| Model: Home Media Network Hard Drive | Manufacturer: Iomega |
| Price: $189/£149 | Web: Iomega.com |
Iomega’s entry-level network storage drive offers basic NAS file sharing, DLNA-compliant media streaming and data backup wrapped up in a great looking package. But the accompanying configuration software lacks robustness when used with Windows 7.
Iomega positions the Home Media Network Hard Drive as THE EASIEST WAY TO STORE, PROTECT, SHARE, AND ACCESS ALL YOUR DIGITAL FILES! (the caps and exclamations belong to their marketers), and, as a single drive NAS device it’s certainly intended for those taking their first steps in networked storage and streaming.
The drive is available in 500Gb and 1TB options, with a fixed enclosure denying future upgrading to a higher capacity – although this may well be sufficient for average home computer users to centralise their photos, videos, music and documents on the device. Iomega promises strong media streaming capabilities, courtesy of a DLNA certified media server, including support for iTunes, printer sharing, data backup, remote access and automatic torrent downloading – so whilst storage may be limited, this is no dumb hard drive.
The 1TB drive arrived at WGS for review this week, so let’s take a look at what it’s got to offer.
What’s in the Box?
Crack open the packaging and you’ll find:
- 1Tb Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive
- Software installation CD
- Power cable and UK plug
- Hard drive stand
- Ethernet Cable
- Quickstart Guide
- EMC Retrospect Manual
- Mozy Online Backup instructions
First Looks
The Home Media Network Drive is a little larger than a 3.5” hard disc, and looks sharp, clad in a brushed, gun-metal grey aluminium finish. Cooled by a rear fan, the drive is connected to your network via the Ethernet port also at the back of the unit, where it is joined by a power socket, USB port, factory reset button and a power button.
Installing the Home Media Network Drive
Connect the drive to your router using the attached Ethernet cable, plug in the power cable and power on the drive, and you’ll quickly discover that the rear fan produces a pretty loud noise – you’ll definitely know where the drive is in the dark. A shame all that aluminium cladding couldn’t be put to work passively cooling the drive.
Pop the installation CD into a PC or Mac on the network, and the Home Media Network Drive’s configuration software will install.
… or not, if you’re on Windows 7. The installer doesn’t support Microsoft’s latest work, and throws up an immediate error. Fortunately, Windows 7’s compatibility wizard quickly kicks in and will continue the installation.
Ensure you allow access to the drive via the Windows Firewall prompts which appear, and you’re good to go. Three separate packages are installed – Iomega’s configuration software, which automatically maps the hard drives folders as network drives in Windows Explorer, as well as provides access to the drive’s configuration settings. Secondly, EMC Retrospect will be installed – the drive’s backup companion, and in addition, you’ll find Mozy’s Online Backup application also installed.
Double clicking on each folder in Iomega’s configuration software should automatically set them up as a network share – however, I found that doing so threw up an number of errors, blocking access to the network folders. Restarting the drive, and re-booting Windows cleared the problem. Whether this was a problem with Windows 7 or otherwise, the installation of the Home Media Network Drive wasn’t as robust as I’d have liked.
Using the Home Media Network Drive
Once the Home Media Network Drive is installed, you’ll see your drive’s folders mapped as Network drives in Windows Explorer – one each for Music, Movies, Photos,Backups, Public and ActiveFolders (your Bittorrent and FTP folders). An icon for Mozy’s Online Backup is also shown.
Double clicking on an icon allows you to access the folder in the usual way, and you can drag and drop files to your heart’s content. So far so good, but as mentioned earlier, there’s more to the Home Media Network Drive – to access the drive’s web-based settings, right click on the relevant icon in the system tray.
The configuration pages are split into four sections – Home offers a basic overview of your drive’s status and utilised space, allowing you to perform a disk repair or format, as well as enabling remote access (more on that later).
Folders allows you to secure access to specific folders for specific users, as well as configure folders for use with the Home Media Network Drive’s built-in iTunes and DLNA Media Servers (neither of which have any settings to configure). Additional folders can also be set up using this page, as well as user controls (adding, deleting users, and configuring passwords).
System provides a number of administration controls, including a Factory Reset, Firmware Update, re-scanning of media for the iTunes and DLNA Media Server, shutdown and restart as well as the ability to set a static IP, administrator password and other minor controls.
Finally, Active Folders offers a little more interest, with a Bittorrent page as well as a switch to allow FTP access.
To download Bittorrent files, you simply have to place a torrent file in the Home Media Network Drive’s Bittorent folder, and it’ll download automatically – the configuration page can be used to monitor the download via a progress bar. With regard to FTP, any files placed in the FTP folder, are available remotely over FTP, using the Home Media Network Drive’s remote access.
Talking of which, whilst the Home Media Network Drive offers remote access (powered by a domain from TZO), configuration of remote access isn’t straightforward, requiring the drive to be configured on the network with a static IP, and a dose of port forwarding on the router if it isn’t uPnP compliant. Many network drives which offer remote access suffer from difficult configuration, and the Iomega unit is no different. We’ve yet to meet a match for Cisco’s Media Hub when it comes to ease of configuration, and the Iomega won’t cause it too much concern.
Backing Up Your Computer
The Home Media Network Drive comes with bundled backup software. EMC’s Retrospect Express HD provides basic files and folder backup of your computer to the device (or a hard drive on the computer itself). Setup integration with Iomega’s drive could be improved – you’re required to manually enter the UNC path to the drive, which is easy enough for more seasoned techs, but may confuse the average user who may not have a clue what a UNC path actually is. Not great for an entry level network drive.
Retrospect allows you to backup and restore all files and folders on your PC, or make specific selections of files, folders or filetypes.
Also included with the drive is Mozy’s free online backup service. This provides 2Gb of space for the secondary backup of your most important files and folders. Increased storage is, of course, available to buy. For an entry level appliance, both products are useful – Retrospect lacks the advanced features of Windows Home Server, but any backup is better than no backup, and once the setup is complete, backups are scheduled to occur regularly and look after themselves.
Summary
The Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive is designed an entry level NAS device, and for $189/£149 offers basic NAS functionality in a good looking hardware package. The question is does it offer sufficient features to justify its price? The iTunes and DLNA Media Server are useful features that are now common in most NAS devices. Bittorrent will attract a certain user, as will FTP access. Certainly you could argue that this elevates the drive over and above a standard 1TB External Drive. Retrospect HD Express and Mozy’s online backup service also sweeten the package.
However, configuration of the hard drive wasn’t smooth in Windows 7, and took a reboot to get the network folders mapped correctly – this could potentially confuse the average user, as would references to “UNC Shares” in the Retrospect set-up. Clearly, as a single drive, closed chassis expandability is a no-no, and forget about file duplication – make no mistake, this is a hard drive with a few tricks up its sleeve, rather than a full-blown NAS device.
As an entry level device, it does its job – but certainly, a little more polish applied to the product and better software integration would go a long way to securing Iomega’s claim for the Home Media Network Drive as the easiest way to store, protect, share and access your digital files.
