TERRAMASTER F4-212 4 Bay NAS - Quad Core CPU, 2GB DDR4 RAM, Network Attached Storage Personal Cloud with Rich Backup Solutions (Diskless)

Decided to run my Plex server and phone back up on a separate NAS (this one) vs my 2 others I built and works great with zero connectivity issues.Keep in mind, be weary of reviews under a 4 / this in my experience is generally user knowledge issues: Wrong Hard Drives installed, personal computer issues, operating system issues are just a few. Take your time and read as much as you can - knowledge is everything when it comes to NAS. This one is very simple to setup and get running. For the price, it’s very very good. Yes, there are a few software updates they can (and sure they will) do - every device on the market can be improved, obviously.1) Saw some comments Plex did not work, but it certainly does if you set it up properly and you have good internet.2) You can “drag and drop” on any nas server when you connect through any computer, you just have to connect to the drives. Some mentioned you have to do this through a webpage, but this is not correct. Very simple once you know how.3) Had no issues backing up my phone with separate user folders for family. Kids all say it works perfect - literally just clicked a few buttons and it just runs.You MAY have an issue installing TOS initially with an Apple product - if you do, have someone come over with a Windows laptop to get you up and running. Once installed, connecting Apple or Windows is fine.

If you need a, inexpensive, simple, beginner friendly NAS that's easy to set-up and configure, this is a good choice for the price. It lacks some of the features you may see in more expensive models (upgradeable RAM, NVME storage, etc) but as someone that's never set up a NAS before, I had the drives installed, running, and configured within 30 minutes.

1 star for poor product design and crappy customer servicePRODUCT DESIGN:So I start by unboxing my new F4-210, installing some blank 2TB drives in the first two bays, and looking at the “quick start” guide that comes with the product (no included manual, BTW, just a QR code that takes you to a sort of “wizard” that hopefully serves your needs). It says to download the “NAS Navigator” app. Luckily there’s a Mac version, so so far so good.The NAS Navigator app finds my new NAS, so there’s promise there. I can’t follow the procedure for changing the IP address, but I’m savvy enough to be able to assign my computer a custom IP address so it can talk to the NAS, so off and running, I think. (BTW, changing the IP address requires the admin password for the NAS and, do they document what the default password is in their manual or otherwise, NO! Spoiler alert, it appears to be “admin”).Now I can start the “login” procedure that will supposedly let me set a new administrator password, initialize the disks, and basically let me configure my new NAS. Let’s gooo.Unfortunately, here’s where some truly bad design comes into play. The onboard “wizard” jumps right to trying to auto-download the TOS software after it does the hard-disk check. Unfortunately on my system, the NAS can’t appear to download the right software, so it just hangs on this step. Repeatedly. Over and over again. (I assumed at one point if I let it go long enough it would give up and then let me try an alternate method. Nope, it’ll sit forever on that “downloading TOS” screen if you let it.)Some google searches, download the product manual (which you have to go seek out, BTW, the “quick start” guide doesn’t link to it), and, whew, there’s a manual method of installing TOS that seems appropriate given my situation. OK. So I go and download the correct version of the TOS software, which is an “.ins” file, whatever that is (something zipped and propetary, come to learn). OK, how do I get the NAS to use this downloaded, locally-available version of TOS instead of trying to download it?Crappy design hits here: there is no way to do it:* The “wizard” is automatically advancing to the self-download method, and won’t let me interrupt it (trust me, there’s no link to an alternate method, although from the documentation, there once was such an option, but it’s gone now).* The documentation provides no instruction on how to use / apply this .ins file I’ve downloaded. Nothing. Just references to feeding it to the “wizard” at the appropriate step in the process (that never comes)* The product forum and FAQ all talk about the manual method, but, again, assume either that a) you know how to apply the .ins file, or b) that your “wizard” is the version that gives you the option to go the “manual” route instead of just assuming it needs to download the software every time.CRAPPY SUPPORT:OK, it’s business hours still, and there’s a sticker on the device that says they offer 24x7 support. So I go to the web site to see if I can get some live assistance. (This is after having thoroughly reviewed the FAQs, troubleshooting pages (which are laughably thin, BTW), and the knowledge base).Guess what? The “Live Chat” option on their website doesn’t work. At all. (I tried multiple browsers, and even inspected the source code: it’s a static image with some javascript that does nothing, doesn’t even return an error if you look at the javascript console Here, try it yourself (https://www.terra-master.com/global/support/)). There’s a “live chat” option on the page menu as well, but it does the same thing: nothing.Alright, there’s an email form you can use. Maybe not as immediate, but in this case what option do I have? I use that page, solve the Capcha, and type out a frustrated-but-not-abusive email, because I’ve been at this for a couple of hours now. Come to realize, that function doesn’t appear to work either. Nothing happens.At this point, I am simply done. They’ve done everything in their power to frustrate me, and I feel certain if I somehow, miraculously get past this TOS installation problem, that the rest of my experience with this product and company isn’t going to suddenly become positive. I’m returning the product to Amazon and I will pay more for a more-reputable company’s product, I guess.

I very computer literate, but I've never built a NAS from scratch before, even though I've built probably hundreds of PCs over the years. My only experience with a NAS so far was a ready to go WD unit, which I had no issues with just outgrew the size. That said, I think anyone that can read and follow directions and has ever swapped a hard drive out could easily set one of these up.Purchased this one over the WD primarily because of the price vs memory size when comparing the two. Twice the memory on this one in the same price range.Also bought two Seagate refurbished 16TB enterprise drives here on Amazon. Just followed the directions and this NAS set everything up just fine. I really like how easy it is to change out the drives without having to take the box apart. Everything needed came in the box.I do like the web interface vs the old WD one I have, which is pretty limited. But truth is, I just want this as a copy and paste backup source for a worst case scenario so both work equally well in that regard for me. Not trying to do anything fancy. I'm using Backblaze for an off site backup as well.I'd certainly buy another of these if I needed one. If something changes for the worst in the future I'll come back and update this.