StarTech SAT3540U2E External Hard Drive Enclosure - 3.5" SATA to USB 2.0, 4 Drive, eSATA, Aluminum, Black (SAT3540U2E)Item#: S262-3214  |  Model#: SAT3540U2E

Works Great

Simple, basic, easy to use. Drives install very easily and run great. Stays cool. You can pull drives while using but it will cause the whole stack to reset.

Good pefrformance as is

Because of my work I wish it had a LAN connection so I could get the info through another network(from far away)(via IP)

Well-built unit, unless you really want RAID

Pros: Solid construction, nice quiet multi-speed (selectable) fan. The door tends to fall off if you just breathe on it, but I can overlook that. Cons: I bought this unit already understanding that it did not come with RAID support on-board, so not faulting it there. I did the research on it knowing that the RAID card that I chose to use would have to support the FIS-switching mode of a port multiplier for this to be used for RAID implementation. Sounds simple enough - but after trying several eSATA RAID port multiplier cards with known FIS-switching chipsets, I could not get the unit to recognize the eSATA mode. Just to ensure it wasn't a bad unit, I plugged in the USB port and it worked just fine (no RAID, obviously) I have since found another one (Vantec NexStar HX4R) that has it's own built-in RAID controller and cost about $60 USD less. That makes this one a bit pricey for a standard non-RAID external enclosure.

Worked great until I had a drive failure...

I bought 1 of these a year or so ago and it worked fine (but I had no drive failures). So I bought 3 more. I configured all of them with 4-drives at RAID 5. Some time ago, I had a drive failure, I powered down the device, and replaced the drive. When I powered it back on, it did not rebuild. Fortunately, it was backed up and I chalked it up to an anomaly. About a month ago, I moved all of my data to one of the units and intended to backup to another unit. While I was in the process of backing it up, a drive failed. No problem, replace the drive and we'll be fine. Once again, it didn't rebuild. I've had to send the drives for recovery at $5,100. Two drive failures, two RAID failures. If you are going to use RAID 5 or 10, then invest in something else.

Worth the price

Compact, easy to configure; I had it up and running in 20 minutes. No RAID, but I didn't need one. I'd buy it again.

Great Item

nice and easy to use, extremely portable. I would buy this item again!

SIMPLE SETUP - SIMPLE TO USE!

Awesome device! I fell in love with this immediately. Very simple to install hard drives to this case. The instruction booklet is 2 small pages, and illustrations make it a snap. Installing drives is as simple as inserting them into the slots. The hardest part of installing this device was finding a spot in my power strip for it. The device is extremely quiet. Even with the fan running full speed, it's relatively quiet. Handles 4 drives of 3TB each (total of 12TB) just fine, even though it calls for max of 2TB each.

Great solution for mass storage

Beats having to try to set up a NAS on my network. I really like this unit, its compact, has a fan, power supply and every drive I have installed, it reads. If you want eSATA, make sure your computer hardware supports it. Mine did not, but that is ok. USB is fine for mass storage. I have some hard drives from the 90's I can still read. I have had many burned cdrw disks fail over the years. Great Value!

Great addition

I needed a solution to host a bunch of drives, but I didn't have room in my tower, I also wanted to be able to move the drives to another location if need be. I bought this with a eSATA card and man is it fast. I have put away my USB drives for good now. I do a lot of Video work and this works great for accessing my media fast and with out any bottlenecks. I highly recommend it.

Super price - Simple set up

From the fast shipping to the very easy set up this quad bay enclosure has been great. If you need a large storage unit and no headaches this is the unit to buy. We have 4 2TB drives installed used in single mode and have had 0% problems with this enclosure.