StarTech 4-Bay Thunderbolt 2 Hard Drive Enclosure with RAID

2020-11-08T19:00:00

Hi there, I just received a second unit to replace the first I thought was broken but only now I discovered the even the second doesn't work. I downloaded your software but is not compatible with MacOs 10.15.

roberto

Originally posted at

2020-04-12T20:00:00

I purchased this 5 bay eSATA / USB hot swap enclosure in October 2019 and now April 2020 the enclosure keep failing. It is not longer recognized by my NAS which I use for backups. I have to cycle the power in order for the NAS to recognize it again. During backups, the enclosure fails. I replaced the hard drives and still the problem exists.

Paul2020

Originally posted at

2019-09-07T20:00:00

This enclosure does not work with OSX 10.14 & up. It's going between the drives that won't mount or the MBP that won't sleep, shutdown or reboot. Take your pick, either way it's an expensive paperweight if you are running anything above 10.14...

JoBoPo

Originally posted at

2019-06-04T20:00:00

I received this as a gift in december 2018. Since then the product worked flawlessly for a long period of time, until relatively recently. I started having issues when using it with a mac, and with nearly 2 TB of data across 5 HDD's all my drives became corrupted and wouldnt mount. Not understanding what was happening and being a fixer I tried everything I could think to get this back online, even going as far to hook up a different power supply. The dock will corrupt any mac drive that is connected for me, and in windows I get a read/write speed of 34MB/s both ways (USB 2.0 speed) I havent tried the esata I just prefer options and have only used USB 3.0. This unit has huge issues on a 3.1 port, will not consistently stay mounted, has a garbage read/write, the power cable failed, and Ive tried other USB cables without luck. A firmware update has not changed the behavior. Im not sure how the device went from issue free to borderline useless and a risk to my data in 6 months, but I refuse to even bother with a warranty. Startech makes good products and I trusted them but my unit has really made me feel like I might as well have thrown away $200+. Not looking for compensation, as Ill find a way to fix this myself. Just wish to make other buyers aware this thing may act up, and if it does dont bother troubleshooting just straight up return it. Overall build is solid otherwise. Its a product I was in love with until maybe a month ago.

Jasen

Originally posted at

2019-05-10T20:00:00

I purchased a few years ago and used on mac Sierra perfectly for 4 independent drives. It has been really good and can't fault it. However Since update to mojave it just wont work even after reformatting drives. tech support says it should but no luck after trying everything as mentioned in other forums and Apple support. It wont even switch on on a windows 10 laptop with thunderbolt 2 (have tried it on 2 separate machines) or a mac mini with a thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter cable. Seems to be a firmware issue. I have just purchased an OWC 2 bay Thunderbolt 2 caddy and works first time, so that's the solution i'm afraid! Hope that helps others considering this for a newer machine. Look elsewhere.

johnski

Originally posted at

2019-01-14T19:00:00

Have owned this device for several years, and it just works. I'm extremely happy with this product.

Neve

Originally posted at

2018-07-15T20:00:00

The enclosure works well. I get 252 MB/s transfer rate. And, it's very small. I only have one of these, but every one of my drive enclosures is made by StarTech. It's plastic, but I knew that when I purchased it. So, no loss in my review. The only thing I don't like is TRIM doesn't work with this enclosure.

awesome14

Originally posted at

2018-05-23T20:00:00

Bought this enclosure to use as a RAID 0 large storage option. Unfortunately it is slower than the base drives by an order of magnitude (14-16MB per second throughput). do not purchase it if you are going to use it for RAID 0.

tomb

Originally posted at

2018-05-17T20:00:00

I use it with MacOS 10.13.4 in RAID mode for TimeMachine Backup. Works great. Unfortunately no firmware updater for MacOS X available :-(

MattMerz

Originally posted at

2018-05-10T20:00:00

I bought this last week. It's a nice case - compact, light, bus-powered, USB 3.0, takes 15mm 2.5" drives - exactly what I was wanting. Alas, it does not work with 5TB Seagate Barracuda 2.5" drives - and this was not obvious on the Amazon product page. I realise now that it has only been tested with 2TB drives. Gutted! Will there be a firmware update for it that will allow it to use 5TB drives?? I hope so!

Richard108

Originally posted at

2017-12-15T19:00:00

I have two of these enclosures. They worked find with my Mac Pro late 2013 running Mac OSX Sierra. I upgraded to OSX High Sierra, and the eight drives in the two enclosures went MIA! Occasionally, a drive, or two or three, may mount, but after a few minutes it, or they, prematurely eject, hanging up my Mac Pro. One OWC and two Mobius enclosures work just fine with the Mac Pro and High Sierra, but not these StarTech 4-bay enclosures. No one seems to know why. If you plan on using this enclosure with a Mac Pro late 2013 running Mac OSX High Sierra, verify that the drives will mount reliably before you buy - or make sure the vendor will take back the enclosure if it, and the enclosed drives don't function as advertised.

aaprlore

Originally posted at

2017-06-12T20:00:00

Bought this one just last week. It was the only one with JMicron 567 which has a 6Gbit eSATA bus. Performance difference between USB3 and and eSATA is negligeable. In contrast to the earlier model I bought, this one has proper hard drive cooling. It works seamlessley with Linux and Windows. Only issues I had: -Linux recognises drives in different order from numbering on enclosure. So I stuck a label with correct numbering on. -Allthough the trays have light-carriers alongside to cater for individual drive status leds, no leds are mounted in the backplane. So the only indicator are the drive activity leds on the front panel.

hainjedaf

Originally posted at

2016-02-21T19:00:00

A really nice compact and very reserved design. This is the only drive enclosure I could find that fit 2.5" HDDs and SSDs, with SATA 3 and USB3. Very please with this, coupled with two WD red dives it very fast and runs very cool. The only improvement I would make would be to add a quick release/open latch rather than screw entry.

DrZiodberh

Originally posted at

2014-10-29T20:00:00

very googd option fast and good Price but no software to manage hd password o r some thing like that.

tecmod

Originally posted at