Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Received this as a gift off my wishlist. This drive enclosure is an attractive addition to my desk, and when it is properly recognized by Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 'Precise' (see cons), it performs quite well, offering blazing speeds up to 135MB/sec per Roadkil's Disk Speed test. Pros: * Easy hardware setup -- attach the brackets to the front of the drives, plug them into their slots, close the case * Attractive, sleek case with blue indicator lights (one each per drive, fan speed, interface, etc.) * Power cable has 90° bend for security (it's on the side, which may seem like a con, but really, it keeps it from being tugged out unexpectedly) * Offers (but see cons)... offers two interface types (eSATA 6GB and USB 3.0) * Supports read speeds as fast as my hard drives attain when inside the computer (134.99 MB/sec). 2014 Nov update: a WD 4.0TB Purple-series drive installed in this device has attained 150MB/sec sustained write with an SSD as its source. * Ships with all necessary cables and power adapters * No setup disk required; just plug in and go (this works best for my system with the orange sync mode enabled) * Very easy to remove from the system in case of an emergency -- let insurance replace the rest, and keep your data drives safe * Hardware assembly instructions are quite useful and accurate, and will quickly and easily get you to a ready state (but see cons) * The device offers a sync mode that has a nice 15-second delay then powers off, when the computer is turned off or put into S3 sleep. This avoids unnecessary drive power-cycling cold reboots or brief, mistaken sleep cycles * The power supply provides adequate power for four drives, even with all in an active state (e.g. several disk optimizations running simultaneously) * The power supply utilizes the two-part design, which is desirable so that a longer IEC 60320-1 C13 cable can be substituted for the one packaged with the device. (This cable is the one that goes from the 120V mains to the power supply itself.) * The device supports 4TB drives (wow!), for a total of 16TB. As of 2012, I had 2 x 2TB + 2 x 1.5TB and they all worked fine once recognized. 2014 Nov update: I now have one 4TB WD purple drive in the device, and that works great, with transfer speeds up to 150MB/sec from an SSD. * Quality of workmanship is quite high; all parts fit perfectly, and there are no sharp edges or misaligned components. The drives all fit into their slots and have a positive feel when connected. The plastic components are nicely constructed, and overall it has a handsome, modern look with the indicator lights grouped in one area for convenience * The top of the case is solid (no fan), which permits you to place items on it without concern with overheating Cons: * The instructions (as of late-2012 packaging) are severely lacking in certain categories. They do not discuss the use of the interface button and fail to clarify that it's required to be set correctly for the device to stay powered on (it powers down repeatedly, per other reviewers as well, if the interface is not chosen to match the cable you plugged in). The instructions do not discuss the use of the Sync button at all, which was absolutely critical for me to get the device to a state of readiness for daily use. What you need to know is the button switches among three settings: blue turns the enclosure off with a 15-second pause when the computer powers down; orange syncs its sleep with the computer's on/off/sleep cycles (this is what you want, if you want to use this all the time, rather than as an occasional backup); and clear (indicator not lit), which keeps the enclosure running independently of computer on/off/sleep. The Fan button is also not documented, but its use is straightforward enough to not quibble. I used the URL provided in the printed instructions to get to this product's page, and when I downloaded the .pdf of the instructions (hoping they would fully clarify all functions), I was disappointed to find that it represents only the exact pages of the printed "quick start". The URL in the instructions cannot be hacked to look at the domain itself (usbex dot com) and browse for drivers, full instructions, spec sheets, anything... * When the sync state is blue, the USB3.0 interface is unreliable in terms of always being found by Windows (but it works great when set to orange). In the blue mode, I tried having the box plugged in and turned on, when the computer was cold-booted, warm-booted and awakened from S3 sleep. In no case were my drives consistently recognized. One time, they were found but Windows dangerously, unhelpfully, told me that they would need to be formatted before use. Um, sorry, no: they have data on them from this computer and it didn't find them correctly. In another case, I changed USB ports and they were found accurately and in a reasonable amount of time, and appeared in Windows Explorer with their correct drive letters. In several other cases, they were not found at all, and rebooting with the device on, rebooting with it disconnected, and so on, did not result in the drives being found. In one case, rebooting with the device turned on resulted in the computer hanging on boot -- no error... just a black screen while it did nothing. All this is illustration to show that if the Sync state is not orange, there