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- Review count2
- Helpfulness votes97
- First reviewSeptember 15, 2014
- Last reviewSeptember 17, 2014
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating3
- Review comment count2
- Helpfulness votes5
- First review commentSeptember 17, 2014
- Last review commentSeptember 23, 2014
- Featured review comments0
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- First answerSeptember 15, 2014
- Last answerSeptember 17, 2014
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ZMan's Reviews
This Seagate Central STCG4000100 personal Cloud storage external hard drive connects to your Wi-Fi router's Ethernet port to provide up to 4TB of centralized storage and remote file access for multiple devices throughout your home.
Customer Rating
3
Nice NAS, but can leave your data at risk
on September 17, 2014
Posted by: ZMan
from Cypress, TX
Compatible with...:PC
I purchased the 4TB Seagate Central unit. It's not a bad 1 drive NAS unit. Performance is decent, simple to setup, quiet, and doesn't look half bad. I've done a fair amount of testing and research, and have learned a few things along the way. It's been on sale lately and its quite a bit cheaper then its competitor. If you want something quick and simple, then it's not a bad option. But it does have a few areas where it is lacking, and one key feature omission that is a deal breaker (for at least me). Compared to it's competitor, it's missing a USB3.0 (its only 2.0) port. It also lacks many advanced software features it competitor provides: thumb nailing, disk duplication, etc. The biggest omission is the inability to set file and directory permissions. Issue? On Seagate central you can only share your files for DNLA via the PUBLIC folder. You can create private individual user folders, but you can not serve up media from these folders. More importantly, you can not adjust directory permissions to prevent users for accidentally deleting files. This is a deal breaker in my book. I have 10K+ pictures, home movies, and etc... I need to serve them up to my DNLA devices, along with the family computers. On this unit, I can't protect the directory (making it read only for some users) to prevent accidental deletion by one of my family members. Setting file/directory permissions is basic, and included on every operating system (And competitors NAS units), but Seagate Central gives you no option. I opened a case with Seagate to verify via email. Seagate promptly responded, and stated the unit did not have this functionality. They recommended i backup my data. Kinda funny.
Seagate Central is Linux on a chip. The hardware is not the issue, but the seagate developers not creating the interface for directory permissions. Hopefully its something they can remedy in a future firmware release.
Seagate Central is Linux on a chip. The hardware is not the issue, but the seagate developers not creating the interface for directory permissions. Hopefully its something they can remedy in a future firmware release.
To Sum it all up. It's a nice unit, and performs well for what it is. It's a good fit for you, if you don't worry about other family members accidently deleting your shared data. If you want additional feature sets, or the ability to control directory permissions you need to look somewhere else.
My Best Buy number: 2191282852
What's great about it: Price, Ease of setup
What's not so great: Missing key feature set- File/Folder protection
I would recommend this to a friend!
Ease of Use
4
Performance
4
Share this review:
+12points
12of 12voted this as helpful.
This WD My Cloud drive features a 4TB capacity and lets you stream media to compatible DLNA-/UPnP-capable devices or upload and access data on the go via PC, Mac and compatible mobile phones and tablets. Automatic backup helps safeguard your files.
Customer Rating
3
Great NAS- But has performance problems.
on September 15, 2014
Posted by: ZMan
from Cypress, TX
Compatible with...:PC
I have been checking out small NAS units by both Seagate and Western Digital. I purchased the WD Cloud 4TB, and i generally like the unit; but it has some bugs/issues that drastically impact its performance. The unit itself performs well and has solid performance for a 1 drive NAS unit (most of the time). Initial setup is brainless.
Many users performance issues with copying files. This has been generally due to a laptop or workstation on Wifi. Wifi is slower than wired, and performance will vary greatly depending on your implementation. Many customers mistakenly blame the unit, instead of their WiFi implementation.
In my case, everything is hardwired via Cat6e running GigE. Initially performance was strong, but as i copied more files the system drastically slowed down. At it's worst, 10GB of data was going to take 2 hours to copy (compared to the 5 minutes or less it should). After extensive research online, and some mucking with the unit; I know what the problem is. Put simply, its added software that WD has to create thumbnails and index files on the unit. This software runs in the background and builds thumbnails and indexes for every file placed on the unit. If many files are placed on the unit at once, the onboard CPU and memory become overwhelmed with this activity. Until the index and thumbnails are completed, the unit responds poorly to all requests (including file copy). The unit will eventually complete its tasks, but depending on the number of files, this could take days to sort out. Not ideal when your trying to copy a large amount of data to it. As documented in the WD forums, there are ways to disable these activities, but it's complicated and should be only done by the tech savvy. I disabled both services on my unit, and the unit now operates at its full potential. I may or may not re-enable at a future date.
