I'm looking to add an enclosure to my 485 and heard the Sans Digital ones were good, but am confused by all of the models they have. I'd be fine with a setup where the 4 drives in the enclosure all show up as individual drives to the Mediasmart Server. Does anyone have a recommendation? Thanks so much.

Eric

There are 2 units currently available and sold at http://www.newegg.com Currently both have FREE SHIPPING but I believe thats within the continental US only. They are also available on Sans Digital Website but they cost a little more.

Sans Digital TR4U 4 Bay USB Enclosure:
http://store.sansdigital-shop.com/totr4baysato1.html

Sans Digital TR8U 8 Bay USB Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111050&cm_re=tr8u-_-16-111-050-_-Product

There are people on this site using the 8 bay units so if you do a search on this site using the TR8U you should get a listing of the different posts on this site.

Good Luck and by the way your gonna love NewEgg!!

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

this Mediasonid JBOD HFJ2-Su2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

this Mediasonic HF2-Su2s2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001&cm_re=mediasonic-_-17-576-001-_-Product

_________________
8TB Qnap TS-459 Pro
11TB EX 495 (E8400, 3.0GHZ, 4GB Mushkin) with Server 2012 Essential
4TB EX 485

Actually the one thats both USB and eSATA is a good better deal for $109 as its more flexible. I actually thought all the Mediasonic Enclosures came that way and last time I checked I think they were only available in Canada otherwise I would of added one here.

I wonder if they make a 5 bay enclosure...

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Only 4 Bay. I wish they made 5 bay enclosures.

_________________
3TB MSS EX490(upgraded CPU-E6300(2.8Ghz dual core Pentium)),
4GB memory
57TB unRAID1a--49TB unRAID2--76TB unRAID3

Would the eSATA work on our 48x units given the limitations of our eSATA support?

_________________
HP EX485 - In Production Since March 27, 2009
- Bay1 - Seagate 1.5TB HDD (Replaced in 2011)
- Bay2 - Empty
- Bay3 - Hitachi 2.0TB HDD
- Bay4 - Hitachi 2.0TB HDD

History
- 10/24/2011 - HP EX485 Server Failure (System Drive Failed)

MikeekiM,

Unfortunately the EX48x servers will only support one drive eSATA which is a limitation of the hardware. Your only option is to expand your system once all the drive bays are full using USB. Still if your going to buy one of these units your best to get the one that has both eSATA and USB should you ever upgrade your server the unit could be used either way.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Will the MSS see all the hard drives from this unit as one single huge drive with the USB enclosures?

Not unless you configure a RAID configuration which you do not need to do just have the unit set to JBOD or Just a Bunch of Drives then you can add them to your storage pool or leave one or more as an unmanaged drive. In other words they will appear just like the 4 drives in your EX48x. There is an 8 bay USB Enclosure you might want to check out that is made by Sans Digital and sold at http://www.newegg.com just incase your expansion needs are about to grow.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Bought the Mediasonic, and love it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001

Quiet, well built, and looks great next to the EX487. Opened it up, added 2 drives, connected via USB, and added the drives to the pool. Easy enough.

As expected, I'm definitely seeing a slowdown while copying files to my server now (duplication is turned on for most everything). I don't have the fancy disk access monitoring tools, but it looks like it's writing the file to one of the four internal disks, then I see a stall as the external enclosure light flashes for a while.

Need to get some quality (free) plugins apparently!

Still, can't beat the enclosure. Top shelf.

This enclosure seem to support esata and RAID
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993022

Does that means my EX485 esata port will see it as 1 esata raid drive? so can I access 5 extra drive via esata from my 485 with this enclosure?

thanks

Wil

Hi wil,

You pose a good question but you also chose a unit that has 2 reviews that are not very good. So what to do. There is a unit available on NewEgg that is both eSATA and USB you chose which to use. Its only a 4 bay unit but others here seem to like it and have purchased multiple units and at just under $120 delivered its a good deal.

Here is the Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001&cm_re=mediasonic-_-17-576-001-_-Product

What I can not determine is if it can be set up for RAID so I guess not as it just indicated JBOD which really is what you want in the first place and is less complicated to setup and run in the first place.

Now if you really want some bang for you buck check out the 8 bay USB Enclosure below:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111050&cm_re=sans_digital-_-16-111-050-_-Product

Now this puppy can be configure to run JBOD or RAID but has only 1 USB connection and gives you good value for your dollar although the one about you can purchase 2 for less then the cost of this one.

Both these units are in use by your fellow forum members and are quite popular. Good Luck with what you want to do but if I were you I would stick with the USB connection and run the drives as JBOD or Just a Bunch of Drives and let WHS handle all your duplication needs wants and desires. If your EX48x is full of drives and they server you well so far then why not put your trust in it and let it handle your external enclosures as well.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I bought a Mediasonic HF2-SU2S2 from newegg and have had it connected to my EX485 through USB connection for about 2 day. I thought I had read in another thread here that duplication would start and the percentages of the 4 main drives in the server would go down and the percentages for the 2 hdd in the mediasonic would go up. Do I need to do something to have this happen or is this not possible. I may have read about something else, I did alot of research on this before I bought it and may be thinking of another unit that I was reading about.

Thanks in advance for the help

Did you turn on Duplication? You have to specify the shared folders you want duplicated. As soon as you turn it on the data starts to be copied.

Although the percentages should not go down. The files will just be duplicated on other drives. I know I have several drives that have always been at 99% since they filled up. But it really makes no difference whether they are full or at 50%. As long as the data is duplicated on two drives and I have access to it. I don't care what amount is on each drive.

_________________
3TB MSS EX490(upgraded CPU-E6300(2.8Ghz dual core Pentium)),
4GB memory
57TB unRAID1a--49TB unRAID2--76TB unRAID3

Do I have to turn on duplication for each new drive, or are you just talking about folder duplication. I do have folder duplication on for all the folders on what duplicated. I am not sure where the duplication is for the drives. I added the drives to the server to be part of the storage pool, but do not remember seeing anything about adding it to the duplication.

Sorry to seem like a newby, but I didn't have this problem when adding to the server spaces.