes and the Earth. It was made with “renewable, naturally grown bamboo and recyclable aluminum” along with an Energy Star power adapter and eco-friendly packaging. With 500GB of storage and a $150 price tag, this drive is now on my “must buy” list.

Click here for CrunchGear’s review.

Check out some other bamboo-based gadgets:

- Asus notebooks
- Asus EcoBook
- Dell’s Eco-computer Concept

Source

New SimpleTech [re]drive with Turbo USB 2.0 Provides Consumers with an Energy-Efficient, Fast, Reliable and More Sustainable Alternative for Storing and Protecting Digital Files

San Mateo and Santa Ana, Calif, July 28, 2008 – Bump up your green meter with Fabrik’s (www.fabrik.com) new SimpleTech [re]drive™, the world’s most energy-efficient, resource-conscious, Turbo USB 2.0 external storage and backup drive. From its sustainable bamboo and recyclable aluminum enclosure, to its packaging and Energy Star® power adaptor, the SimpleTech [re]drive helps make the world a little greener while storing and protecting your data. With Turbo USB 2.0, which delivers up to 25 percent faster performance than USB 2.0, the [re]drive is speedy and reliable with plug n’ play simplicity for both Mac and PC users. To help you steer clear of life’s little digital disasters, the SimpleTech [re]drive’s automated backup software saves copies of your stuff on the drive, and on encrypted, secure servers using Fabrik Ultimate Backup for ultimate online backup protection. (link)