Many users performance issues with copying files. This has been generally due to a laptop or workstation on Wifi. Wifi is slower than wired, and performance will vary greatly depending on your implementation. Many customers mistakenly blame the unit, instead of their WiFi implementation.
In my case, everything is hardwired via Cat6e running GigE. Initially performance was strong, but as i copied more files the system drastically slowed down. At it's worst, 10GB of data was going to take 2 hours to copy (compared to the 5 minutes or less it should). After extensive research online, and some mucking with the unit; I know what the problem is. Put simply, its added software that WD has to create thumbnails and index files on the unit. This software runs in the background and builds thumbnails and indexes for every file placed on the unit. If many files are placed on the unit at once, the onboard CPU and memory become overwhelmed with this activity. Until the index and thumbnails are completed, the unit responds poorly to all requests (including file copy). The unit will eventually complete its tasks, but depending on the number of files, this could take days to sort out. Not ideal when your trying to copy a large amount of data to it. As documented in the WD forums, there are ways to disable these activities, but it's complicated and should be only done by the tech savvy. I disabled both services on my unit, and the unit now operates at its full potential. I may or may not re-enable at a future date.
If your non-tech savy, and have tons of data to copy; this unit may not be for you. The Seagate Central may be a less frustrating option (although it has a few shortfalls. Most notably, you can not set folder permissions).
If your starting new, and slowly adding files; this unit will work for you well.
If your tech savvy, then you know what you're getting into. The unit is superior to the seagate in feature set. It's this feature set that is also this units undoing.......
Rating 3 Stars, due to the onboard software killing a good product.
My Best Buy number: 2191282852
What's great about it: Bang for the buck. Initial setup
What's not so great: Software on the unit
I would recommend this to a friend!
Ease of Use
3
Performance
3
Share this review:
+78points
85of 92voted this as helpful.
ZMan's Review Comments
This WD My Cloud drive features a 4TB capacity and lets you stream media to compatible DLNA-/UPnP-capable devices or upload and access data on the go via PC, Mac and compatible mobile phones and tablets. Automatic backup helps safeguard your files.
Overall3 out of 5
3 out of 5Great NAS- But has performance problems.
By ZMan
from Cypress, TX
I have been checking out small NAS units by both Seagate and Western Digital. I purchased the WD Cloud 4TB, and i generally like the unit; but it has some bugs/issues that drastically impact its performance. The unit itself performs well and has solid performance for a 1 drive NAS unit (most of the time). Initial setup is brainless.
Many users performance issues with copying files. This has been generally due to a laptop or workstation on Wifi. Wifi is slower than wired, and performance will vary greatly depending on your implementation. Many customers mistakenly blame the unit, instead of their WiFi implementation.
In my case, everything is hardwired via Cat6e running GigE. Initially performance was strong, but as i copied more files the system drastically slowed down. At it's worst, 10GB of data was going to take 2 hours to copy (compared to the 5 minutes or less it should). After extensive research online, and some mucking with the unit; I know what the problem is. Put simply, its added software that WD has to create thumbnails and index files on the unit. This software runs in the background and builds thumbnails and indexes for every file placed on the unit. If many files are placed on the unit at once, the onboard CPU and memory become overwhelmed with this activity. Until the index and thumbnails are completed, the unit responds poorly to all requests (including file copy). The unit will eventually complete its tasks, but depending on the number of files, this could take days to sort out. Not ideal when your trying to copy a large amount of data to it. As documented in the WD forums, there are ways to disable these activities, but it's complicated and should be only done by the tech savvy. I disabled both services on my unit, and the unit now operates at its full potential. I may or may not re-enable at a future date.
Many users performance issues with copying files. This has been generally due to a laptop or workstation on Wifi. Wifi is slower than wired, and performance will vary greatly depending on your implementation. Many customers mistakenly blame the unit, instead of their WiFi implementation.
In my case, everything is hardwired via Cat6e running GigE. Initially performance was strong, but as i copied more files the system drastically slowed down. At it's worst, 10GB of data was going to take 2 hours to copy (compared to the 5 minutes or less it should). After extensive research online, and some mucking with the unit; I know what the problem is. Put simply, its added software that WD has to create thumbnails and index files on the unit. This software runs in the background and builds thumbnails and indexes for every file placed on the unit. If many files are placed on the unit at once, the onboard CPU and memory become overwhelmed with this activity. Until the index and thumbnails are completed, the unit responds poorly to all requests (including file copy). The unit will eventually complete its tasks, but depending on the number of files, this could take days to sort out. Not ideal when your trying to copy a large amount of data to it. As documented in the WD forums, there are ways to disable these activities, but it's complicated and should be only done by the tech savvy. I disabled both services on my unit, and the unit now operates at its full potential. I may or may not re-enable at a future date.
