Problems with a Wiebetech RTX220-QJ

[BobD2]

I am having problems with a Wiebetech RTX220-QJ (http://www.wiebetech.com/products/RTX220-QJ.php) which is an external hard drive enclosure for 2 drives. Upon inserting 2 disks (WD 1TB Green drives) to be used as backups, and connecting to my computer both drives were recognized (they had been previously formatted). However, within a few minutes one of the drives (the one in the lower bay) disappeared from the desktop and could not be seen in the Finder or within Disk Utility.

I have swapped drives without effect. Regardless of which drive is located in which bay, only the drive in the upper slot is seen. I have also swapped the orientation of the cables -- from computer to upper bay with daisy-chain to lower bay, from computer to lower bay with daisy chain connection to upper bay, and, using two FW 800 ports, one cable to each bay. Same result in either case -- only the drive in the upper bay is seen. I have also connected the drives using eSATA with the same result -- after a while, the drive in the lower bay drops out.

If I disconnect everything (remove all cables, including power cable), move the device around (for example, turn it upside down to read the ID, product number, date of manufacture), and then reconnect, I see the drives in both bays briefly. Then within a few minutes the one in the upper bay disappears from the desktop and I get a warning message to the effect that the drive was not ejected properly.

I have returned the drive to Wiebetech for repair, and they report finding nothing wrong, so returned it to me. I still see the same problem.

At this point, I am ready to return it to the vendor (Amazon.com) in hopes of getting a refund. But if someone has a suggestion as to how to fix this or make it work reliably, I’ll give that a try.

I have two other external hard disks (500 GB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro) and a NewerTech Voyager Q, all of which work fine with FW 800 or eSATA, and did so with my previous Mac (dual 800 MHz PowerMac) as well as my current machine. The Voyager Q works fine with either of the two drives that I have attempted to use in the RTX220-QJ, using either FW800 or eSATA connection. All of this with the same cables I have used with the Wiebetech device.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Current machine:
2010 Mac Pro 3.33 GHz 6-Core
12 GB RAM
4 internal drives:
2x1TB WD RE3 drives
2x1TB WD Caviar Black drives
External drives as indicated in text.

 

[philipma1957]

did you buy the 0gb model? If you purchased the driveless model did you pay the list price of 399? if you did that please return them and get your money back. you were really gouged. so many other 2bay units cost far far less.


this 4 bay unit is far better.


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEQX2KIT0GB/

here is a 2 bay unit for far less:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816142035&cm_re=raidon-_-16-142-035-_-Product



to answer your question I think it is bad gear sold by a company that overcharges and then does not back the gear up.

 

[BobD2]

Philipma1957 --
Thanks for your reply, and for the suggestions.
Yes, it was the 0 GB model. Disks were purchased separately (from OWC). I didn't want a RAID unit (my two WD RE3 drives are RAID 0 already), but wanted to be able to address and use the disks separately (JBOD, I think, is the term). I was aware of the 4-bay model from OWC that you mentioned (and which has been well reviewed), but I think that's RAID only. Could be wrong about that. This also seems to be the case with the 2-drive model you mention.
MacGurus has one that might work http://www.macgurus.com/store/ecom-prodshow/Burly2Hotswap.html).

 

[barmann]

I'd love to read this, could you add paragraphs ?

 

[BobD2]

I'd love to read this, could you add paragraphs ?

Not sure who you're replying to here, or specifically what you are interested in reading. Could you clarify this?

 

[barmann]

Not sure who you're replying to here, or specifically what you are interested in reading. Could you clarify this?

Your original post is - for me - impossible to read without paragraphs, but I'm very interested in the topic .

 

[BobD2]

Your original post is - for me - impossible to read without paragraphs, but I'm very interested in the topic .

OK, the original message was written as a series of separate paragraphs, but without blank lines between them. I have added a few blank lines -- hope that helps. If not, perhaps you could copy the text into your favorite word processor and see how it looks.

 

[LankyNibbs]

This reply is probably too late, and maybe not relevant since you have a mac pro, but here goes:

I have the RTX 220 QJ as well, and the model preceding it. When I added the new enclosure to my FW bus I had problems with disks disappearing from the desktop, and some disk corruption.

In my case, it turns out the problem was not with the RTX but with the fact that I had too many devices, or too much cable length, on the firewire bus of my 2007 aluminum imac.

I had an Apogee Duet on the FW400 port, and on the FW800 port, I had:
1. the first Wiebetech dual-bay jbod enclosure
2. the second Wiebetech dual-bay jbod enclosure (RTX 220)
3. a single firewire tray drive.

Since, from what I now understand, both the 400 and 800 ports are really the same bus internally, I had the equiv of 6 devices in the FW chain.

Seems the bus just couldn't handle it, even when I shortened all cables. I could use different combinations of enclosures, but never the two dual-bay jbods at the same time. A mac pro could use a second FW card, but not my iMac.

I had to put the old dual-bay jbod on usb, one cable per disk obviously. It all works fine for what it is, and I'm completely hooked on the trayless enclosures.

Steven

 

[BobD2]

Steven,
Thanks for your reply. I still have the device -- it's sitting on my floor unused. I guess I should give it another try, taking your comments into consideration. I do have a number of other devices on my Firewire bus. I could try disconnecting all of them for a while and connecting only the RTX220-QJ and see what happens.