Returned 4TB ShareSpace Today

Community Archives WD ShareSpace
1

I wanted to let everyone know that I sent back my ShareSpace today and advise ANY mac user to do the same (if you can).  Keep in mind that I still use a WD my book RAID (1TB) I bought 4+ years ago and it works fine.  I had the SS connected to my dualband airport extreme and my new MBP i7 (wired).  Once I setup the drive I began to transfer the data from my MBD (300 GB) which was connected to my MBP via FW.  It took over 2 days to copy the 15 files - and I’m NOT exaggerating.

I contacted support and first I was told that the slow performance was due to using a Mac.  Then I was told it was due to the 500mhz processor in the SS.  Lastly, I was told that I needed to re-format the drive (which I did) and after I got a whopping 3MBs on a GigE connection with a cat 6 wire.

Here are the emails from technical.

[Deleted]

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is [Deleted]

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. According to our internal testing, and from what we’ve seen from other customers, the WD ShareSpace’s max transfer speed is between 8-10 MB/s on a local network. The drive does not transfer any quicker because that is the maximum throughput that the enclosure’s CPU can handle.

We never advertise sustained transfer rates on any of our internal or external drives. Instead, we advertise the interface speed that the drive supports. The 8-10 MBps is a sustained transfer speed whereas 10/100/1000 is an interface specification. 

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,

How insulting - the box shows USB transfer speed, FW transfer and GigE (about 26 - 30MBs)

Firmware is not going to change the pipe error.

2

My mistake, the box did not state transfer speed - the website does.  I want to be fair.

BTW - I had received an e-mail from a “3rd” level SS tech.  He e-mailed me telling me that I could call him during regular business hours - I did 4 days in a row - and he NEVER called me back.  Tisk - Tisk - Tisk!

[Deleted]

Dear Joseph, 

Thank you for your reply.
Per our phone conversation I will wait for you to call me on my direct number when you have access to the ShareSpace.

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further. 

Sincerely, 

3

Dude,

I had to agree with you on this

I like WD products,

but they make one crappy Sharespace that is totally piece of junk

Ok,

I’m using WD Studio 2, 2TB, I had 2 units of it and configured RAID 1

also WD Studio 2TB and WD My Book 1,5TB USB version

Forgot to mentioned, WD Passport Studio 500GB and WD Passport 320GB

All I can tell,

WD Sharespace is not worth it,

it looks cool but lacks of performance and NOT RELIABLE, it will make you cry when you can’t access from network !

Take a look at the sticky topics and read the problems that I’ve got with Sharespace

I do have Techus, I forgot the model, something like 3200 PRO with 3 hard drive,

Techus sure FASTER than Sharespace, I run in the same Gigabit network

All in all,

Sharespace is not recommended, speed is something that you could tolerate even sometimes it **bleep**,

but having reality to face DATA LOST in WD Sharespace ? No way !

And the answer that you’ve got from WD always the same,

“ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA”

If we do have time managing our data so simple,

we will do that, mister, how about this, if you have Gigabytes of data and you don’t have luxurious time managing it,

this goes to this drive and backup to that drive

Well,

luckily a friend of mine could restore the data for FREE,

hello WD, not like your promotional answer, bring it to the professional data recovery,

come on, it feels like WD are trying to PROMOTE their data recovery asscoiates, hellooo … WD

I’m using the same MAC environments like OP,

I use WD Studio for the Firewire 800 ports, using WD Sharespace is a BIG MISTAKE

Oh, for you to know also,

I did not returned WD Sharespace casing ( I took the hard drive first )

throw it away directly to garbage, don’t wanna think about WD Sharespace anymore

I like WD products but not this one

4

Very interesting…

I just got my ShareSpace, and even when on a 10/100 switch, I got at least 7mb/s writes, and about 10mb/s reads. On WiFi, a good distance away, I got 3mb/s writes, and 10mb/s reads.

What kind of array were you running? I’m running Raid 10 as Raid 5 is too much for a small CPU to handle for writes.

Guess it doesn’t matter at this point since it’s gone.

5

I just wanted to chime in on the subject, as I have recently been seeing HORRIBLE speeds on our WD Sharespace.  And I am talking far more horrible that what most are seeing.  For instance, I have a user who is backing up 7.8 GB  and it says it is going 8054 hours.  Now, THAT is horrible.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to even make this somewhat workable?  I would LOVE to get at least 5MB/sec or something similar but this is just rediculous.