If your non-tech savy, and have tons of data to copy; this unit may not be for you. The Seagate Central may be a less frustrating option (although it has a few shortfalls. Most notably, you can not set folder permissions).
If your starting new, and slowly adding files; this unit will work for you well.
If your tech savvy, then you know what you're getting into. The unit is superior to the seagate in feature set. It's this feature set that is also this units undoing.......
Rating 3 Stars, due to the onboard software killing a good product.
ZMan
Cypress, TX
Response to WD Comment
September 17, 2014
Appreciate WD responding to my feedback. Not my intent to give the product a negative review, but instead let me people understand some of the behaviors and problems seen with the unit. To respond to the WD inquiry:
Immediately after plugging the unit it (and before file transfer), I upgraded the firmware to the current release..v04.00.00-607. The forums hosted by WD (WD forums) has multiple posts complaining this release introduced a few more problems then fixed, and they were looking to backtrack.
As to what i did to restore performance. Per WD's own documentation, i followed the procedure to SSH into the unit. The WD forums are again full of users whom have found the two problematic process, and temporarily shut them down. In my case, I did not alter or adjust firmware, only shut down the two problematic services (index, and pic thumbnail). They will immediately operate again on reboot of the unit. If i had not taken these steps the unit would have practically unusable for a weeks, until the file copies finished. I had about 3TB to copy with 20K+ worth of photos, + 100s of home movies, + thousands of MP3s.
As to what i did to restore performance. Per WD's own documentation, i followed the procedure to SSH into the unit. The WD forums are again full of users whom have found the two problematic process, and temporarily shut them down. In my case, I did not alter or adjust firmware, only shut down the two problematic services (index, and pic thumbnail). They will immediately operate again on reboot of the unit. If i had not taken these steps the unit would have practically unusable for a weeks, until the file copies finished. I had about 3TB to copy with 20K+ worth of photos, + 100s of home movies, + thousands of MP3s.
I have not called tech support, since the WD forums provide the problem and ways to work through the issues. Past customers have posted that WD support did not provide solutions other then that performance would suffer while it finished its index and thumbnail work which could take days.
Again, I like the unit except for the software that is creating the performance problem. A non-technical user whom has thousands of photos or files would become extremely frustrated with this situation as they attempted to copy files over all at once.
If your starting new and only slowly putting files on the unit each day; you would probably never experience an issue.
+4points
4of 4voted this comment as helpful.
This WD My Cloud drive features a 4TB capacity and lets you stream media to compatible DLNA-/UPnP-capable devices or upload and access data on the go via PC, Mac and compatible mobile phones and tablets. Automatic backup helps safeguard your files.
Overall3 out of 5
3 out of 5Great NAS- But has performance problems.
By ZMan
from Cypress, TX
I have been checking out small NAS units by both Seagate and Western Digital. I purchased the WD Cloud 4TB, and i generally like the unit; but it has some bugs/issues that drastically impact its performance. The unit itself performs well and has solid performance for a 1 drive NAS unit (most of the time). Initial setup is brainless.
Many users performance issues with copying files. This has been generally due to a laptop or workstation on Wifi. Wifi is slower than wired, and performance will vary greatly depending on your implementation. Many customers mistakenly blame the unit, instead of their WiFi implementation.
In my case, everything is hardwired via Cat6e running GigE. Initially performance was strong, but as i copied more files the system drastically slowed down. At it's worst, 10GB of data was going to take 2 hours to copy (compared to the 5 minutes or less it should). After extensive research online, and some mucking with the unit; I know what the problem is. Put simply, its added software that WD has to create thumbnails and index files on the unit. This software runs in the background and builds thumbnails and indexes for every file placed on the unit. If many files are placed on the unit at once, the onboard CPU and memory become overwhelmed with this activity. Until the index and thumbnails are completed, the unit responds poorly to all requests (including file copy). The unit will eventually complete its tasks, but depending on the number of files, this could take days to sort out. Not ideal when your trying to copy a large amount of data to it. As documented in the WD forums, there are ways to disable these activities, but it's complicated and should be only done by the tech savvy. I disabled both services on my unit, and the unit now operates at its full potential. I may or may not re-enable at a future date.
Many users performance issues with copying files. This has been generally due to a laptop or workstation on Wifi. Wifi is slower than wired, and performance will vary greatly depending on your implementation. Many customers mistakenly blame the unit, instead of their WiFi implementation.
