What sounds simple and uncomplicated in theory can actually turn into something of a logistics problem in practice. What is to be done with all the data you collect over time? Hard drives with storage capacities of one terabyte are no longer exotic rarities and at a price of just over 10 cents per gigabyte, they are also more than affordable than ever. Even better, 1.5 TB drives are already shipping in quantity from Seagate.
The Problem: Many Computers And One Set Of Data
But even when you equip your computer with lots of storage capacity, this immediately brings you to the next problem. If there are several computers, and maybe even a home theater PC (HTPC) on the network, you want to be able to access all data at all times. This means that the computer on which the data is stored should also be switched on. For example, if you want to watch the film recording of last year’s summer holiday in the living room, or view the pictures of last year’s birthday celebration on the laptop. But with a power consumption of 100 watts or more, PCs put unnecessary stress on the environment, the power grid, and your wallet. There’s no need to have every computer in the house running 24/7. Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are data storage units connected directly to the network, which makes them usually more economical in this respect.
Security Is Important
If you only save important data to a single disk in the computer, this can result in catastrophic loss sooner or later. Hard drives are not infallible, and a defect can result in the irretrievable loss of all of your data. Backup is absolutely essential when it comes to important information, and it is best to create a data backup on an external medium which can then be stored away from the computer in a safe place. This means that important files can still be retrieved even if the computer is damaged by theft or a natural disaster.
The use of DVDs as a backup medium for home use is ideal in view of the restoration options should the worst case scenario occur. But there’s something far more convenient about an automated process that doesn’t involve swapping in 4.7GB discs every few minutes, which is why we’re looking at using Maxtor’s Shared Storage II.

The Silent Majority
If a drive fails and it's still under warranty, it would only seem logical to invoke the warranty protection and get a free drive. If a drive fails and it isn't under warranty, then breaking the warranty seal wouldn't be a problem. Doesn't seem like a particularly important detail.
"...And so, with a clash of lightning that split apart the heavens, and with a mighty voice, God said unto Abraham: 'Click on the image twice you doofus!'".
I do agree that clicking on the image once to get the main image page, and then a SECOND time to get the full-sized image is stupid, but if they were to insert the full-sized image in the main article, the article would be pretty hard to read through.
I had one of those little warranty stickers on my old Mactor One-Touch. With a razor and some patience you can get that sucker off without breaking it.
Except that this will involve sending your still perfectly functional drive away, where it will be perused by whoever while you have no access to it yourself. Not an acceptable solution to me. This is yet another FAIL solution for home NAS, I'm afraid.
the problem is you'll have to do without your data while you wait for the warranty work. do you really trust sending out your one good copy?
Buy your drives.
Call it a day.
The chances of the working disk getting damaged while shipping the whole box back for a single failed drive are WAY higher than the chances I'll damage it opening it, but considering the literacy of the users of such a slow NAS... I'll stick with my homebrew NAS kthx
Use Raid 10 it's just as secure as RAID 5. you need 4 drives for RAID 10 however. use the last slot has a spare.
Otherwise you're stuck at 100Mbit. USB is 480Mbit for a comparison of theoretical throughput.
Thats a deal breaker.
It works OK, but it is slow and has some quirks with media player (9/10/11 on 4 PCs) when playing files (VLC doesn't seem to have the same problem though). I also automatically clone my work to the unit every hour just as another repository. The unit gives the perception that it's underpowered (CPU wise, I assume it's some embedded processor running linux?)
One of the main reasons I bought this unit was that is was cheap & had an external USB HDD & Printer connector. I haven't used the printer port(yet), but I did buy an external eSata/USB2 drive enclosure in which I put a 500GB drive. I can plug this into the NAS box for extra storage or I can also plug the same unit(when required) into the eSata port on a couple of my PC's if I need some temporary extra(fast) storage(sometimes for video editing/converting across drives).
I'd give the unit 7/10.
For the purposes of data security, a NAS device with THREE drives is preferable to one with only two drives. Raid-1 with 3 drives FTW.
I don't know why it's so difficult for an empty Raid-1 box with 3 drive slots and GB LAN at a reasonable price to come to market. You would think that a simple Raid-1 controller chip in a plain black aluminum box would be cheap. Not $500.