BlackArmor NAS Network Storage Server

[SeaRegrets]

My read speed from my BlackArmor NAS 440 has increased 100-fold. It went from 200 KBps to 20 MBps. All this just by unplugging it from my GB switch and plugging it into my router. I use Trendnet equipment (TEG-S80g and TEW-639GR, respectively), and have no problem streaming 1080p movies from computer to computer. Obviously, you cannot do that at 200 KBps. You can hardly stream high quality mp3's.

This is idiotic. There are real firmware problems with the BA NASs that Seagate is incapable or too uncaring to fix. If you are having similar problems, all I can say is experiment with your networking equipment, it may be the cheapest solution. (For instance, NewEgg wanted to charge me a $175 restocking fee for returning my unit. They have stopped selling it, too.)

[SanMan614]

The actual performance of the unit should be judged by connecting a cable directly from your PC's NIC into the NIC on the NAS.

This removes all networking equipment as potential performance problems.

I am not saying that the performance will improve, I am saying this is a decent way to test to see if it's a problem with the NAS, or what.

Right now I am transferring large files at a whopping 45Mbps over Gigabit.

The worst part about this box is that while I am transferring data TO the NAS it seems to have trouble serving files to other users.

It's essentially useless.

We stopped buying Seagate hard drives at work last year due to the firmware bug that "made data inaccessible" randomly, so they lost something like 100,000 drives a year in sales from that, now they lost my personal business as well.. Kudos to them, it is hard to get this much disdain from me.

[SeaRegrets]

Thanks SanMan,

I am not sure how one goes about connecting the NAS directly to the computer. Does this use the SCSI service? I wonder if you would be so kind as to walk us through that. The Seagate documentation is pretty sketchy, and I am more than a bit gun-shy with this unit.

My bottleneck was definitely the switch. I am actually able to stream HD video, which is going through two of the switches. But since the initial communication is between the NAS and the router, everything is good.

[mabcanada]

I agree with SanMan614, these units (I have the 220 version with 2x 1GB drives configured in RAID 1) are not reliable and very slow plus I'm having huge issues with the backup software (as do many others) which leaves me unable at the moment backuping integrally the content to an attached USB drive. The speed i'm getting at the moment uploading to this unit varies between 50 and 60 mb/s when no other computer accesses the unit, otherwise it goes down to 20 mb/s. Just to compare, on the exact same network and configuration, our similarly sized and priced Buffalo NAS unit can be uploaded to at about 100mb/s speeds, even if many computers access the unit at once.

This seagte NAS is a real disappointment and I see no one form the company on this forums actively trying to solve issues, all you can read is people with problems, never ever a solutions.

Seagate Blackarmor 220 is slow uploading to, it has a poor help menu giving only obvious info like "clicking on save will save settings" with not help understanding the settings when you have questions + the backup software for NAS to USB is at best buggy and at worst obselete.

Come on people, do your job and fix this thing. As SanMan614 puts it, I can too say "it is hard to get this much disdain from me."

[Steve Bass]

The problem I'm having is with file transfers and would like to find out if these speeds are what others are experiencing.

I'm using a NAS 400 with the current firmware (4000.1211).

I recently upgraded my equipment and OS. I'm using Win7 with:

1. Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC 

2. Cisco WRT310N Wireless-N Gigabit Router

I use Teracopy and Win7's native copying feature to measure the speed.

With Teracopy

Copying a 700MG file to the NAS goes from 171 MB/sec for the first third of the file, then down to 14 MB/sec and finally slows to 11 MB/sec.

Copying from the NAS to my local drive maxes out at 15 MB/sec.

With Win 7's file copy feature

Copying a 700MB to the NAS peaks at 14.9MB/s and averages at 13MB/s

Copying from the NAS to my local drive peaks at 19MB/sec and averages at 18MB/sec.

Thoughts?

[Steve Bass]

The problem I'm having is with file transfers and would like to find out if these speeds are what others are experiencing.

I'm using a NAS 400 with the current firmware (4000.1211).

I recently upgraded my equipment and OS. I'm using Win7 with:

1. Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC 

2. Cisco WRT310N Wireless-N Gigabit Router

I use Teracopy and Win7's native copying feature to measure the speed.

With Teracopy

Copying a 700MG file to the NAS goes from 171 MB/sec for the first third of the file, then down to 14 MB/sec and finally slows to 11 MB/sec.

Copying from the NAS to my local drive maxes out at 15 MB/sec.

With Win 7's file copy feature

Copying a 700MB to the NAS peaks at 14.9MB/s and averages at 13MB/s

Copying from the NAS to my local drive peaks at 19MB/sec and averages at 18MB/sec.

Thoughts?