I’ve been waiting a long for a networkable storage device that accepts “IDE”:1 or “SATA”:2 hard drives… and finally one is here (or at least will be here shortly). Introducing the Netgear SC101 Storage Central.

Engadget has a “post”:3 on it as does “Tom’s Hardware”:4. Not much detail on the specs yet, but it looks like it will support two hard drives and will support a couple of flavors of “RAID”:11. The *BIG* turnoff is that it’s a Netgear product. I’ll probably never purchase a Netgear product again after what I “went through”:10 with my old Netgear wireless router — the WGT624 (v2).

Of course, there are lots of options besides the SC101’s bring-your-own-hard-drives option. Linksys makes the “NSLU2″:5 that accepts USB-based drives instead of IDE or SATA drives. Asus makes the “WL-HDD2.5″:8 that is a wireless data storage device that takes 2.5″ IDE drives. However, it only takes one drive so no RAID, and 2.5″ (laptop) drives are rather expensive and limited in storage (when compared to desktop 3.5″ drives). “Mirra”:9 also makes a highly-rated NAS solutions that include(s) the drive(s), but are somewhat more expensive. And finally, there is the Buffalo Technology 1 TB “TeraStation”:6 at about $1000 — if that’s not enough storage, they also offer a 1.6 TB TeraStation!

Regarding networking any of these devices with Windows, “Jeff”:7 recommends using IP address to avoid the Windows Networking hell of Windows domains/workgroups. Yes, it’s 2005 and Microsoft still can’t get networking right.

Oh, anybody know what the heck the device pictured below is? I found it on Linksys’ site. It’s the graphic that leads you to their mini-site on NAS devices. It sure looks like a NAS box that accepts drive caddies. If so, I want one!

!/img/Linksys_NAS.gif!

_*Update: 2005-06-11*_
Rob in the comments notes that the mystery picture is a “Linksys EFG80″:12. I don’t know if they are still selling it, but “here’s”:13 a review on it from January, 2003 (in a quick search, I couldn’t find it online). I’d be stoked if Linksys were to update it, and add stuff like an automatic backup.

[13(Network World review)]http://www.networkworld.com/net.worker/reviews/2003/0120networker.html

[12(Linksys EFG80)]http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&prid=447

[11(Wikipedia on RAID)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

[10(Zoingers hellish experience with Netgear router)]http://www.zoinger.com/archives/2005/03/31/16.43.58/

[9(Mirra home page)]http://www.mirra.com/index.html

[8(Asus WL-HDD2.5 site)]http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=12&l2=44&l3=0&model=460&modelmenu=1

[7(Jeffs no-post blog)]http://www.analconsumer.com

[6(Some big storage from Buffalo)]http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=97&categoryid=19

[5(Linksys network storage products)]http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=35&scid=43

[4(Toms Hardware on the SC101)]http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article98-page9.php

[3(Engadget on the SC101)]http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000057043399

[2(Wikipedia on SATA)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata

[1(Wikipedia on IDE)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDE