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"defective design"
on by defectivemediavaultPros you are warned
Cons defective design
Summary The operating system for the media vault is a unique proprietary linux variation which only hp uses for this particular product, nothing else. The implications of this are as follows:
Within two days of receiving this product, the filesystem of the hard drive became corrupt. What that means is that there was nothing wrong with the hardware, only the software. Unfortunately this software cannot be fixed. Hp's solution is to send you a new hard drive because the original hard drive was useless.
If you have any data on the original hard drive, it is lost.
You do not get any tools to rescue it, to restore it, to recover it. None. HP can't help you.
The product comes with software to restore your own computer's hard drive but nothing to restore the harddrive of the media vault.
Even more absurd, the media vault allows you to install a second hard drive. However if you put the original media vault hard drive into the second slot and then install a new hp hard drive into the first slot, the device still will not be able to read the data from the original drive.
This product does not meet the reasonable expectations of its customers. It cannot do what computers have been able to do for twenty years, namely use rescue tools on disks, like fdisk for windows and fsck for linux. No tools work on the hp drives. And both windows and linux computers allow you to put a corrupted hard drive as a slave in your computer in order to read the data. You cannot do this with a media vault. You cannot even put the media vault hard drive in a linux computer to read the data. It won't work because of the proprietary nature of the operating system for the media vault.
For the first time in using computers for twenty years, I have lost data. I am very upset at hp for the very short sighted design of this product. You are warned. -
"Very nice NAS"
on by atlantisgroupPros Quiet, Easy to Install, Easy to Access
Cons Not sure yet - nothing has come up.
Summary I am not a network admin type, but I do have 4 PCs at my house that I am forced to network and troubleshoot. I have been looking for NAS for some time, but could not figure out the differece between the cheap and high dollar units. Reveiws of other units refered to fan noise and need for client software as cons. I wanted something simple to store shared media and files.
On an impusle, I purchased the MV2020. It seemed to be in the mid range of prices of the units I was looking at, and it got a 7.8 by the editors.
It came, I hooked it to the network (linksys cable router), installed the software that came with it, and IT WORKED! I moved all my music and pictures over to it. It came with software to perform auto backups on a time interval that I set. I could have chosen to write to the NAS any time my local HD was written to, but I chose to update every 30 mins.
I had to map some subdirectories as network drives in order to get a QUICKEN file to be read from the HP unit. I chose to have the active Quiken data file to be stored on the HP so it can be accessed from any computer (not sure what would happen if two PC tried to access - probably would lock out the 2nd user, I hope).
I did have some problems with long file names copying over. Some of my files were buried in subdirectories 5 layers deep causing the file name to be too long, but no big deal fixing that. That is really a WINDOWS issue anyway.
This unit is quiet. It does have an internal fan that is no louder than a quiet PC fan - very acceptable. There is no need for installing any software on the clients. The HP shows up in Network Neighborhood and you access it like any other shared drive on the network.
HP does suggest that you do not rename the 4 subdirectories already set up on the drive - FileShare, MediaShare, Backup, and CinemaNow. Again, no big deal there.
Fit and finish as well as looks are very good. So far, I am very happy with this unit. I have not needed support, so the rating there is only for the docs. I really did not need any - just plug it into the network, the software found it and it was ready to go.
Network types might find some lack of functionality, but for the network user who does not want a complicated system, the $1/gig price is well worth not having to spend 4 hourse getting the thing to work! -
"Overall good machine with 1 setback"
on by rexibabyPros quiey and fast
Cons HTTP & FTP doesnt work
Summary This machine is fast & quiet. Software is easy to use even for novice. but there is problem. HTTP and FTP cannot work. I cant access my files out of the network. Even though there is a feature to enable the HTTP and FTP, its a useless feature. If u need only to store your files, music and stream to your networked, this will be one of the best machine in terms of price and ease of use. But if u want to send a link to your friend to download certain files or share a folder with password over the internet, there is not support yet.
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"Great until it fails!!!"
on by swsnowPros Not sure what can be considered Pros when you loose 250GB of data/media/memories
Cons No easy way to recover in case of OS error
Summary Six months into using this device, I added another 500GB disk and configured this device to mirror (RAID)! I was confident enough that I moved almost everything of value on this device thinking that if one disk failed, mirrored copy will be there.
I just got off almost 30+ minutes long phone call with tech support, and have learned that OS has become corrupt. I was told by a very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable tech support person (who knew what he was talking about) that chances are .... (1) OS has become corrupt, (2) I may have to take out my primary disk, install it in a desktop, and format it! (3) I have had a mirrored set-up to mirror 500GB on a secondary drive, but I have been told that I may have lost that mirror BECAUSE of OS corruption!!!!!
***!!! I have spent my career working as a senior portfolio architect for Fortune 50 companies, and all I do in my day job is to architect solutions to avoid such situations! Now I am at a point where I risk loosing almost all my memories, tax returns and important data files because of a defective design from HP!(http://reviews.cnet.com/external-hard-drives/hp-media-vault-mv2020/4864-3190_7-32104518.html?ctype=msgid&messageSiteID=7&messageID=2492036&cval=2492036&tag=uolst)
Again, its a great piece of hardware as long as there are no issues. If you still decide to buy, I highly recommend using following wonderful resource - Don't leave home without it because you will not find a better comprehensive knowledge base on any product anywhere (http://www.k0lee.com/hpmediavault/)
I am keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that my mirror is still safe and that replacing the system disk will help me recover the data.
Good luck! -
"Hit or Miss for Mac"
on by loveanhPros It's fast when it works
Cons No Support for Mac from anyone
Summary The MV shows up when it wants to. Can't get access to it when I need to. When I'm able to get access then the file transferring and sharing is great.
I tried calling tech support from HP, Apple and Netgear, nothing!!! They all blame the other, Apple is by far the worst, "well you are using a third party wireless router with a third party external HD, sorry we can npt provide you with support."
HP, "we don's support Apple."
Netgear, "sir there will be a fee of $36.95 for support."
Thank you CNET for giving for giving such a high rating and suckering me in.
Mac users stay away.
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