Product Reviews

This LinkStation Mini is an almost infeasibly tiny 1TB dual-disk Raid Nas device. It's based on two 2.5in 500GB disks, which sit inside the black plastic case, and is the same width and length as a regular 2.5in portable hard drive, and about twice the height.

Around the back of the case are a Gigabit Ethernet port, power socket, power switch and USB interface. Air vents on three sides of the LinkStation Mini ensure that it doesn't overheat, which is important because there's no fan.

The Ethernet port auto-senses whether it's connected to a 10, 100, or 1000-based T network, while the USB port can be used to connect a digital camera or USB memory stick in order to automatically download photos or data.

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It can also be used to expand the capacity of the LinkStation Mini by adding an extra hard drive.

The drives can be configured as Raid 0 (striped) or Raid 1 (mirrored). Most impressive is the range of network features, which include an iTunes server, DNLA compliant media server and a print server.

Setting up the LinkStation Mini was straightforward, though not as easy as it should have been. A quick start utility on the accompanying CD guides your through the setup process and installs LinkStation Navigator. This should then locate the Mini, determine its IP address and other settings, and save those on a text file on the Desktop. Unfortunately, it didn't. It couldn't see the Mini, and neither could our router. We had to restart the Mac before Navigator and the router connected to the Mini and even then there was no text file on the Desktop. However, clicking on the unit's icon in the Navigator window provided the information we needed to connect to the Mini in a browser and from there we were able to set up users and groups, shared folders and change the Raid setting from 1 to 0.

Once set up, the Mini is a breeze to use and having a full-blown Nas with 1TB of storage in such a tiny box is a real boon. Best of all is the price, which at less than £300 is excellent value.