Buffalo DriveStation Duo stores files, can't grate cheese

Although fashionably late to the party, Buffalo's new DriveStation Duo does stack up nicely against Fantom Drives' recent cheese grater-style storage device, and comes in a more understated traditional black instead of that brushed metal-look that all the kids are going for these days. The DriveStation Duo sports USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces and ranges from 500GB to 1.5TB in capacity, and the 7,200RPM SATA drives that it's packin' can be set up in a RAID-1 configuration-- for either mirroring or full capactiy modes, depending on your persuasion. Oh, and you'll take a $250 to $1,000 hit sometime later this month for the pleasure of taking 'em for a spin.

[Tom T. @ Oct 2nd 2006 1:10PM]

i don't mean to be negative, but this thing does look just a little bit Black & Decker-ish. you know - like it's a corded battery for some drill or shop-vac. Does it come with a thick, orange, three-pronged cord? will they be selling it over by the automobile floor mats at kmart? :-)

[Rick Lyon @ Oct 2nd 2006 1:26PM]

Did Dell or HP design this? Looks like a UPS. I'll take the cheese grater any time over this black box.

[J @ Oct 2nd 2006 1:32PM]

ooo it says "HD" on the front, it must be good!

what the hell.

[the mayor @ Oct 2nd 2006 2:02PM]

so, 500 gb = $250, but 1.5 tb = $1000?

hrm, i'll take three, thanks.

[phez @ Oct 2nd 2006 2:18PM]

the DriveStation Duo USB 2.0 / FireWire External Hard Drive will be available in October at estimated street prices of ...
$249 for the 500GB (HD-W500IU2/R1),
$449 for the 800GB (HD-W800IU2/R1),
$499 for the 1TB (HD-W1.0TIU2/R1),
and $999 for the 1.5TB (HD-W1.5TIU2/R1).

[Brian Verenkoff @ Oct 2nd 2006 3:49PM]

Can't beat those prices, Maxtor wants $799 for 1.0TB in their Dual Drive product, and it looks worse than this one in my opinion. Looks like it has easy drive replacement as well:

More pictures and stuff:
http://buffalo.jp/products/catalog/item/h/hd-wiu2_r1/index.html

[Wonderboy @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:43PM]

Hey Mayor... it's not simple addition. A 500GB set-up will include 2 super-cheap 250GB drives, where-as a 1.5TB set-up will include 2 super-sexy, top-of-the-line 750GB drives.

Sure you could just get 3 500GB set-ups for cheaper, but that means three times the shelf-space, three plugs, three power bricks... The high price is in exchange for the convenience as well as having the most capacity you can currently get from a 2-drive set-up.

"Every time you post a stupid comment on Engadget, a kitten dies. Be kind, think before you post."

[Will @ Oct 2nd 2006 4:58PM]

Just duct tape the cheese grater to the side and stop complaining.

[Jitaroo @ Oct 2nd 2006 6:28PM]

no more complaining about no space!

[gordian @ Oct 4th 2006 8:46AM]

ok what's with the ridiculous titles? i think engadget has reached a new low. stop trying to be witty and tell us about the devices you're reporting!!

[Dan @ Dec 18th 2006 4:12PM]

Installed a brand new DriveStation Duo a few days ago.
Everything went smoothly until I tried to run the RAID setup utility. All I got was a Visual C++ runtime error 8-(.
Buffalo's support seems to be clueless - or the support request backlog has a good size...

[TomF @ Dec 24th 2006 8:06PM]

I installed a new Buffalo DriveStation Duo 800GB today, and I also get the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime error when I try to run the RAID utility. The Buffalo website offers no software upgrades that I can see and no support email for this line of products that I can see. I emailed their networking support for help. Also, I tried starting up Windows XP in diagnostic mode (without all the startup programs) and this made no difference.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix this?

[Bob Thompson @ Dec 27th 2006 11:48PM]

I also just purchased and installed 2 500GB DriveStation Duos, only to get the Visual C++ runtime error when attempting to run the RAID setup utility. Not being able to setup the Duos in mirror mode negates their purpose and usefulness for me. I've done Google searches and contacted Buffalo, to no avail, anyone know of a fix or work around?

