Comments on: Hitachi SimpleNET USB NAS adapter turns USB sticks, drives, SD cards into NAS

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:00:01 +0000

Nov. 4 UPDATE — Hitachi has released a firmware upgrade that addresses the problem. It turns out the original firmware was based on an outdated version of Samba, so file sizes were limited to 2GB. The firmware update to the NAS’ file system eliminates this limitation. Good job SimpleTech, although it took longer than I expected for you to fix this.

By: Seagate FreeAgent DockStar turns USB drives into plug and play network storage

Seagate FreeAgent DockStar turns USB drives into plug and play network storage — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:08:29 +0000

[...] Here comes the Seagate FreeAgent DockStar, a special docking that is made to allow the Seagate FreeAgent Go external hard drive to plug into it and be used as a networked storage like a NAS. [...]

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:06:17 +0000

Correction. After further testing, SimpleNET will display ISOs of smaller file sizes, but larger file sizes (for example 3.5GB-4.3GB) do not display in file directories. And yes, this was observed on NTFS formatted drives. I have not tested whether this file-size-limit issue applies to all file formats. Since DVD5 and DVD9 ISO files exceed these limits, the observed problem remains–you cannot stream a DVD across SimpleNET.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 06:23:00 +0000

I’m an early adopter of the SimpleNET. Good device; however, in Windows 7 RC1 x64, the CIFS file system does not read/display ISO files over SimpleNET. Oddly, the included FTP server will display ISO files. This reduces the value of the device since you cannot play DVDs packed as ISOs using a media streamer (e.g., WDTV). Hopefully, a firmware update will resolve this in short order.

By: Hitachi SimpleTech bamboo-cooled USB hard drive

Hitachi SimpleTech bamboo-cooled USB hard drive — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:40:29 +0000

[...] Hitachi’s new brand SimpleTech has a better way of keeping their external USB hard drive cool i.e using bamboo. Bamboo is thought to be able to dissipate heat more effectively by Hitachi. The bamboo-cooled external hard drive is called [re]Drive, which uses bamboo as the main heat sink and eliminates the need for fan to keep cool. [...]