Dual-bay 3.5" SATA enclosure

Any recommendations?

I'm thinking of perhaps getting this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182144

The Rosewill R2-JBOD.

There are cheaper ones on Newegg, but those have negative reviews from users there. This Rosewill has very positive reviews. Anyone here used one, or could get an idea from the specs?

One concern--I would be putting two 1`TB 3.5" SATA drives in it. They both already have data on them. I want to keep that data. (As they are the largest drives I have, nothing else to back them up to. They already contain backups from different computers.)

I saw something in the specs or manual about formatting the drives. I guess that would probably be necessary to use them as a RAID drive, or to put them together into one 2TB drive. (I think that is JBOD.)

But I should also be able to put them in there and use them as two separate drives, as they are now, without formatting, correct?

If not, is that the case with all dual enclosures?

Thanks for the info.

 

Different manufacturers will impose different restrictions, but your premise of having to format to use in a RAID configuration is 100% correct.

Myself, I would not buy Rosewill, nor would I enable RAID in such a proprietary enclosure.

I use Vantec MX with USB2 and eSATA connectivity (single port for two drives), though I don't use the RAID features it offers.

By 'ignoring' the RAID features, should an enclosure fail; I can remove the drives, connect to any computer I have available and read my data in minutes. Assuming it was the power supply or the enclosure's circuit board that became defective and not the HD's themselves. If I was relying on the RAID, I would need to buy the exact same enclosure to 'try' to read my data - with no guarantees of it working. Yes, RAID seems to offer protection, but in the real world it doesn't (unless you have an IT staff working for you full time).

See:
http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/view_detail/277

 

Without knowing EXACTLY what is inside of BOTH the rosewill and vantec enclosures, it's pretty silly to recommend one over the other.

 

newposter, true.

But Rosewill was headaches and Vantec's just work, so therefore my recommendation's biases.

 

Tiller-

I am not interested in a RAID configuration though. I just want to know if I can use the drives as they are in the enclosure, without re-formatting.

What is your reason for thinking Rosewill products are junk? Have you had bad experiences with them?

I think one of the cheaper dual enclosures on Newegg was from Vantec (although I cannot recall for sure), and had bad user reviews, while this one has good reviews.

 

Like I said and you quoted me saying; each will have their own restrictions as to whether you can just use without reformatting. I don't know specifically for this Rosewill product you're considering.

My experience with them is that it would take a reboot to be recognized by not only my systems, but also client's systems that I wanted to copy very large images too. This is unacceptable.

My reasoning is that they are using a very cheap chipset, or immature firmware on the ones I tried.

I really don't care for the reviews on the 'net because I don't know their systems and how they're set up, right?

Anyway, each of us has their own qualifications for using or not using a particular product. As long as Vantec doesn't give me troubles (so far so good for 3-4 years +), I see no reason to try Rosewill again and maybe change my mind.

If you do use them, I hope these issues I saw are resolved for you.

 

I looked that model up. (Certainly not one of the cheaper ones I was thinking of.) It would cost a little more than the Rosewill, but not too much. (The Rosewill is $39.95, with tax and shipping a little more than $50. The Vantec on Amazon, free shipping and no tax for $59.95.)

So, if there is a good reason to pay a little more for the Vantec, I would. Not sure if there is though.

Look at the reviews of that Vantec model, on Newegg, Amazon, etc. All say that it functions well. But almost every user has the same major complaint--that the fan is way too loud, with a strident pitch, and folks have found that incredibly annoying, even people not normally noise-sensitive.

One user even took the fan out, because the noise bothered him so much!

Did you say you use that model? How is the noise to you?

Anyone else?

Is there really any reason it would be better than the Rosewill?

 

So, are you saying, that you did use a Rosewill product (even if not this one), and had problems with it?

If so, what kind of product was it, and what kind of problems did you have?

(Of course that does not say anything definitive about this particular product, but it would still be good to know, if people have had a lot of problems with the brand in general.)

 

maiki,

lol, Okay! Now we know - the complaints are about the noise? Lol... Sure, they're a little loud - but these don't get left on all the time, either.

A 'loud' fan is a fan that is moving a lot of air, which equals a cooler HD and circuit board which equals - Always - to a longer lifespan.

If anybody wants a $50 enclosure to run Enterprise HD's meant for 24/7 operation... well, I'm

I only use these for backups each day - maybe they're on 1/2 an hour at most.

If the noise is really bothering me (more from the 4 Raptors than the enclosures) I can simply leave the room while the data is getting backed up.

Not saying what you should do yourself; but noise is not one of my chief criteria for one of my (mostly off) backup solutions. Reliability is.

Cheers!

 

Now, from reading an e-mail from Rosewill Tech Support, I'm not sure if I can use drives with data on them, without formatting. I wrote back for clarification.

As you did, I just want to use the drives as normal drives within that enclosure, including the data already on them. You say that is possible with the Vantec? Did you already have data on your drives when you installed them on that enclosure? Did it ask you to format?

Thanks

 

maiki, to be truthful, that is too long ago for me to accurately remember - but even if I could verify it on my 'older' models, it may have changed for the current ones being sold, right?

Firmware could change at any time to account for slightly different sources of the raw components and/or purposely changing the 'default' behavior of their products to match the expectations of their (current) customers.

