INTRODUCTION

   Whether you just want to share data with everyone in your house or the office or if you just want your data to be accessible from anywhere on the planet owning a NAS (network attached storage) device is the easy way out. Unfortunately there aren't currently many solutions in the market targeted towards home users so even the most entry-level NAS servers require quite a few steps to be taken prior to actually using them and if you're not into computers that might be hard. Seagate is one of the very first manufacturers to think of that back in 2013 when they introduced a very basic NAS aimed towards home users which they named the Central (suitable name for a device in which you can store all your media files and access them from anywhere). It wasn't however until last year when they introduced the more "advanced" Personal Cloud and Personal Cloud Pro (2-Bay) models again aimed at home users and today with us we have the 4TB model.

   Founded in 1979, Seagate is the leading provider of hard drives and storage solutions. From the videos, music and documents we share with friends and family on social networks, to servers that form the backbone of enterprise data centers and cloud-based computing, to desktop and notebook computers that fuel our personal productivity, Seagate products help more people store, share and protect their valuable digital content. Seagate offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of hard disk drives, solid-state drives and solid-state hybrid drives. In addition, the company offers an extensive line of retail storage products for consumers and small businesses, along with data-recovery services for any brand of hard drive and digital media type. Seagate employs more than 50,000 people around the world.

   Unlike both the original Central and the Personal Cloud the Personal Cloud Pro by Seagate is a 2-Bay NAS device which is currently available in 3/4/5/6/8TB versions (no diskless version available) and its drives can be configured either in RAID 0 (increased performance) or RAID 1 (increased safety). Unfortunately using RAID 1 means you have half the advertised available capacity so our 4TB model actually goes down to 2TB with RAID 1 (prior to getting the device i was hoping Seagate had their Personal Cloud Pro devices configured only in RAID 1 for increased safety and thus the 4TB model would come with two 4TB drives inside). In terms of connectivity just like every other NAS in the market the Personal Cloud Pro connects to your local network via an 1GbE Ethernet RJ45 connector and since its main task is that of a media hub (can be used to stream media to smartphones, tablets, Roku, Google Chromecast, gaming consoles and smart TVs) it also features one USB 3.0 port and one USB 2.0 port on which you can connect external USB drives. Obviously as stated by its name the Personal Cloud Pro can also be used as a backup and sync device for mobile devices, PCs, and Macs both locally and on the cloud via a good number of compatible services (Amazon S3, Box, Baidu, Dropbox, Google Drive, HiDrive, and Yandex.Disk).