Ximeta NetDisk 80GB, 120GB and 160GB external drives

Ximeta’s NetDisk external hard drive is the networking solution for the small business or the home enthusiast. The beauty of this device is that it can be setup as a NAS drive.

Xitmeta exhibited a little shortsightedness with the flexibility of use with this product but if you are looking just to save data from your computer you shouldn’t have too hard of a time provided you fall into this category. 1) If you are running Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP operating systems. No Mac support as of yet. 2) If you have USB 2.0 or 100BaseT Ethernet ports. This allows for you to connect it as a personal drive via USB or as a network drive via the Ethernet through a router.

The setup of the device appears to easy and straightforward:

If you are installing the NetDisk drive to your personal computer using the USB2.0 interface, there is simply nothing to it. Plug it in and Windows XP or 2000 will recognize the unit as another hard drive. If you will be connecting the NetDisk drive to your network for everyone to use, there are instructions you will want to follow.

Make sure that the dip switches on the back of the drive are in the NDAS position so that users on your network can view the drive. As a network administrator you will want to install the NetDisk software on only the computers you want to have access to the drive. What we like about the NetDisk drives is that you can set the drives into aggregate mode. This means that if you have 3 80GB NetDisk drives on your network, you can make it so they are recognized as a single 240GB drive instead of individually. This makes it incredibly easy to add more storage to your network because instead of adding each drive individually, you can simply add a new drive to the cluster when you need new more space. The basic RAID functions of the NetDisk drive allow you to backup or mirror your data using the administration software. Unfortunately we only received one drive to review, so we were not able to test it in its RAID configuration. If you have experience doing this, we would appreciate it if you posted your thoughts either as a user review or in our forums for others to read.

Other attribute of the NetDisk are the color coding of the product, the 80GB version features blue aluminum housing while the 120GB is white and the 160GB is red. If you are using the USB interface then the device becomes hot swappable so that you can easily move it from machine to machine. The dimensions are that of a basic hard drive; measuring 4.7 inches wide, 8 inches long and 1.4 inches tall, making it relatively easy to carry around with your laptop. Today’s pricing is very attractive as well; 80GB, 120GB and 160GB versions priced at $199.99, $229.99 and $299 respectively. Coming in the near future will be driver for Mac and Linux users. This will the device a tempting buy for nearly everyone.

The Ximeta NetDisk is sure to change the future of external storage due to the inclusion of Ethernet capabilities. Our NetDisk 80GB drive performed well, and was quiet and reliable in all of our tests and we are very happy to see that Ximeta will be adding Linux and Mac support to the NetDisk product line in the near future. If you are looking for a portable hard drive and blazing speed is not a determining factor, then the NetDisk is worth a look. But if you are looking for an easy and affordable way to add storage to your home or small business network then look no further than the Ximeta’s NetDisk.

Source: DesignTechnica