SANS DIGITAL MobileRAID MR2UT+B 0/1/JBOD* and Spanning 2 x Hot-swappable 3.5" Drive Bays USB 3.0, eSATA 2-Bay SATA Compact Tower Enclosure (Black)

Pros: Plugged two 2TB hard drives in and seemed to work well in RAID 1. Pulled one drive out and replaced with another. Takes a long time to rebuild the array but it is rebuilding.

Cons: Large amount of noise as others have commented. I was reluctant to purchase because of this, but bought it anyways...kind of wish I hadn't. I can understand a random unit having issues, but this really does seem to be a common complaint with this unit. Not a good build quality.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

Beside the cooling fan, there should not be a excessive noise generate by the unit. If it happens, please contact us so that we can replace you unit.

If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Pros: Small footprint. Supports both e-sata and USB 3.0. No problem setting up raid. Basically set the dial to the desire raid postion and press the reset button..raid is set.

Uses a standard PC power cable..sorry I always feel this is a nice feature.

Cons: Very little documentation. Does not state if this unit is e-sata II or e-sata III. My gut feeling is that it only supports e-sata II

I am currently using two Seagate 2TB drives in a mirror raid. However, one drive has failed. Verified with Seagate tools. The other dirve tested good.

For some reason when the one drive failed the entire until seems to have failed. I kept getting errors during my backup. I would have assumed that when one drive fails the other drive is still functional and my backup would have been successful.

I have submitted a trouble ticket to Sans Digital to see if this is the expected behavior.

Other Thoughts: Construction is very solid, nice frame. Leds are bright. The alarm is loud and can be muted easily..uses a sta

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

Please let us know if the problem is resolved after the ticket is submitted. If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Pros: Small form factor

Cons: Not user friendly
Terrible Support from Sans Digital
Loud

Other Thoughts: I got this unit to set-up a RAID 1 back-up solution for one of our servers and the unit is not even worth the 129.99 price tag. The unit is extremely loud because the internal fan is hitting a capacitor on the main board. The unit will not build the RAID 1 array after following the directions numerous times. I have tried to contact Sans Digital but they do not list any phone numbers on their site. I filled out the required online form to get tech support and got nothing from that. Very poor in my opinion. My advice is to find something else and spare yourself the headaches of this unit.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

If the problem of the unit for cooling fan noise, please contact us for the solving the issues. We do not expect the cooling fan hitting the unit's internal parts. Please contact us for service.

If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Thank you.

Pros: Fast and easy to get up and running.

Cons: Sans Digital has a serious problems with the fan on this unit.

After about 10 minuets of use the fan begins to make a slight grinding noise which increases over time.
Soon enough the fan blades will hit a capacitor on a back plate to the point where the fan will almost seize.
You'll be able to see the contact scuffs on the fan.
If you tilt the unit up the noise will go away but eventually the fan will stop and cause the HD's to overheat.
I replaced the fan with a 40mm x 40mm x 7mm which eliminated the problem since it is thinner and avoids the back plate.
Before purchasing expect to consume 30 minutes labor for installation on a $10.00 fan. Waist of valuable time.
Your call.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

If the problem of the unit for cooling fan noise, please contact us for the solving the issues. We do not expect the cooling fan hitting the unit's internal parts. Please contact us for service.

If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Thank you.

Pros: I use this enclosure for RAID 1, and so far it performs well. I simulated a failure and the enclosure handled it just fine.

Cons: The first one I received had a malfunctioning fan. It was extremely loud, like the blades were hitting something. The replacement from Newegg didn't have the issue.

The LEDs are also extremely bright, to the point where I put dark tape over the top to dim them. It's also hard to tell the difference between the purple and red lights on the individual drive trays.

It'd be nice if it had a drive activity light. As far as I know nothing indicates that.

Other Thoughts: Seems like a good buy. For more advanced RAID configurations I'd go with the 4-drive capacity device. That raises questions about whether you can rebuild the array if the device itself fails, though.