The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central is ideal for homes and small businesses that wish to affordably and easily store and back-up their files, music, videos, photos and games in a networked location, where multiple computers can access it.Network StorageWith the NETGEAR Storage Central SC101, you can plug in up to 2 IDE drives of any size and create a central storage space for all your music, video, photos, games, and files. These files and media resources are then easily accessible by all the computers on your home or small office network as a simple letter drive, from ~My ComputerT. You can start with as little as 80 GB and upgrade to 800 GB or more as required. Never worry about losing your most valuable files with advanced back-up features. Keep your personal files private from other network users if desired by placing them in secure, password-protected folders. Different drives can be created for different purposes or users on the network. You can even link multiple Storage Centrals together for additional storage capacity. Applications for UseDo you own a digital camera or camcorder and have lots of photos and home movies that you would like to back-up and store securely? The SC101 enables you to store and back-up precious digital photos and home movies of weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions and create a drive to share your memorable family moments to all the computers on your home network. Do you have private financial information or commercial files that you would like to store and back up? The SC101 includes back-up software, allowing you to safeguard any valuable files by keeping real-time duplicate copies, automatically and effortlessly. Is your computer or laptop slowing down because it is weighed down with lots of files, digital music, photos and video? Transfer all this data on to an SC101 and give your computer or laptop a new lease of life! Easy to UseSC101 Storage Central is easy to setup and install. Just slide in one or two
Product Information
Technical Details
| Brand | NetGear |
| Item Weight | 1.1 Kg |
| Product Dimensions | 23.6 x 22.4 x 19.8 cm |
| Item model number | SC101 |
Additional Information
| ASIN | B000AL5H7A |
| Best Sellers Rank | 48,216 in Computers & Accessories (See top 100) |
| Shipping Weight | 2.2 Kg |
| Date First Available | 18 Sep 2005 |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
The Netgear SC101 is a nice tidy, compact and aesthetically pleasing device, let down by some problems.
Bad:
1. no 64bit drivers; if your only machine is winXP 64bit then don't bother even trying it - they've said no drivers are available and they have no intention of writing them (I've had to share it from another machine). This is very disappointing from an otherwise reliable company.
2. annoying software, as mentioned by other reviewers; once it's set up it works fine, but if ever ever have to run their manager utility you know it's not going to be fun.
3. the mounted drive letter doesn't survive through a hibernation, and once it's lost the link the only way you can bring it back is a cold boot - the manager utility won't help you here, and will deny that a) there's anything wrong, and b) there's any drive to connect. This one is extremely irritating to me.
4. it seems very slow across a 100MB network; maybe my expectations are too high, but it's not that slow copying between two other machines on my network - that being said, it's set up in mirror mode, and whilst this shouldn't affect things, it could do.
5. I think I'd be happier with a fan inside - it does run hot (though I've had no problems with it yet, heat or otherwise).
Good:
1. it looks good
2. hardware was easy to set up and worked first time (software is not so easy).
3. I serve my music from it - it's been running for about 6 months now without a power cycle.
Conclusion:
I like it, but I'm not sure I'd buy it again; wait for SC102 (or whatever) - maybe they'll fix these problems; there certainly doesn't appear to be any competition to it worth mentioning though.
Bad:
1. no 64bit drivers; if your only machine is winXP 64bit then don't bother even trying it - they've said no drivers are available and they have no intention of writing them (I've had to share it from another machine). This is very disappointing from an otherwise reliable company.
2. annoying software, as mentioned by other reviewers; once it's set up it works fine, but if ever ever have to run their manager utility you know it's not going to be fun.
3. the mounted drive letter doesn't survive through a hibernation, and once it's lost the link the only way you can bring it back is a cold boot - the manager utility won't help you here, and will deny that a) there's anything wrong, and b) there's any drive to connect. This one is extremely irritating to me.
4. it seems very slow across a 100MB network; maybe my expectations are too high, but it's not that slow copying between two other machines on my network - that being said, it's set up in mirror mode, and whilst this shouldn't affect things, it could do.
5. I think I'd be happier with a fan inside - it does run hot (though I've had no problems with it yet, heat or otherwise).
Good:
1. it looks good
2. hardware was easy to set up and worked first time (software is not so easy).
