Windows 10: Looking for a 4-bay USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure

Discus and support Looking for a 4-bay USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware to solve the problem; I'm having a major issue with my current external hard drive enclosures (standard mechanic drives) that I'm trying to resolve in another thread so I... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware' started by rivre, Oct 18, 2016.

  1. rivre Win User

    Looking for a 4-bay USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure


    I'm having a major issue with my current external hard drive enclosures (standard mechanic drives) that I'm trying to resolve in another thread so I won't go into that here:

    Lost access to drive - "Access is Denied"

    Basically on my new PC my current enclosures are either not connecting or dropping out/corrupting my drives. I lost a ton of data already. I have several Icy Dock Black Vortex enclosures and two older Mediasonics. The Icy Docks are both USB 3.0 and esata. One Mediasonic is USB 2.0 only and one is esata only. All are 4-bay enclosures.

    So I'm trying to find a good enclosure that will play nice with my Gigabyte Z170x Gaming-7 motherboard. I have USB 3.0 on the motherboard plus I have a RocketRaid 622 esata card installed. The chipset of the motherboard is Intel Z170. Gigabyte suspects that the older enclosures might not be playing nice with the new chipset of my new motherboard. Icy Dock thinks differently and suspects it's my old WD Green drives at fault.

    But there are very few affordable 4-bay enclosures available. Mediasonic makes one that is almost identical to my current Mediasonics except they are both USB 3.0 and esata now. I tried a Mediasonic USB 3.0 a couple years ago on my old PC and the USB didn't work at all with my old USB 3.0 card so I returned it. Maybe now it would work better on my motherboard's built-in USB ports? I dislike the cooling in the Mediasonics so I wish there was a better alternative.

    Can anybody recommend any other external USB 3.0 4-bay enclosures? I have no idea what's causing my enclosure issues but to troubleshoot I need another unit and there seems to be a lack of affordable 4-bay enclosures to choose from. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

    The Mediasonic I'm looking at is here:

    https://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HF.../dp/B003X26VV4

    :)
     
    rivre, Oct 18, 2016
    #1
  2. KJW_PK Win User

    Windows 10 and issues writing to Jmicron-based USB 3.0 (dual) HDD enclosures

    I have a variety of systems running Windows 10 v1511. I have tried a couple JMicron - based USB 3.0 disk enclosures:

    TeckNet UD037 Dual-bay USB 3.0 HDD dock

    Thermaltake BlacX Duet 5G USB 3.0 HDD dock

    Any time I try to write to a drive in one of these enclosures over USB 3.0, Explorer just sits there until a 0x80070079 Semaphore Timeout error pops up. Reading from the disk works fine. This happens with a Surface Book and a Gigabyte Z170x-UD3 motherboard-based
    PC. If I use a USB 2.0 cable instead, it works fine. Drivers and OS updates are all up to date.

    On the other hand, I have a Dell Latitude E7450 with USB 3.0 which can write just fine to the disk / enclosure over USB 3.

    Has anyone else experienced an issue like this with a USB 3.0 enclosure and found a workaround that doesn't involve reverting to USB 2.0?

    Is it possible to force Windows 10 to run these enclosures in USB 3.0 BOT mode? It seems as though the problems lie somewhere within the combo of the enclosure chipset and Windows 10 trying to transfer in UASP mode.
     
    KJW_PK, Oct 18, 2016
    #2
  3. create a back up drive from an old hard drive

    Hi Bob,

    Look at the information provided with this link.

    Disk enclosure - Wikipedia

    You need to do some research before you purchase an enclosure. What type of hdd is in the "old" computer? Does the present computer have USB 2.0 or USB 3.0? These are considerations before you purchase an enclosure.

    Price a name brand external hdd along with an enclosure and compare. You need to prepare a hdd in an external enclosure before you copy files to it. What is the speed of the hdd in the old computer? These are all considerations to research.

    How to create a system image in Windows 10!

