HD 2.5" 4-bay enclosure (not RAID)

[hnickm]

Getting a new mini shortly. Figured it was time to do house cleaning. I have several 2.5" HDs laying around (FW 400, USB 2.0) and some without enclosures. The idea of a 4-bay USB 3.0 enclosure sounds appealing. Not a power user, so I don't need RAID. After reading reviews on Amazon, several of the current enclosures seem to have issues with macs.
Is there a unit that has worked successfully for you that might meet my needs?
Thanks,
HNick

 

[Giuly]

MediaSonic ProBox.

 

[Mojo1]

MediaSonic ProBox.

The MediaSonic box is for 3.5" drives...

 

[Giuly]

Well, the only 4-bay 2.5" enclosures that come to mind are the Drobo Mini, which is 4-bay 2.5" plus one optional mSATA SSD to create a Fusion Drive-esque setup in hardware but does only support BeyondRAID, and the Pegasus J4. Both feature USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt.

Or the ProBox mentioned above, with 2.5" to 3.5" anti-vibration adapter brackets.

 

[hfg]

The Promise Technology "Pegasus J4" is working well for me with my all SSD 27" iMac. I have 4 ea. 1TB 7200rpm HGST Travelstar drives in it configured as a pair of dual-disk RAID-0 2TB drives. One of the drives hold media files (video, music, movies, etc.) and archive type files. The other drive is for high speed DAS Time Machine backup (also backed up to larger NAS in basement). It runs fast, quiet, and cool ... and has no sleep issues.

2 drive RAID-0 transfers data at 255 MB/s using BlackMagicDesign
4 drive RAID-0 delivers >500 MB/s read and write ... using 2.5" hard disks!


So far ... working perfectly!

 

[hnickm]

MediaSonic does make an enclosure for 2.5" drives - the (HFD1-SU3S2).

Some complain that the drives spin-down after a short amount of time and then have to spin-up every time you access them.

Does anyone have experience with the StarTech 4 Bay eSATA USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5/3.5 HDD?

Thanks,
HNick

 

[philipma1957]

MediaSonic does make an enclosure for 2.5" drives - the (HFD1-SU3S2).
View attachment 400062
Some complain that the drives spin-down after a short amount of time and then have to spin-up every time you access them.

Does anyone have experience with the StarTech 4 Bay eSATA USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5/3.5 HDD?
View attachment 400063
Thanks,
HNick

I have had startech 2 bay and the drives get hot hot hot. I ran a small fan near them Fugly but worked.

 

[AppleDApp]

Could anyone confirm if the mediasonic enclosure works with a 2012 imac and os x 10.8.2