GoFlex Home storage device taps home networking market

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 17 August 2010 13:16

Your IT - Home IT

Seagate's GoFlex Home is specifically designed to meet household shared storage needs.

Another entry into the burgeoning home server market, Seagate's GoFlex Home has some interesting features as well as some omissions.

The GoFlex Home comprises a GoFlex Desk external drive with an Ethernet-connected server built into the base ('dock' might be a more appropriate term). This makes it very easy to replace the drive with a higher-capacity unit when required. The GoFlex Home is available with a 1 or 2TB drive; the GoFlex Desk is also available in a 3TB version.

The downside to this convenience is that a GoFlex Desk more expensive than a bare drive that could be added to a more conventionally designed unit, but it's easy to argue that isn't an attractive option for the device's target market. Also, it seems that a GoFlex Desk base is also required to transfer existing files to the new and larger drive, or to continue to use the old drive via the GoFlex Home's USB port.

Features include shared storage, automatic backup software for Windows and Mac (three licences included, with more available for a fee; the GoFlex Home also claims Time Machine compatibility, though it seems that requires the drive to be reformatted using HFS+), USB printer sharing, and audio, video and photo streaming to "most" DLNA devices.

There's no mention of iTunes server capability, which is a common feature of devices in this class, but there is provision for remote access file sharing via the Internet. An extra-cost option supports access from iPhone, BlackBerry, etc; using photos and other files with Facebook and Flickr; and RSS feeds to draw attention to newly shared files.

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