    How to use File History on Windows 10 - gHacks Tech News

    Brenda
     
    Brenda Woollard, Oct 18, 2016
    #3
  4. EdTittel Win User

    Looking for a 4-bay USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure

    The MediaSonic also gets pretty good reviews (4 eggs from 74 reviews) on Newegg. Might be your best bet. Don't really see that many options out there. You might also want to post on the SmallNetBuilder forums to see if you can tap into any collective wisdom there. If it were me, I'd be thinking about getting a NAS instead (they cost more, but generally tend to work for years and years).
    HTH,
    --Ed--
     
    EdTittel, Oct 18, 2016
    #4
  5. rivre Win User
    Thanks for the input. A bonus is the Mediasonic doesn't support USAP, which I think may be at the heart of my corruption issues on my current enclosures. I just don't like the cooling system on the Mediasonic, as I already have an esata one. The small noisy fan is on the back of the unit, but in front of the fan inside is the board, which blocks almost all the airflow from the fan. Also I wish the fan was in front like the Icy Docks I'm having so much trouble with. Right now I have the front grille off and a fan balanced right in front of it to blow cool air into the unit and across the drives, which looks ridiculous and is very inconvenient.

    I have no experience with NAS - I wouldn't know where to start - and I don't really have a lot of money to spend. I also copy and back up regularly to these enclosures which is what I use them for. I don't actually use them for RAID - just a storage box to hold all my data drives.
     
    rivre, Oct 19, 2016
    #5
  6. EdTittel Win User
    You could spring for two USB 3.0 two-drive drive caddies instead. I use one Thermaltake model and another from Dyconn, both purchased in the last year from Newegg, and have had nary an issue with either of them. They cost about $50 each, and because the drives are mounted vertically in the open they don't run too warm (smart says all of them are at or under 30 C right now). You can cool them further with a box fan if needs must, as you're already doing with your current rig.
    HTH,
    --Ed--
     
    EdTittel, Oct 19, 2016
    #6
  7. rivre Win User
    Well the thing is I have a bunch of drives that have accumulated over the years, so I need a few 4-bay enclosures. That makes the 2-bay enclosures or caddies not a realistic option for me, since there would be too many of them all needing ports and outlets and taking up space.
     
    rivre, Oct 19, 2016
    #7
  8. EdTittel Win User

    Looking for a 4-bay USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure

    I hear you! And alas, the synology 8-port NAS is $850 at Newegg and B&H, highly-rated (4 eggs/11 reviews). But that's waaay more expensive than 2 four-port enclosures. I've had good luck with StartTech stuff over the years, and they've got a four-port vertical caddy at Newegg for $162. May be worth a look?
    HTH,
    --Ed--
     
    EdTittel, Oct 19, 2016
    #8
  9. rivre Win User
    Interesting. It supports UASP which should be good but I'm wondering if my problem is UASP related or not. I'm still trying to track down what caused my corruption on my Icy Dock enclosure. So right now I'm a bit nervous about UASP even though it may have nothing to do with my issue with Icy Dock.

    Is it okay that the drives are vertical in that caddy? I'm used to my enclosures storing them horizontally. I wouldn't be swapping the drives because the less I handle them the better. I'd probably have a fan set up over the units to blow air across them, like I have set up with the Mediasonic. It's quite a bit more expensive though - the Mediasonic is only $99.

    Mediasonic does make an 8-bay but it costs way over what it would cost to buy 2 separate 4-bays from them:

    - 8-bay: $270
    - 4-bay: $99
     
    rivre, Oct 19, 2016
    #9
  10. EdTittel Win User
    Needs a beefier power supply, is probably why the 8-bay does a near-3X jump. I hope you wouldn't use a lot of concurrent access to multiple drives: USB 3.0 has a theoretical max of 5Gbps, but you'd be lucky to get half that in real-world aggregate throughput.
    Should be interesting! Good luck with your purchase, whatever it may be. Do please post again to let us know what you buy!
    As for "going vertical" you can indeed use a box fan or other small air mover to keep things cooler if you must. As I said, I have my two-port bays on a baker's rack in the office next to my desk, and those units never go above 30 to 31 C (as long as I leave the A/C running, that is -- this is Texas, after all...)
    Thanks,
    --Ed--
     
    EdTittel, Oct 19, 2016
    #10
  11. rivre Win User
    In general a lot of these external enclosures seem to have a lot of issues. Lots of dropped drives and lost connections, cheap power supplies, poor cooling, and other issues. As I mentioned above, my old Icy Dock enclosures aren't working at all on my current Windows 10 PC - it just corrupted over 1 TB of data. Luckily a good portion of it was backed up. But now I'm very hesitant on what to buy, since any of them may have the same issues. It seems USB 3.0 is especially problematic for many of those enclosures, especially the 4-bay ones.
     