[MatR @ Jan 11th 2007 12:35PM]

I have researched redundant storage solutions quite a bit the last couple of days. After discarding NASs mostly due to price and pondering a Maxtor One Touch III for a couple of days, I saw the Duo today. On paper the 2x250GB solution seems like an amazing value, coming from a reputable company. However, on the software side, it appears to be not only very Windows-centric but abysmal at that.

Does anyone know how difficult it is to exchange a faulty drive and if it possible to hook up two Duos for RAID5 configuration? Any 3rd party software you could think of for managing the drive?

Thanks!

[Kaarlo Torn @ Jan 13th 2007 2:42PM]

I also just purchased and installed 1 500GB DriveStation Duo, only to get the Visual C++ runtime error when attempting to run the RAID setup utility. How to fix this - anybody?

[Mark @ Jan 20th 2007 11:31PM]

Great, I just ordered an 800 Duo from NewEgg. It will be here on Tuesday. Well I have taken a stab at a preemptory strike with folks at Buffalo to see what’s up. It looks as though they posted a firmware update but the link is no longer active. Hugh!! While not holding my breath, I'll copy and paste their reply. It's quite obvious there is a problem, no raid mirror, back to NE she goes.

Good Luck All,
Mark

[James Burrow @ Jan 23rd 2007 1:37PM]

Hi,

I had the same c++ runtime error. Found a new raid configuration utility. This fixes the problem

http://www.buffalotech.com/support/getfile/?Duo_RAID_Utility.zip

[photodesignch @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:33PM]

I own 2 units of 500GB drivestation. The raid driver doesn't seen to work at all. I was on the phone twice (a waitting time approx. 50 minutes per call), the tech support guy told me the problem only existed on my pc box. However, after I downloaded the newest driver, the raid utility still can't find any drive that's attached on USB. (Both pc/mac).

The new version of driver now indicate the requirement of mac runs on OSX but DOES NOT RUN ON intel chip set (new macs). Which is useless. On the windows xp side, nothing works. I've tried on 7 pcs. and 3 of them were newly installed too!

I loved their linkstation, but as to drivestation, it just sucks. The company tend to blow away customers by giving answer to the RAID problem as customer side. This tech support is no differ than other small companies would do. Which I think it's very bad.

Too bad I can't possibly sent them back to NE, because of the restocking fee. And I guess I am pretty much too late to return them now. :( It took me almost two weeks to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Oh! By the way, although there are 2 HDs in it. Tech support told me you are not suppose to swap out the HD when it die on you, instead, you need to ship in, they will swap it for you.

Also, tech support also indicated that the RAID on drivestation is hardware raid instead of software, but it requires the software driver THEY PROVIDED (The one never worked) to activate. So, if your MAC isn't old powerpc chip, and your PC wasn't running the driver properly, you are out of luck on their RAID product on the drivestation production line.

[max @ Apr 4th 2007 1:01PM]

My Runtime error not occur when use newer versio RAID Setup Utility (raid_setting_31_01_2007) and your Buffalo DriveStation Duo have to connect With Firewire.

[RustyCoon @ Jun 8th 2007 5:48PM]

Got DriveStation Duo 1TB. Same problems. MAc to the rescue!!! My Story:
Gotta be non-intel MAc. Attach via Firewire. Use Bufalo's mac raid utility to make it raid 1. Open up your mac's disk utility and "erase" the drive into a new MS-DOS drive. unhook and re-attach to your PC and voila!

[Tom Hofts @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:32PM]

Just use the Macs Disk Utility. Erase the Drives (not the volumes) to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then click the RAID tab and drag the volumes into the list box and either make a mirrored set or join the two drives into a single Concatenated Disk set. It even looks like you can create a Striped RAID array. Easy as pie...Apple pie.

[Bob D @ Feb 17th 2008 11:50PM]

I did the same thing as Tom Hofts on an Intel Mac. This would be prefeable eben if Buffalo's RAID setp utility worked, as the OS X Extended (Journaled) partitions allow you ti use files bigger than 4GB, which I neede for virtual machine files.