In my case, everything is hardwired via Cat6e running GigE. Initially performance was strong, but as i copied more files the system drastically slowed down. At it's worst, 10GB of data was going to take 2 hours to copy (compared to the 5 minutes or less it should). After extensive research online, and some mucking with the unit; I know what the problem is. Put simply, its added software that WD has to create thumbnails and index files on the unit. This software runs in the background and builds thumbnails and indexes for every file placed on the unit. If many files are placed on the unit at once, the onboard CPU and memory become overwhelmed with this activity. Until the index and thumbnails are completed, the unit responds poorly to all requests (including file copy). The unit will eventually complete its tasks, but depending on the number of files, this could take days to sort out. Not ideal when your trying to copy a large amount of data to it. As documented in the WD forums, there are ways to disable these activities, but it's complicated and should be only done by the tech savvy. I disabled both services on my unit, and the unit now operates at its full potential. I may or may not re-enable at a future date.
If your non-tech savy, and have tons of data to copy; this unit may not be for you. The Seagate Central may be a less frustrating option (although it has a few shortfalls. Most notably, you can not set folder permissions).
If your starting new, and slowly adding files; this unit will work for you well.
If your tech savvy, then you know what you're getting into. The unit is superior to the seagate in feature set. It's this feature set that is also this units undoing.......
Rating 3 Stars, due to the onboard software killing a good product.
ZMan
Cypress, TX
September 23, 2014
Glad it helped. I personally a big fan of WD. I have been buying their Drives since the early days (when they were in MB instead of TB). Plus i have a slew of their media players (6).
It's a good product, but this issue; and the handling of it is a bit of a mess. I'm assuming that WD is banking on most users to only copy a file files at a time. In this scenario your slowly adding files over time; and you most likely will never notice a problem.
But if your loading a ton of data all at once.(I have almost 40K in pictures alone), the unit crumbles due to the index and thumbnailer process. Appears the HW is undersized for large operations. WD support circles around it, and just wants to buy time until it finished. Really doesnt help when your trying to copy 3TB of media to it; and the unit is running so slow it takes weeks.
I think WD should add a feature in the GUI to turn off these 2 processes (or fix how it runs).....
+1point
1of 1voted this comment as helpful.
ZMan's Questions
ZMan has not submitted any questions.
ZMan's Answers
which wireless hard drive is best for mac products?
None. You will be unhappy with both reliability and performance. Especially if your using it for Time Machine backups.
Get a USB 3.0 external drive, or if you have deeper pockets a Thunderbolt external drive.
Reliable and performance will be solid. If your look for a drive to share between computers, look towards a NAS drive. Seagate Central or WD Cloud are options. Hope it helps
Get a USB 3.0 external drive, or if you have deeper pockets a Thunderbolt external drive.
Reliable and performance will be solid. If your look for a drive to share between computers, look towards a NAS drive. Seagate Central or WD Cloud are options. Hope it helps
9 years, 7 months ago
by
ZMan
Cypress, TX
Will IDE Cable work with SATA internal harddrives
No. SATA requires a different interface cable.
9 years, 7 months ago
by
ZMan
Cypress, TX
how much to replace a disk drive in a desktop
I have a windows 7 desktop with a Hitachi HDS731010CLA630 scsi disk drive. How much would it cost to replace it
I doubt it SCSI. You sure it is not SATA?
9 years, 7 months ago
by
ZMan
Cypress, TX
This WD My Cloud drive features a 4TB capacity and lets you stream media to compatible DLNA-/UPnP-capable devices or upload and access data on the go via PC, Mac and compatible mobile phones and tablets. Automatic backup helps safeguard your files.
Can I connect the Cloud 4TB directly to a router with gigabyte ports?
My home LAN is Cat 5 (10/100) and connected to a 16 port Sysco switch (also 10/100), but my router has gigabyte ports and is also wireless with duel 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz bands. If I connect the Cloud 4TB directly to the router, will I be able to get gigabyte transfer rates wirelessly and still provide the LAN with 10/100 rates?
Short Answer "No". To get GIGE transfer speeds, all devices must be GIGE (that plan on working with your NAS). This would include your switch and desktop/laptop. Since your running a 10/100 switch; the WD cloud will connect at 100Mbs.
If you plan on upgrading to GIGE, cables are also important. You should be running cables with Cat5E or Cat 6 for all connected devices as well.
Hope this helps.
If you plan on upgrading to GIGE, cables are also important. You should be running cables with Cat5E or Cat 6 for all connected devices as well.
Hope this helps.
9 years, 7 months ago
by
ZMan
Cypress, TX