    rivre, Oct 20, 2016
    #11
  12. EdTittel Win User
    Yes, true: which is why a storage server or NAS makes more sense when you start pooling lots of disk drives. As more data is put to risk, risk management says we should be willing to spend more to reduce that risk. But, if the budget won't cover it, it won't cover it. Sigh.
    --Ed--

    PS: here's what I want, just to make you chuckle: TBS-453A :: QNAP with 4 of the new Samsung 960 2 TB NVMe drives installed.
     
    EdTittel, Oct 20, 2016
    #12
  13. jimbo45 Win User

    Looking for a 4-bay USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure

    Hi there

    I'd get one with built in RAID -- I'm using 2 X Hornetek enclosures with hardware RAID. They have separate power supplies and connect to computer via USB 3 -- using a USB 3 hub.

    My HDD's are 2 X 3 TB in each enclosure set up as RAID 0 (I have enough backup) so RAID 0 is fine --gives me more than adequate speed.

    Hornetek also do 4 Bay HDD's -- also with RAID. Note though ensure that there is also a fan as HDD's in a smallish box can get warm if used continuously and check that max total TB allowed is within your HDD sizes.

    With these enclosures you can actually use 2.5 inch HDD's - but you'll need an adaptor for each HDD you have as 2.5 inch - one from HP ProLiant server works if you want to use SSD's / other 2.5 inch HDD's in these boxes. You can get the adapters from HP --you don't have to have the server of course. !!!

    You can switch RAID OFF, have it as JBOD (just a bunch of Disks --rather like Windows storage spaces, or as discrete HDD's. Switchable from INSIDE the unit so decide what you want before fitting the HDD's.

    Cheers
    jimbo
     
    jimbo45, Oct 20, 2016
    #13
  14. EdTittel Win User
    Great info, Jimbo! Thanks: always looking for a good way to accommodate DASD stuff. As this Google search shows, the HornetTek stuff is pretty affordable, and a good 4-bay enclosure is exactly what the OP is looking for.
    Much appreciated,
    --Ed--
     
    EdTittel, Oct 20, 2016
    #14
  15. rivre Win User
    Thanks fro that tip to the Hornetek enclosures. I took a look and it's pretty much what I'm looking for, but like all of these enclosures, I have concerns for the cooling system they use:

    - The 4-bay JBOD Hornetek actually appears to be the same thing as this, only re-branded:
    https://www.amazon.com/Vantec-NST-640S3R-BK-3-5-Inch-External-Enclosure/dp/B00DMLTQMW/

    - Like all of these enclosures, there seem to be some scary reviews about corrupted drives and USB 3.0 connection issues. I have already been looking at the Vantec but I think I'd actually prefer the Mediasonic before I went with the Vantec. The Mediasonic cooling system is poor too - the fan in the back is blocked by the chip board, so airflow is severely limited. The older esata model I have now has the same issue, and on top of that the front plastic panel further blocks airflow even more. I keep the front panel off and I have a fan in front to push air across the panels but it's ridiculous I have to do that. It's ugly and takes up more space to balance a small fan in front of the enclosure. On the other hand, the Vantec/Hornetek has the fan on the top, which also seems to be a poor solution according to reviews. The top fan pushes air onto the top drive, but does nothing for the other drives below it. The best cooling system I've seen is the Icy Docks, which, sadly, is the unit that has caused my data loss and corruption, which is why I'm looking for replacements. Also, the Hornetek claims to only support up to 4Tb drives. I already own larger drives than that. The Mediasonic supports up to 8TB drives. The Hornetek may accept larger, but I shouldn't have to guess. And the Hornetek only mentions support for up to Windows 7, which doesn't make me feel particularly confident that they have tested the unit thoroughly on Windows 10. These enclosures all seem to have issues unfortunately. I had pretty good luck with them for years on Windows 7, but it's been a nightmare since I moved to Windows 10, and it seems these enclosures would rather look pretty than have effective cooling for the drives inside.

     
    rivre, Oct 24, 2016
    #15
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Looking for a 4-bay USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure

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