Digital Trends

Buffalo Technology LinkStation Live (250GB)

October 7th, 2007 | by Josh Norem

More Testing

Even though the drive was always visible on our computer, we never got the links to work.

Going back to our Vista PC, we ended up downloading the latest version of the Memeo backup software from the website, and by golly, it does work with Vista. We are surprised and disappointed at the same time that Buffalo isn’t shipping the latest version of this software with its drives; or, at the very least, that the software can’t update itself to be compatible with Vista. Bottom line: There is a Vista version of this software, so ship it with the drives. 

Once we had the software up and running, it’s actually incredibly good. We’ve sampled a lot of backup software over the years, and this package is one of the best.

Here’s how it works: you tell the software which folder(s) to watch. As soon as you add files to that folder, the backup routine kicks in and your files are backed up. It is instant, and not on a schedule. It is all done in real-time, which we think if fantastic. Move one new picture into your “my pictures” folder, and the software will see it, and copy it to the backup drive. 

Just to recap at this point, even though the software was being wonky during installation, the drive was still showing up as a mapped network drive and things were working fine.

We then began to delve a bit deeper into the software, and were met with nothing but frustration. First, one of the desktop shortcuts opens up a diagnostic screen that scans the network and shows if the drive is present. We were able to get that to work. Okay, so the software can see the drive, right? So then we click on “view shares” and got this message.

The Buffalo software can see the drive, but can’t find the shared folders. Okee-dokey.

We’re sorry Buffalo, but this is just stupid. If the software can see the drives it can surely see the shared folders, or so one would think.

Moving along, we then went into the web server section of the drive and were met with a plethora of configuration options, but the one we were most interested in was the “web access” option, which allows folders to be shared over the Internet. That would be very useful, or so we thought. We enabled it, and then typed in the URL to login, and then could not log-in. We then downloaded the manual for the drive, followed the instructions, which were vague, and had no success. We then called Bufallo’s support line, but after waiting on hold for 20 minutes we threw in the towel. We are quitters, it’s true, but it should not be this difficult. If we, as advanced PC users, cannot figure this stuff out, there is no way in hell that a home user would figure it out on their own.

One positive note we can vouch for the drive is that Buffalo touts its ability to integrate with iTunes, and that is true. It showed up in iTunes without any user intervention, which is great.

Conclusion

The LinkStation Live is a mediocre product, which actually worked quite well once we had surmounted all the hurdles thrown in place during installation. It showed up on our network, and all files were instantly backed up, which was super. But we had so many problems during the installation and configuration process that we would not recommend this product to friends and family. Buffalo needs to revamp its software to eliminate all the errors, and make it much more user friendly before it can be considered a user-friendly product.

Pros:

• Drive shows up automatically
• Integrates with iTunes
• Lots of features

Cons:

• Software is buggy and confusing
• Poor documentation
• Ships with old backup software
• Long hold time with tech support
• Expensive