Hard drive enclosures... (USB 3, 4bay, or...?)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Hey kids! Any suggestions on a reliable hard drive enclosure? I bought a 4 bay enclosure from Frys but apparently it's not a simple enclosure, but a NAS Cloud and network device. The Mac doesn't see it via the network and connecting it via USB is not implemented. The connection on the device is just the "flat" USB side (Type A female) not the connector that usually goes into an external USB device (Type B female). IOW, it appears the USB feature seems to be only to output a USB signal from the enclosure, not exchange data from the Mac.

Ideally, I'd like a 4 bay enclosure, but that isn't looking like it's going to happen. Preferably USB 3.

I already have two docks. I had three but the crapola Sabrent two bay dock crapped out. I could go with a couple of two bay docks, of course, but would really love to be able to get 4 drives (all 3.5" spinners) into one case for under $200.

Thanks for any suggestions. At this point I'm thinking two 2-bay enclosures should be relatively easy to find, as would a couple of 2-bay docks.

[Michael Canavan]

The Mac doesn't see it via the network and connecting it via USB is not implemented. The connection on the device is just the "flat" USB side (Type A female) not the connector that usually goes into an external USB device (Type B female). IOW, it appears the USB feature seems to be only to output a USB signal from the enclosure, not exchange data from the Mac.

You're probably wrong about that, unless it explicitly states it in the manual you should be able to use a type A to type A USB3 cable to connect it to your computer. That's what every USB 3 SSD enclosure I have here uses.

The network drive I had used my own wifi hub to hook up to the network which was an Airport Extreme Base Station, that has a USB2 port on it. Network connections can be tricky, but this all should work, as it looks like the device connects via ethernet and is OSX compatible. Once it works it's fast and reliable.

IMO either of those solutions will solve your problem, of course they could be total bastards and prevent this simple USB use somehow but I doubt it. Even then network storage has the advantage of not being directly on your USB bus.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Thanks Michael. I have a tech request in. I’ll hang on to the device a few more days and maybe try a type A male to male cable and see if that works. I don’t want to blow anything up. I’d be fine with Ethernet as well if I can get it working.

[Michael Canavan]

Thanks Michael. I have a tech request in. I’ll hang on to the device a few more days and maybe try a type A male to male cable and see if that works. I don’t want to blow anything up. I’d be fine with Ethernet as well if I can get it working.

I would have looked at it further, but the link was to the whole line of that device, not the specific one you bought, so I couldn't say for sure. But I think you should be able to set it up via ethernet or USB, WiFi might be possible as well, but a lot of the time it's hit or miss with OSX and third party hardware that might require drivers.

[mikehalloran]

To do what? Archive? VI streaming? Time Machine? Active projects? Other?

It makes a difference.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Very basic. Just to save and retrieve data. Maybe have a time machine drive in there. Just a friggin’ place to house hard drive I’ll use every day.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Thanks Michael. I have a tech request in. I’ll hang on to the device a few more days and maybe try a type A male to male cable and see if that works. I don’t want to blow anything up. I’d be fine with Ethernet as well if I can get it working.

I would have looked at it further, but the link was to the whole line of that device, not the specific one you bought, so I couldn't say for sure. But I think you should be able to set it up via ethernet or USB, WiFi might be possible as well, but a lot of the time it's hit or miss with OSX and third party hardware that might require drivers.

AS1004T. That’s as close as the site lets one view the device. Thanks.

[mikehalloran]

Very basic. Just to save and retrieve data. Maybe have a time machine drive in there. Just a friggin’ place to house hard drive I’ll use every day.

For multiple bay on a Mac, I recommend ethernet and NAS. These never have USB sleep issues—they can't.

The WD My Cloud Mirror housings are very good. Yes, they're designed for NAS but easy to configure in most flavors of RAID or JBOD. Changing drives on the 2–4 bay versions takes less than a minute and requires a Philips #2 driver to remove the bracket securing the drives under the lid. Time Machine is one of the default settings. The WD manual is good and phone support is available.

The current Gen2 version is found here and on Amazon (I don't get to Fry's much anymore).
https://www.wd.com/products/personal-cl ... -gen2.html

They are faster then the Gen1 found on eBay—but those are more than fast enough for Time Machine. For streaming VIs, the Gen2 is going to be faster. And, if you want to explore NAS and logging into your drives remotely, that's what these are built for (I don't).

I but used Gen1s, remove the perfectly good 1T drives and pop in a couple of 10TB WD Reds — but any HDD will drop in. You can set up one or two as JBOD for Time Machine and the other two for whichever flavor RAID meets your requirements for storage and data security.

I like JBOD for Time Machine. The two (or four) drives alternate hourly and it's quieter than having them all working hourly — as quiet as they are, no mechanical drive is noiseless.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'm reinstalling this puppy. After some research I realize that my understanding of what I bought is backward. I bought a NAS storage device, not a simple HD enclosure. I was expecting a "plug and play" device. NOT! I realize now I have to access a server to get to my data, which is fine. In fact, it is pretty great on many levels.

Installing now. Once I get it up and running I will start a new thread and post a link here so others might benefit from my experience.

Damn it Jim, I'm a composer, not a damn IT guy!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The device now won’t initialize. I have a ticket into their support team but I’m not hopeful. I think I’ll just bey a few more usb3 enclosures and call it a day. If I hear back by tomorrow and they get it to work I’ll report back. Otherwise, back to Frys it goes. Bummed.

[cuttime]

I always liked OWC docks. Pricey, but they never failed me.

[dix]

I always liked OWC docks. Pricey, but they never failed me.

Me too, but my lack of TB and 3.1 capability limits my options with my cMP.

Apart from it being sold out currently, why wouldn't this be a good enclosure for you? https://eshop.macsales.com/item/CineRAID/CRH458

[HCMarkus]

Seagate 8TB externals (housing the "Archive Drive")work great for Time Machine backup for me. Huge drives for little $$$. Get two for TM redundancy.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansio ... 187&sr=8-3

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Thanks, guys.