3. I serve my music from it - it's been running for about 6 months now without a power cycle.
Conclusion:
I like it, but I'm not sure I'd buy it again; wait for SC102 (or whatever) - maybe they'll fix these problems; there certainly doesn't appear to be any competition to it worth mentioning though.
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By VJ
I intially reviewed this as 'a little slow but otherwise excellent' - the last two days have forced me to delete that review and write this one. I personally apologise to anyone who purchased this thing on the strength of my review - please do yourself a favour and copy your files off this device while you still can. Read on....
I bought this because my data is important to me, so I configured it to mirror the drive, connected it to my network and away we went.
First impressions were that it was slow - very slow, but I can live with that, because my data is safe - how wrong I was.
After a while, it needed a software and firmware upgrade, which caused problems, but Netgear Tech Support sorted it out well.
A few weeks later, disaster struck - the device reported a 'broken mirror' - oh dear I thought - I'll copy my valuable data off the drive just in case.
Too late - many files and folders were corrupted beyond repair, and because the device uses its own filing system, you can't simply remove a drive and connect it to your own computer as it won't see anything.
Last night I spent two-and-a-half hours on the phone with Netgear's Indian Call Centre, who eventually escalated the problem to 'level 2' - level 2 couldn't do anything, and because 'level 3' were off for the weekend, the support staff told me there was nothing they could do, but my data was almost certainly gone forever anyway.
He emailed me a little form, told me to fill it in and wait for them to contact me!
A search on the internet for 'SC101 corrupt files' brought up results that I wish I had seen before I entrusted my data to this device - try a Google search for yourself.... Read more ›
I bought this because my data is important to me, so I configured it to mirror the drive, connected it to my network and away we went.
First impressions were that it was slow - very slow, but I can live with that, because my data is safe - how wrong I was.
After a while, it needed a software and firmware upgrade, which caused problems, but Netgear Tech Support sorted it out well.
A few weeks later, disaster struck - the device reported a 'broken mirror' - oh dear I thought - I'll copy my valuable data off the drive just in case.
Too late - many files and folders were corrupted beyond repair, and because the device uses its own filing system, you can't simply remove a drive and connect it to your own computer as it won't see anything.
Last night I spent two-and-a-half hours on the phone with Netgear's Indian Call Centre, who eventually escalated the problem to 'level 2' - level 2 couldn't do anything, and because 'level 3' were off for the weekend, the support staff told me there was nothing they could do, but my data was almost certainly gone forever anyway.
He emailed me a little form, told me to fill it in and wait for them to contact me!
A search on the internet for 'SC101 corrupt files' brought up results that I wish I had seen before I entrusted my data to this device - try a Google search for yourself.... Read more ›
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By redoublement
I bought one a few weeks ago, and I have it working well as my main backup system. I have two 300GB drives installed in it, one acting as a mirror for the other. My main gripe is that the filesystem used on the SC101 is proprietary, so if the SC101 itself fails, any drives you have installed will be unreadable unless you buy another SC101. On the plus side, once you have done a backup, synchronising with any changes you have made is a quick affair using SmartSync - only the changes are copied. Installing the SC101 driver software was a bit of a nightmare however - for a good while the software did not see the drive across my network (a WAG54G 4-port switch), plus I got many installation errors (as another review on the internet warned me). However after a few attempts it installed ok, and updated the software over the internet. Although the manual says to turn on the netdisk before the computer, it does get automatically mounted (in WinXP) within a couple of minutes of turning on the SC101. In general I turn off the drive to save both the planet and the disks, as it gets pretty hot - although that is probably the heat generated by the hard drives themselves.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Sometimes when you read the suppliers web sites, you get the feeling that a product is good, but not that good. Well I purchased the SC101 from Amazon just after Xmas and the only thing I would recommend to Netgear, is to make a unit that takes 4 drives rather than 2 and to improve on some of the security features. But in short this unit does exactly what it says on their web site.
I’ve created, deleted and moved data around without any problems. You can even change the drive letter allocation in Windows XP and its fine even after you have loaded data on it. Speaking of drives, you can partition the device down to as low as 1G if you really want to and password protect it, so you can get around some of the security issues if you really want to secure information away from people. I’ve also increased drives once you’ve made them, but there is no way to reduce drive size other than to delete it, so plan before you start. I’ve loaded thousand of MP3 music files and it’s happy. In fact I had 6 computers all playing the same MP3 file, 5 second apart and it was fine. What I did find is that it does not like very small files, I loaded 600,000 clip art images and while it serves them fine it took ages to copy across. I also attached to the SC101 from a 64bit machine, but I haven’t got it working yet in true 64 bit mode. I have it running on WinXP Pro (32bit O/S) on 64 bit machine fine.
