StarTech 4-Bay Thunderbolt 2 Hard Drive Enclosure with RAID

2020-11-13T19:00:00

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.

Mike00

Originally posted at

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

2020-07-23T20:00:00

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.

Mike M.

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

2018-09-23T20:00:00

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

DeadDave

Originally posted at

2018-08-26T20:00:00

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.

Nick_132

Originally posted at

2018-08-15T20:00:00

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.

ShawnO_8

Originally posted at

2018-08-14T20:00:00

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.

nivek

Originally posted at

2018-08-14T20:00:00

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

Andrew11

Originally posted at

2018-08-05T20:00:00

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.

macphoto1970_001

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

2018-05-16T20:00:00

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.

campingintherain

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

2017-09-13T20:00:00

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.

nrshap

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