BlackArmor NAS Network Storage Server

[airshane]

Well I think this thing is going to be heading back to the store ... While I'm not using AD integration, I was intending upon using this as a great place to store my photography files, as well as music, documents, etc.  Then, this afternoon I go in to make a change to a share and click the first button next to the share.  The media sorted ... And now I'm left with a bunch of empty directories, and three folders full of all my music, pictures, and videos.  Why would anyone want this feature?  Luckily all my data is still in place on my desktop machine so nothing was really "lost", but this one "feature" is enough for me to turn sour on this device.

Then, I send an e-mail to Seagate to suggest a way to disable the feature and am told that e-mail support is not available on this product.  Seriously?

I just hope I don't get nailed with a restocking fee, but if I do, I suppose 15% is the price I'll have to pay.  

[PeterFnet]

I also am looking for a way to disable this. So far I haven't found a way. Hopefully I'm missing something

EDIT:

I read up here: http://hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?articleid=1365

It mentions it's actually the drag and sort service which can be disabled. I have disabled it and will wait to see what happens

Message Edited by PeterFnet on 02-22-2010 08:18 PM

[RAsg]

Drag and Sort was meant to save a user time if they planned on using the NAS's Media Server Service. A user could drag some photos, music, and videos and drop the files in the root of their account folder on the NAS. With Drag and Sort enabled the files would populate in the correct folders such as My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos. 

The Media Server application that runs in the NAS operating system, if enabled, could then make those folders available to other devices and applications on the network that look for Media Servers.  

The Media Server Service worked this way because it would only have to monitor those three folders, My Video, My Music, and My Pictures leaving more of the NAS system resources free for other NAS functions.

People have their on way sorting their files just as I do. If Drag and Sort is enabled it can yield undesirable results.

To turn off Drag and Sort for a specific User on a BlackArmor NAS, use a browser and bring up its Admin page.

Log in as the user.

Go to Storage and Shares.

Click the Modify button to the right of the correct user.

Disable the Drag&Sort Service by removing the check next to Enable and click Submit.

[airshane]

The problem I had wasn't the service.  The service was disabled.  The problem was the fact that in the volume configuration screen there is a "Media Sort" button.  It looks almost like the options button.  Even with the service disabled when you click this it sorts the media.  If Drag and Sort is disabled, then this option should disappear as well.  When assigning other members to administer this device, it could be very dangerous if they accidentally clicked it.

[RAsg]

Good catch. I duplicated this. I will report it and ask for the removal of the Sort Media button.

[deanmorris38]

I agree totally. Media sorting is a joke. This happened on our Seagate NAS box, Our administrator accidently selected the media sort and now all my file are in the My Pictures folders. We also have the service disabled and yet the button to sort is still available!

[Folxam]

Silly solution: Use Firefox (or whatever you prefer, but use-> ) AdBlock and just BLOCK sortmedia.gif.

Done deal.

Btw, it is kind of stupid to invike such an invasive process without asking "Are you sure?!" ...

[Jeff B]

I absolutely agree.  This exact scenario happened to me only worse.  I moved 800 gig of organized music off my workstation to the NAS device as a back up to reimage my PC.  This "feature" was enable and low and behold it destroyed my entire collection of music and dumped it all into one SSH@(#(% folder called :"our music" with out so much as even a warning

Devistated..  upset and just confused why a device would do this with out more clarification

Lets hope Media Monkey can make some sense of this mangled mess of Mp3s' 

Terrible experience

Jeff

[whereswaller]

I'm not the sort of person who usually posts on technology forums but so poor was my experience with the the BlackArmor NAS 110 that I felt obligated. Like the original poster, I fell victim to the one-click "Sort Media" (of doom) in the admin area. All my music was unceremoniously placed in a single folder (My Music) and all my album art in another (My Pictures) without even as much as a warning or prompt. Not to mention, I didn't have the "Drag&Sort" functionality enabled for this exact reason. I've now begun the painstaking process of resorting all my music. I thought this hardware would make my life easier, it's had the opposite effect.

A simple firmware fix (involving a prompt or, better yet, removal of the button altogether) is a MUST. I've bought products from Maxtor/Seagate for years but after this incident I'm greatly considering whether I will again in the future.

[vts69]

I'm sorry this has happened to you guys too, this happened to me, unfortunately no one replied with a suggestion to how to undo this.  'Drag and sort' sounds very inocuous and I just realised from reading here I must have ticked this - there is no warning about the nature of it.

It's a complete disaster for a product used to store data safely to rearrange data without , as you say, at least some warning that it is about to make changes to what you are storing, and that these are irreversible.

I have many hour's work now auditioning all the sound clips and putting them back into the song files they belong to, and renaming them back to their original names.  I'm so glad I only moved 20Gb of data and not everything.  To be honest I really don't trust this device any more, I might just break it open and take the hard disks into my old pc.

I've already told a couple of people to avoid getting this product and posted a comment on a review forum, not something I normally do and it won't help me get my archives back but I feel extremely strongly about this.