What you have to remember after all this is a Network Attached Storage device (NAS) where you are meant to share files, for which purposes it’s great. Things to remember is that when it get confused read the manual (download it) and follow the instructions and you will get it working fine, I did.... Read more ›
I’ve created, deleted and moved data around without any problems. You can even change the drive letter allocation in Windows XP and its fine even after you have loaded data on it. Speaking of drives, you can partition the device down to as low as 1G if you really want to and password protect it, so you can get around some of the security issues if you really want to secure information away from people. I’ve also increased drives once you’ve made them, but there is no way to reduce drive size other than to delete it, so plan before you start. I’ve loaded thousand of MP3 music files and it’s happy. In fact I had 6 computers all playing the same MP3 file, 5 second apart and it was fine. What I did find is that it does not like very small files, I loaded 600,000 clip art images and while it serves them fine it took ages to copy across. I also attached to the SC101 from a 64bit machine, but I haven’t got it working yet in true 64 bit mode. I have it running on WinXP Pro (32bit O/S) on 64 bit machine fine.
What you have to remember after all this is a Network Attached Storage device (NAS) where you are meant to share files, for which purposes it’s great. Things to remember is that when it get confused read the manual (download it) and follow the instructions and you will get it working fine, I did.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Slow but seemingly solid
I bought one as a cheap backup solution, it was second hand with a pair of drives in it so after a fairly easy set up and format away it went, and I was so happy I bought another,... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mr. M. Regan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Avoid unless you are looking for a door-stop
Have been fooled into buying one of these a few years ago. When backing up data, this 'thing' gets very hot, hence the reason some people call it a toaster, and frequently stops... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Gritty
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst piece of Kit i've had the misfortune to use
Terrible, terrible device.
Search the internet for SC101 before you consider buying. Look at the troubles people have with drives that exist that won't reattach, broken... Read more
Search the internet for SC101 before you consider buying. Look at the troubles people have with drives that exist that won't reattach, broken... Read more
Published on 23 May 2011 by Steve
1.0 out of 5 stars
SC101 - dead in the water
The Netgear SC101 was a great concept for the home user as a "shared" storage resource right up to the point where Netgear obviously decided that it had served it's purpose in... Read more
Published on 4 May 2011 by Trevc2005
1.0 out of 5 stars
beyond appallingly bad _ ZERO STARS
just dont even think about this at ANY price. total rubbish.
In fact I suspect all netgear products promise long and deliver short. Read more
In fact I suspect all netgear products promise long and deliver short. Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2010 by N E Body
1.0 out of 5 stars
This does not work in windows 7
When i got this i thought it was great i could load all my files and back up on to it. All over my existing network but the software is clumbersom and not well presented so setting... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2010 by Mr. C. J. Rosslyn Smith
1.0 out of 5 stars
THIS ISN'T IT! Do not even consider this!
Seriously - I don't want to waste much more time on this item, but TRUST ME - check other websites and forums for the horrible, terrible & disastrous things that this can do. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2009 by S. Bent
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Bad but not fantastic
Netgear SC101 Storage Central
Bought this as a CHEAP backup device rather than having a full computer setup on and working all the time. Read more
Bought this as a CHEAP backup device rather than having a full computer setup on and working all the time. Read more
Published on 17 July 2009 by G. A. Walker
1.0 out of 5 stars
Beware - all seems well, then 'Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!'
The lowest rating you can give is 1 star.
I bought my first one, set it up with ease, instructions are idiot proof. I am storing date within minutes. Read more
I bought my first one, set it up with ease, instructions are idiot proof. I am storing date within minutes. Read more
Published on 27 April 2009 by John Haigh
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Little Toaster
Had no issues with this, set up and ready within about 20min, ofcourse i like to figuire things out myself, so i didnt bother reading the instructions. simple set up wizard, no I. Read more
Published on 12 April 2009 by Lewis A. Berridge
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