I was thrilled to discover Netgear's new SC101 Storage Central. The SC101 is a visually appealing, compact, and quiet dual-drive solution, but BEWARE!
I purchased the SC101 for features such as drive mirroring, spanning, and ability to accommodate larger hard drives. The SC101 is reliable but heat causes noticeable decrease in data access speed.
Confident of the unit’s reliability, I placed all of my files on a mirrored pair of 200GB drives. The mirroring process took 26 hours to create (supposedly new firmware corrected issue). The SC101 performed flawlessly for a few weeks. However, after changing the name of the mirror drive from "SC101" to "TOASTER", following the instructions, I lost access to the drive. I tried to reattach the mirror using the clunky software without avail. The drive password no longer worked. Apparently, the drive password became corrupted and all procedural attempts to reset the password failed (using software and using the reset button on back of unit).
After several hours, I had two brief but intermittent period of access to data but not long enough to move 100GB of data to another drive. Netgear's Technical Support spent hour troubleshooting the device and could not determine the cause. Netgear products have performed well for me in the past but the SC101 is not only a good doorstop. It makes a fine "old fashioned" radiator. I'm in Phoenix. So I don't have need for heat!
In conclusion, Netgear's Technical Support told me my case was "BAD" and they would call me back. The engineer was pleasant but he never called me back! I LOST 10 YEARS OF DATA with this defective and premature product and what's worse is that Netgear doesn't seem to care. Two months have passed and still resolution (or call).
Beware of Netgear's SC101!!
