Before the available storage capacity can be shared across the network in the form of folders, the hard drives must first be configured. The device supports RAID levels 0, 1 and 5 as well as JBOD (just a bunch of disks) - this last option simply strings the attached drives together and presents them as one large volume. However, be aware that neither RAID 0 nor JBOD offers any data security!
Unfortunately, the N4100 lacks options to create RAID 0+1 or 1+0 arrays. While these configurations have to sacrifice more of the available storage space to provide data security, they are also a good deal faster than a RAID 5 configuration.
The creation of a RAID 5 array took just over an hour on our review unit.
The interface also displays additional information on the completed RAID array.
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Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.
