Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review :: Installation

02-26-2009 · Category: Hardware - Cases

By Ben Sun

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review HDD doors open

HDD doors open

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review HDD tray removed

HDD tray removed

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review HDD tray

HDD tray

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Rear

Rear


For purposes of this review I gathered four WD400GB Caviar drives. Note that I chose fairly middle of the road hard drives as there are 1TB HDDs available for under $100, but the drives are the same as that found on the BR5200 review and who has four identical HDDs anyway? Installation is a simple matter, simply open the door and flip out the silver lock, pull out the drive bay and insert the drive into the bay. Once you screw the screws to the bottom of the drive slide it back into the rack and you're done.


Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Install CD

Install CD

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Device discovery

Device discovery

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Thecus Setup wizard

Thecus Setup wizard

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Setup Complete

Setup Complete


The instructions are very basic and intended to get you started with your new computer. The manual is on Thecus's website or on the Driver CD. Note as there are no display connectors on this NAS server, you need to connect it to your network to get to the setup area. After connecting the Power cord and the Ethernet cable to the NAS and to the hub, Power on the NAS server. To get to the NAS Server you have to enter 192.168.1.100 as the address.


Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Login

Login

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Device setup

Device setup

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Admin

Admin

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review New password

New password


The default username/password combination is admin/admin. From here you install the software off the Driver CD. Setup of the NAS Server is step by step and depending on what configuration you want your hard drives in, the process can take a short or long time. After installing the Setup wizard, it ran the Device Discovery Wizard. The Thecus N4100PRO was detected right off the bat, along with the IP address and MAC address. The next step asks you to login with the default username and password. It is pretty self-explanatory.


Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review RAID

RAID

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review RAID Configuration

RAID Configuration

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Disk information

Disk information

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review Webdisk

Webdisk


Once you have the N4100PRO installed you can log into the web interface, which gives the manufacturer, model number, Firmware version and the uptime. To upgrade the Firmware, go to the System then the Firmware Upgrade Menu and upgrade the Firmware. Note that while the system is upgrading the firmware you get a warning not to turn off the NAS Server. Configuring the RAID is the next step.


Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review AFP Support

AFP Support

Thecus N4100 Pro NAS Review WAN Configuration

WAN Configuration


First you need to go to the Storage menu, then the RAID menu. On a new install the RAID array would have to be New, as no existing RAID array is set up. The next screen is where you set up the RAID array, with choosing the type of array you want to set up, the disks making up the array and which drives you would use as a Spare drive. The system also shows you the status of the drives in question. Once you hit Create, you need to confirm that is what you want to do and the RAID array creation starts. Creating a four 400GB HDD RAID 10 array took a long time, 12 hours to be exact. This is one reason why I chose a smaller drive as the 1TB drives would take a whole day or more to set up. After the drives are setup you are free to use the NAS as you see fit.