Digital Trends

Buffalo Technology LinkStation Live (250GB)

October 7th, 2007 | by Josh Norem

Use and Testing

We busted the LinkStation out of the box, set it down next to our router, and plugged in an Ethernet cable. We then plugged in the power cable, and walked over to our desktop PC and inserted the included software CD. And then the dookie hit the fan.

First we got a message saying the software is not compatible with Windows Vista. A few months ago we might have excused this, but c’mon, the OS has been out for almost a year now. Get with the times.

The backup software that came with the drive did not play with Windows Vista.

Okay, here’s where it gets really confusing. Then we saw the next three screens, in succession. Look at them and tell us if you think this is good software design.

Doh, the software did not install.

Okay, we see that the software did not install. Let’s click “Next.”

Huh?

Even though the software did not install correctly, we got a “setup has been completed successfully” window, which we found out is just the last screen in the setup process and has no bearing on reality. This is bad, for obvious reasons.

Despite the fact that the software didn’t install, we thought we’d look on the network and see if the drive was detected, and sure enough, it was. In fact, it even showed up as a mapped network drive, which confused us at first because we were looking for it under our “network,” but it was actually listed under “computer” for Vista users. That is a good feature, in our opinion.

We then moved to an XP machine and installed the software, which installed okay but there was still a problem. When you install the software, it puts links to the drive on your desktop, but they don’t work. When you click the link to the drive, you get this.

Someone at Buffalo needs to hire a copy editor.