6

I love mine - and yes I use a Mac with Lion.  I get 13MB/S some times more, I also have an Airport Extreme and a NetGear ProSafe Gigabit switch. I know its nothing to do with your Mac - my best guess is its a networking problem or a firmware problem on the NAS. If your moving many small files then yes you will see the slowest files speeds in the universe

I recall that after upgrading to the latest firmware my ShareSpace slowed to a crawl, I installed the fix and this broke the **bleep** thing I sent it back for a replacement.  This one works fine so I’m happy :slight_smile:

7

I know it is not the network, as I see much better speeds when clicking and dragging files over the network.  The sharespace on the other hand just lags and lags.  The user reported to me this morning, after about 16 hours of sitting that it is still at 0% and has over 10,000 hours.  I am just amazed at how horrible it can be!

8

I’m sorry, did you say you have Lion and you are using it with the SS with no problems ? How can it be when the netatalk version included in its firmware is ancient and doesn’t support the new AFP commands needed by Lion for TimeMachine backups ?!

Adi

9

@ adisor19 because I’m not using AFP on my Sharespace. My ShareSpace is on Firmware version 

Firmware Information
Description NAS Firmware
Version 2.1.96 with MioNet 4.3.1.12
Last Upgrade

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:26:03

 
 

This firmware does not come with TimeMachine - I did upgrade one to the latest version that did support AFP and TIme Machine but the upgrade broke the device and I needed a replacement - so bad was my data loss I will never update the unit ever again. As things stand I am very happy :slight_smile:

10

Just to Add - you know you don’t NEED to use AFP don’t you ? and the unit will perform just without TimeMachine backups - and on the old firmware it even shows up and works through bonjour in the finder side panel.  If your on newer ones you will need to connect to device though  GO > Connect To Server > SMB://Logon : PASS@yoursharepace make it a Favorite and your all set, you can then add a share to log in items and have the decvice ready at logon.

11

OK now you’re just trying to convince yourself that this is actually a good device and that you didn’t waste money on it when in fact it’s a **bleep**. The fact that a firmware update hosed the device and now your’re actually stuck with an older version because you’re afraid it will do it again, speaks volumes on how much you trust this thing.

Seriously, at least warn pple to stay away from it.

Adi

12

Ya, you do need to use AFP if you actually intend to use it for TimeMachine backups. If you ever want to do a barebones restore of your mac, you will need to use AFP for your TM backup.

This is one of the worst NAS boxes that i’ve ever had the chance to work with. One look at this forum is all you need to see how many problems this thing has and how WD support is useless in fixing them.

Adi

13

Yes your correct, you need AFP if you want to use it as a Time Machine backup device, as I already have one so I dont Thats ALL you need AFP for with it on the old firmware you dont even need to mount the drive in OS X,  and you are correct that I dare not try and update the device, it has 7TB of data on it,  the update brings no new features that I want and so why take the risk ? - plus doing that DID screw up the old device

I never said it was a good device, much the same as I think Mac OS X Leopard or Lion is no better than windows 7 in fact I think they’re worse. Having said that, I like my Mac it does what its supposed to do (getting the picture here). Now what I have said is that my new SharSpace with its original firmware performs very well for me and I like it. Its been very reliable, performed as well as I need, and this ShareSpace has not let me down and we use it day and night.

Thing is this NAS is a consumer device, much like any other external hard drive, when they fail (and I’ve had a few) I usually lose all data and ship it back for a referb.  Its the same here.  What upsets people (like you and me) is the AMOUNT of data you lose, that’s why it hurts and all for deploying approved updates. But let me ask you this one thing.

Tell me anywhere else I can get a 8 TB Raid NAS for under £690 (that’s the cheapest I can find it at) a QNAP will cost you nearly that just for the enclosure.

I’m happy with mine - your mileage may vary.

And if this device fails, so will my opinion of if !

14

I couldn’t agree more. The transfer speeds are painfully slow. I bought this to be a iTunes NAS server for a fairly sizable media library. Well, after getting all the data on it over several days I had read/write errors due to folder protection issues. The only way to fix this? Yes, you guessed it! Reformat the drive back to factory settings. Awesome. Thanks for wasting a week of my life. As a rusult, I bought a 4TB My Book (great expereinces with the MyBooks btw,) and now use the SS soley as a backup drive for TimeMacing… (sigh,) which of course doesn’t work with Lion. If you’re a Mac user STAY AWAY from the WDShareSpace. MyBooks have been great but the SS has been a complete waste of money, and a lot of money at that.