Name: StarTech 2.5" Dual-Bay USB 3.0 to SATA III 6Gbps Hard Drive Enclosure with RAID
Brand: StarTech
SKU: STS252BU33R
Price: 64.84 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 3 (24 reviews)

StarTech 2.5" Dual-Bay USB 3.0 to SATA III 6Gbps Hard Drive Enclosure with RAID

StarTech Hard Drive Enclosure

StarTech

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Hard Drive Enclosures & Accessories

StarTech Hard Drive Enclosures & Accessories

StarTech Hard Drive Enclosure 

Buy: StarTech 2.5" Dual-Bay USB 3.0 to SATA III 6Gbps Hard Drive Enclosure with RAID

This USB 3.0 2-bay enclosure for 2.5in drives gives you the performance you want in an external storage system - and features a stylish, compact design that looks great next to your Mac or PC. Ideal for professional business settings or home offices, it provides a powerful data storage solution for your desktop computer, laptop, Ultrabook or Chromebook.&#149; Create a powerful external USB 3.0 storage solution, supporting two 2.5"" SSD or HDD drives &#149; Sleek, compact design works beautifully with your Mac or PC &#149; Transfer files quickly with SATA III (6Gbps) power and USB 3.0 with UASP &#149; Achieve enhanced performance and data redundancy with RAID 0,1, spanning and JBOD &#149; Requires only 5V power, allowing flexible power options &#149; Works with Windows, Mac, Chrome and Linux (2.4.x and up) systems &#149; Easy set-up with no additional drivers and software required  High capacity, high performance external storage  The dual drive enclosure lets you install two 2.5in SSDs or HDDs (from 5mm to 15mm) to create high capacity external data storage. To maximize the performance and speed of your SATA III (6Gbps) drives, the enclosure is enhanced with UASP delivering up to 70% faster transfer speeds than conventional USB 3.0.   Sleek, compact design with flexible power options  The compact design, small footprint and sleek finish make this enclosure the perfect desktop companion for your Mac or PC. Requiring only 5V of power, you have the option to power the enclosure through USB alone, without the need for an external power adapter. It can be powered through a single or two USB sources, such as USB chargers or ports on your laptop, depending on your drive set-up. In stationary applications or configurations where more power is desired, a power adapter is included. The enclosure gives you a convenient, energy-efficient storage solution with flexible storage set-up options - and easy portability.   Increased performance and data redundancy with RAID  Enjoy peace of mind, knowing your files are continually backed up or take advantage of greater speed and capacity offered with a combined solution. The enclosure supports RAID 0, 1, Spanning and JBOD, enabling you to choose your preferred backup mode. With the convenience of RAID, you can achieve increased size, performance or redundancy. The enclosure is compatible with Windows, Mac, Chrome OS and Linux systems without having to install additional drivers or software.   Enhanced performance through UASP  This high-performance SuperSpeed USB 3.0 enclosure supports data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps and is enhanced with UASP support, which can deliver ~70% faster read speed and 40% faster write speed over traditional USB 3.0, when paired with a UASP-enabled host. Applications  &#149; Increase the external storage capacity of any computer by connecting this external storage enclosure &#149; Take it with your laptop for on-the-go external storage &#149; Add the security of data redundancy by using this enclosure with support for RAID &#149; Backup or archive data from any USB computer  Advantage  &#149; Provides high capacity and high performance external storage &#149; Looks great next to your computer with a sleek, compact design &#149; Increases storage performance with RAID and UASP  Note:  1. UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) is supported in Windows 8, 8.1, Server 2012 and Linux kernel 2.6.37 or later. Test results were obtained using an Intel Ivy Bridge system, StarTech add-on USB 3.0 cards, a UASP-enabled StarTech enclosure and a SATA III solid state drive. 2. The S252BU33R dual-bay enclosure is ruggedly built to deliver long-lasting performance and is backed by a StarTech 2-year warranty and free lifetime technical support.

Have this a yew tears. Tried it with RAID but behaved oddly and got slow right from the beginning. Switched to JBOD and works good - when it works. As with others, it disconnects now and then - so far not in the middle of a backup.

Not so good

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.

bought second cabinet because I thought broken

I have had one for aver a year and it works well. I only use it for system backup so it's only on for a few hours about once a month. It does have a noisy fan. Next version should have a larger diameter lower RPM fan to keep the noise down.

Excellent as system backup

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.

Enclosure keeps failing

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...

Not compatible with OSX10.14 & up

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.

Worked, for a while

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.

