Comments on: D-Link 2-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure DNS-321

By: Michael W. Power

Michael W. Power — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:18:36 +0000

I ordered this item along with Two WD 1TB HDs. I was able to format ok and map the drives; then overnight the unit died. i have attempted sending at least 5 emails from the online form on the Dlink support site and called 4 times to their support line. I bought the unit in the US but because i don't LIVE in the US or another company that they sell in; they will NOT help me. I will never EVER buy anything from DLINK again and would HIGHLY recommend not to buy from them to anyone who cares to ask. I understand that a defect can happen; but to have NO support because of my area code on my phone number on a new item that i bought in the USA is absolutely positively ludicrous.

the unit seemed to be dead; but later i realize that the lights were out but the oven was on; it was COOKING my new 1 TB drives. they were too hot to even handle. I only hope that these are not smoked as well because of this NAS device.

Mike Power
UNSATISFIED DLINK PURCHASER Rating: 1 / 5

By: HC

HC — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:01:52 +0000

Same complaints as many have said before:

1. It formats to a proprietary format. Not NTFS, not FAT32. So if you want to recover data on the hard drives without the unit (such as plugging it into a desktop)... you're out of luck.

2. User access control is TERRIBLE. I've wasted at least 5 hours on it so far, before finding out that the system is simply buggy as hell. You can create user accounts and permissions all day long for Network Access, but it behaves strangely. If you do things such as delete users without deleting their assigned network dirs, it will behave very strangely. Even worse, latest firmware removed the 'All User Accounts' option so after I removed the default open access to all drives, I can't access my data anymore! Had to go back to old firmware.

3. Poor customer support. Don't even get me started. However, I feel for them; when you release buggy products, what can tech support do if they can't fix the problems?

There's more, but given all the bugs even for the most obvious functionality, I'm terrified of using this for RAID1. In the event of a hard drive failure, I really would not be shocked if I found out I can't recover any of my data due to bugs.

I'm returning mine and to be honest, I would keep away with a ten foot pole. Rating: 1 / 5

By: Robert Allen

Robert Allen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:34:31 +0000

I got this with a new hard drive. Would not format the drive. Contacted product support. They told me it would only format if there were two hard drives in the machine. I didn’t think this was correct but I bought a second hard drive. Tried to format and still would not format. Had two other people take the drive and try on their machines and it would not format for them either. Was a complete waste of money. Checked web pages and a lot of people have problems with these enclosures. Rating: 1 / 5

By: Madurai Ravi

Madurai Ravi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:20:37 +0000

Dlink 321 is an excellent product from Dlink, but stop don’t buy this product. You can buy Intel® Desktop Board D945GCLF for $66, buy memory ~35 for 2GB, ATX psu for $15 add hard drive you are good to go with a NAS with full CPU power. Consumes 16watts only.

Rating: 5 / 5

By: Montana Bear

Montana Bear — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:50:19 +0000

Installed this on home network with XP Pro and Vista x64 computers. Worked OK on XP, but wouldn’t install driver on Vista x64 systems. After 2 calls to tech support, where they advised downloading and installing driver for 32-bit Vista, I called again (after two failed attemps to load the driver) only to be told “It won’t work with Vista 64-bit, and we don’t know when we will get a 64-bit driver out”. Spent over 3 hours (4 calls) on hold to talk to customer service (their phones would drop the calls after 45 min). Their advise was “wait a couple of months for the driver or return the DNS-321 to the vendor”. D-Link’s own web site and their sales staff all indicate that it works with Vista, with no qualification about 32-bit only. So if you have Vista 64-bit DON’T BUY THIS YET!!! Rating: 1 / 5