You'll have to try it and see, either with the Rosewill or the Vantec or any other brands you can try - I don't guarantee anything, of course, but I can't see it doing something 'automatically' to your HD's and thereby erasing the data without you having to hit at least a couple of 'confirm' dialogue boxes.

Do you have an old HD you don't care for the data on it? Maybe it will be wise to test on one of those first - before you commit to your 'live' data disks.

Good luck.

 

Thanks, Tiller,

True, it probably won't format the drives without asking me! But I would like to find out before I shell out the money, as it would be a hassle to return, and Newegg charges restocking.

In one of the 118 user reviews of the Rosewill on Newegg, one user wrote that he did just that, used drives with data and the data was intact.

The manual (available online) isn't at all clear about that. It only talks about formatting the drives. But I think it assumes that one is putting new unused unformatted discs in the unit, which of course would have to be formatted before use. The manual doesn't even discuss the possibility of using drives that already have data on them. It should. And I think the tech rep who wrote me might have got his idea from the manual, that drives must be formatted.

-------------

The NAS networked dual enclosures look like a cool option, but it seems that they all definitely do require reformatting of the drives, into a Linux file system. Perhaps someday I will get one of those with new drives to put in it, but right now I am looking foir something with drives I have, without wiping them out.

 

JBOD, by the way, isn't RAID. JBOD stands for Just a Bunch Of Disks, but, unfortunately, there are 2 possible uses for it. One is as you'd expect, each disk is separately seen and addressable, while the other is having the disks spanned into one virtual volume. From the specifications on Newegg, it seems that this particular one uses the first possible use, which would imply that you could just put in your disks and the data should be safe and usable, just as if you put them in a "normal" enclosure. RAID (which this enclosure doesn't seem to support), or the second option of BIG that it supports (which is the other use of JBOD, actually) would probably involve formatting, though.

 

Yes, I know JBOD isn't RAID, although I can't say I really understand it. (I think that unit may also have RAID as an option, I forget. There seems to be differing usage of the term JBOD, as you mention, which is confusing. On looking up the term, some describe it in the same way that this unit describes BIG, the other option, putting drives together into one. Yet the description of JBOD for this unit is separate drives.

I think the tech support guy who e-mailed me, looked at the manual, saw that it said that drives must be formatted before using them, and told me I would have to format mine before using them. However, I think the manual is only discussing brand new, never-formatted drives, which of course need to be formatted before using them.

My guess is, the drives would work in that unit without re-formatting. But--it would be nice to get a little confirmation of that first.

 

Well, I received another e-mail from Rosewill tech support (actually I think they are owned by Newegg, as Newegg was somewhere in the e-mail headers). This time I was told that probably yes, the two drives could probably be used separately without formatting, retaining the current data.

I have one other concern, based on another of those 118 reviews of the product on Newegg:

One user wrote, that with two separate drives, both cannot be opened at the same time. Perhaps I misunderstood what he or she meant, or they were mistaken, as it doesn't make sense to me. Could that mean that Windows could not open both drives at the same time, for instance to copy or move data from one drive to the other?

That is hard for me to imagine, as one would think that if Windows sees two drives, with two separate drive letters, one could access both drives, copy or move data between them, etc. (Even possible on one drive, with partitions.)

If that is in fact the case though, that one could not really open both drives at once that way, that would be a deal-breaker for me. (I would like it just the same as if they were in two separate enclosures, with the space saving of being together in one, only one AC cord, etc. But not if both drives cannot be opened.)

I wrote tech support about that now too, but no reply so far.

What do users here think, even without having used that enclosure? Is that possible, that Windows sees the two drives, different drive letters, etc., but that both cannot be opened at once?

Or was that probably a mistake of the reviewer, or my misunderstanding of what he or she meant?

 

It _may_ be that they concatenated the 2 drives using the BIG format and then partitioned part of one drive into a second partition, and thus you could not access both volumes at once (sort of reaching here), but... without more details it's really hard to say. Or maybe they just got a bum enclosure with a bad controller.

Actually, if it's the review I think it might be (now that I've looked at it) it just says his computer locked up while trying to access both drives at the same time. That could be his OS or something else instead of just the enclosure. It's really hard to tell.

 

I should follow-up here.

I got the Rosewill, only $40 from Newegg, and it works fine. No problem with the data on my drives, the two show up separately. (You have to set a jumper switch inside the case for the two separate drives (JBOD), or combined together (BIG).

Quiet, looks nice, works well, no complaints.


Are there any cases like this, that will take more than two 3.5" drives, into one large enclosure--3, 4, or 5 drives? (A good use for old drives--rather than put them in separate enclosures--put them together into one!)

 

Yes, but a lot of them also start reaching into the server or NAS level, and start coming with processors and hardware RAID setups which will make them more expensive. Here are a few quick examples from browsing Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993023

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707156

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198028

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994037

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817332021

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993022

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198034

It's worth noting that all of these choices will set you back about $200 (or more!)

 

I'm surprised it leaves the drives alone and can read them. That sounds like the device I need. I wonder how reliable Rosewill is though.

Are there any similar devices that will leave the drives alone, let you view each separately, read NTFS, and hold 4 drives?

 

I think most enclosures that will hold 4 drives will, it's just a matter of not enabling them in RAID. Especially look for any enclosures that are listed as JBOD, I think.

 

This would be an awesome 4 drive server, except it automatically formats your drives and sets them up for RAID

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2021752