are odd problems. When it's orange, all is right with the world again. Just be aware. The same observations apply for the eSATA interface; I got it working, finally, but only after many combinations of unplugging the device, plugging it in at various times before a boot or after the computer had settled down. * USB3.0 is unreliable under Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04 on multiple devices. USB3 semi-works but due to various factors I attempted to fix -- cable quality, cable length, position of the cable, different host USB3.0 ports, on and on) -- I could never get the drives to be stable except under very light load, and even then, they unmount and re-mount constantly. Transferring more than a few MB would result in all drives being unmounted (Linux) and sometimes they would come back. In any case, this resulted in corruption and lengthy recovery operations. I eventually gave up on USB3.0 with this device after trying three cables, including the one that was supplied with the enclosure, and was able to find an eSATA card that is supported natively in Linux (using a SIL3132 chip) and everything was back to normal again. As of early 2014, I dumped Win7 in favor of Ubuntu, and after addressing an eSATA incompatibility (an OS / driver issue, not the enclosure's issue), I'm back to relying on the drive enclosure. Note (Dec 2014): I added a Zotac ZBox to my desk for light computing, and put Ubuntu 14.04 on it and tried the Mediasonic box's USB3.0 ports with a super-short USB3.0 cable and achieved only very limited success. "Very limited success" here means the drives eventually mounted, and I was able to read small files, but they quickly unmounted without warning. As the ZBox has no eSATA ports, I will never be able to use this enclosure with this bookshelf computer. * Even moderate cable length adversely affects the reliability, even the outright functionality, of the enclosure. The supplied USB3.0 cable (perhaps mine is defective?) does not work consistently, and causes the enclosure to lose signal and disconnect from the computer, causing delays at best, corruption at worst. Only the very short eSATA cable that was supplied with my enclosure works. I expected more from the manufacturer of such a fine enclosure (in most other ways). Update 2014 Nov: tested other USB 3.0 cables of various lengths (one a meter longer than the supplied cable, and one shorter) and none worked at all. Additionally, I tested a 2m eSATA cable, and that fails to get the device's drives recognized. This is disappointing, because having the Mediasonic more physically separated from the computer may work into various security strategies. Using a long cable did not work consistently or at all, in any of my tests. Other thoughts Setup ought to be really straightforward. It should be plug-n-play, yet isn't exactly, because of the poor instructions. It should work with both of the supplied interfaces, using instructions provided with the unit, yet it doesn't without undocumented fussing. The instructions should completely discuss all options and provide example usage scenarios, yet they leave several functions with zero clarification (not just spotty, but utterly _no_ coverage). Visit the Mediasonic forum and read up on the device before you give up (if you're having problems). For me, properly setting the Sync setting to orange made the difference between wanting to return the device, and never wanting to let it go. This shouldn't be left to chance by the manufacturer of a fine product that has such promise and works so nicely once it is finally set up correctly. Followup: It has been working flawlessly now for about two years, so I am quite certain that I have the sync exactly as it should be. I simply turn on my computer (or wake it), and the drives are there, using eSATA. I turn off (or sleep) the computer, and the enclosure sleeps. It's exactly what I wanted. I have increased my rating to five-star because the hardware itself works flawlessly once configured correctly. I couldn't ask for anything better (except for USB3.0 to work, which I can live without). Update: I updated the Cons above to indicate my issues with the USB3.0 interface. eSATA is unaffected, and I continue to be happy with this enclosure so long as I have 1) an eSATA interface that is supported by the OS, and 2) a short, high-quality eSATA cable. Update October, 2015: "And then one day, it didn't." Unfortunately the drive enclosure chose one day a few weeks ago to simply stop working properly. It reverted to the bad behavior with the constant powering-down, and no amount of re-tracing my steps has cured it. I plan to give it another try at some point, but given that the computer I am using recently has no eSATA ports, this will be a while. It was fun while it lasted... Another update (late October, 2015) Working again. I'm not certain what was going on earlier, but I simply plugged my drives back in today and it works. I also tested out the hot-swapping by plugging them in while it was running, and that too worked. It held the settings through one power cycle and one sleep cycle (Ubuntu 14.04) so I think it's back for real. I'll chalk that earlier failure up to user error... shows you yet again that it's a bit of a tricky device to get to work, but once it does, it's great. I also have had no issues with this enclosure under Linux Mint, which I'm trying out.