AVOID! Doesn't Work on Mac Mojave or PC Win 10

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

Works great

I bought this enclosure to had 2 internal drive after I downsized my case on the plus size it was very easy to fit the drives, Once booted up {and set To Jbod} my computer sees the drives in device manager but nothing is happening they don't appear in file manger or even in disk manager

Not Working

Undo one screw to access the insides. Press one button to change the RAID settings. It's THAT easy to use. Comes with both types of data cables, which I tried out and work just fine. Also used a USB-C to eSATA cable from Startech, and throughput to the box was just as it should be. Strangely I need to comment on how happy I am about the power brick. The AC side is a simple 2-prong cable instead of a big brick, so no fighting for power-strip/outlet space! The DC side cable is a really decent length too. The overall size of this device means it can be on the desktop yet out of the way, or you can easily place it on top of a tower PC out of the way. So using this with my newer XPS tower (which SUCK for only having internal bays), I've got tons more storage I can switch around, or even boot into. :) The only two critiques I have are: 1. Fan is a bit noisy for such a small thing. 2. I'd like to see some plastic 3.5 to 2.5 adapters included. Just my own two cents there. I used the box with 3.5" drives and tried all the modes and it was great. Then I had to fabricate my own drive adapters to use SSDs in a more permanent use case. With so many SSD options out there in the 2.5 size... including adapters by default would have put me over the edge to buy these for several uses! I received this product in exchange for an unbiased review.

Compact, speedy, and easy to use.

I am happy with the ease of setup and the overall functionality however the fan is extremely loud for the size of the unit. The enclosure is very light weight even with both drive bays filled, however the drives don't feel very securely mounted and may be contributing to the overall noise. Not my favourite product but it certain performs as expected if you can overlook the noise issue. I received this product in exchange for an unbiased review.

Noisier than expected

I used this with RAID and eSata connection with Windows 10. I did not experience the problems referenced in other reviews. I did notice that it was a bit loud for my quiet office.

Good.

I’ve had a few of these kinds of desktop storage devices over the years, they are usually big, heavy and cumbersome. This unit is none of those. It’s not much bigger than two 3.5in drives stacked on top of each other, the drives just slide in from the front without a carrier, and setting up the RAID is done by sliding a switch on the back and holding the “Set Raid” button while turning it on. Simple! The unit is only as noisy as the HDDs you put into it. There is a small fan inside that you can hear when there aren’t any drives in it, but once you load it you can’t hear it at all. I like the look of the unit with the LEDs on the front showing power and activity, and I tried several large file transfers which were fast as I needed them to be with USB3. Nice to have the ESATA but I haven’t tried it yet. Build quality is good, with large rubber feet to minimize vibrations. For the List price, I think this unit provides good value for what it does. I received this product in exchange for an unbiased review

Great simple storage

This product is not what I would call one of Startech.com's better products. The unit I received has a very very loud fan. Now I am not sure how loud this is supposed to be but I find the noise excessive. Drives install easy enough but they do not screw in, lock down or any type of security. The drives rattle a bit when you move the unit. I think some of the noise i hear is vibration from the drives! I dont think this will be good for the drives long term. The setup was easy, I tried using the combine feature and it worked without a hitch. Just move the switch to the drive setting you want, Hold in the set button and turn it on. Voila. I then formatted the drive for use with Apple and again no issues at all. I have viewed other comments about disconnects but I have not experienced this under OSX. The device works...the build quality is almost there..but the noise from fans, vibrations, is just too much. I received this product in exchange for an unbiased review.

Needs work to be a contender

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.

Smallest USB 3 <> SATA enclosure

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.

Painfully slow with RAID 0

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

Great Enclosure

I am using JBOD, not RAID. With the USB cable Win10 will recognize and write to both of the HDD that I have in this enclosure (4TB and 6TB). However, the unit will shut itself off after a period of inactivity, so large copy operations should be monitored in case a file being open will pause the copy operation (e.g. Outlook .pst file if email client is open). I read in a review that this doesn't happen with the eSATA cable, however, with eSATA Win10 will only recognize one of the two drives I have installed. Enclosure has great potential but falls short.

Buggy

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!

Great Drive But Doesn't Work with 5TB 2.5" Drives

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.

A $496.99 brick - actually two $496.99 bricks!

Seemed to work well but disconnects from the computer (Windows 10) once a day or more (and you then need to power cycle it to reconnect). Finally one of my drives was reporting errors so I tried moving data to another drive on the computer itself. It was a 6GB drive and the during the transfer it kept disconnecting until I finally got fed up and removed the drive from the enclosure. Put it in a different brand enclosure and the transfer is going well now. I may try to upgrade the firmware, but the download doesn't have any details about what's been fixed, and basically I don't trust this enclosure anymore.

Good speed when it's not disconnecting

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.

Mighty fast box!

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.

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