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Question

Zyxel NSA221 Hard Drive

May 17, 2012 6:48AM PDT

I have a zyxel nsa 221 2 bay media server and would like to know if SATA 3 hard drives will work in it or can you only install SATA2 as i am about to buy 2 x 2tb units and dont want to buy wrong ones

Discussion is locked

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Answer
What we know so far.
May 17, 2012 6:51AM PDT

SATA 3 drives are backward compatible. BUT that does not mean a 2TB drive will work in this. Why? What if the media server only supports the older 512 byte sectors? But that's not an issue here.

What I'd like to ask is why this question is asked when I see SATA 3 listed at http://www.zyxel.com/products_services/nsa221.shtml?t=p

Bob

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Just checked out that site
May 17, 2012 7:10AM PDT

I just followed your posting Bob And yes you are right it does list sata3 it was just that the packaging and bundled info say Support Hard Disc SATA I/II dont want to buy unusable hardware

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Answer
Review the specs
May 17, 2012 7:17AM PDT

In such matters I refer to any manual or specs the manufacturer provides. generally, they don't hide the details of what went into their products. At the same time older units may not be 100% ready unless it can be "firmware upgraded" in order to accept anything newer at a later data or becomes auto-configured with updates, etc.. The below link seems to says it supports up to 4Gb of storage, please read the fine details.

http://us.zyxel.com/Products/details.aspx?PC1IndexFlag=20050125090459&CategoryGroupNo=0B6ADF90-564F-4A64-A5B3-2DBA424D6326

tada -----Willy Happy

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Again Confusion
May 17, 2012 7:31AM PDT

if you read hardware specs it says " Two 3.5 SATA I/II Hard Disc Interface suported " but as Bob said they should be backward compatable with SATA III ( But then again you could trust Bank Managers, Teachers, Doctors and Lawyers when i were a lad)

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Sorry Bob
May 17, 2012 10:19AM PDT

Hope you didnt think i meant you Bob i Was maligning the Manufactures

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It's fine.
May 18, 2012 4:18AM PDT

The makers are pretty lax about all this. Folk that live by documentation often get irritated by these makers.

The price erosion has taken it's toll in my opinion.
Bob

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Manufacturer supplied info
May 18, 2012 1:26AM PDT

My advise still stands. In fact when I went further into this query found a direct link to your info as you would have found. I hope this clears this up as Robert already has linked.

Found under the "compatibility" button.

tada -----Willy Happy

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Thanks Guys
May 19, 2012 2:21AM PDT
Happy A big thanks to Bob and Willy as when i signed out that evening i decided to check out HotUKDeals and low and behold there was an offer on for WD 2tb WD20EADS Hard Drives for £74 each free postage so i bought two and they arrived this morning two days not bad so i am about to fit them and boot up the NAS Once again Thanks Dave