Hi All,

I came across this forum when searching for MediaSmart information, and have noticed some discussions on the Sans Digital TowerRAID series. I am part of Sans Digital's tech support team, and I thought I'd start a post for Sans Digital related questions and inquiries. (I have obtained the forum owner's appoval) I will try my best to provide my knowledge on Sans Digital products. If the question is beyond my area, then at least I could help direct you guys to the right contact person.

For starters, the specs for the TowerRAID series could be found here: http://www.sansdigital.com/towerraid/index.php



Stanley

I’ll through one out there-

The 5bay port multiplier enclosure says only 1 cable needed.

So I can hook that too the MMS and the mms will see all 5 drives by themselves?

(I was under the impression that 4 was the max per port multiplier)

Welcome to the forums, Stanley, and thanks for making yourself available to support the Sans Digital products.

Michaelk, the documentation for the Marvell eSATA chip used in the MSS says it supports up to 5 drives via Port Multiplier, however some users have noticed incompatibilities with other eSATA enclosures where only 4 drives are recognized. I do not (yet) have personal experience with the Sans Digital enclosures, so am looking forward to hearing more about this. I have tested other enclosures that exhibited the 4-drive limitation, and they often included a Sil3124 PCI card that also appears to ship with the Sans Digital enclosures.

Hi Guys,

Very good question.

At this point, when you connect a 5-bay unit to the MSS, you will only see 4 hard drives.

We have confirmed that the Marvell chip does support up to 5 drives. It works without a problem and is able to detect 5 drives on HighPoint's RAID card. We have tested Sans Digital's 5-bay TowerRAID on WindowsHomeServer and other servers, with the Sil card or other cards, and it works fine. It seems like the problem only arises when connecting a MSS to any brand of 5-bay eSATA unit. We have been trying to contact HP regarding this issue, and have yet to receive any reply.

I am very curious to know too. And hopefully I will be able to update you guys on this issue soon.

Very interesting, Stanley! And as my next disk upgrade will necessarily have to be an external one I have a personal interest in this as well! Thanks for joining the board and for pursuing the answers to this!

Hi Stanley:

Perhaps you can help answer some questions on the TowerRaid TR4UB: http://www.sansdigital.com/towerraid/tr4ub.html

First is it compatible with the MSS? I read the following in the instructions:

Please be noted the following product is not supported:

Toshiba DynaBook, Satellite series (All K6 CPU models).

IBM Aptiva E series (All K6 CPU models).

Sotec E-note M260 series.

All AMD K6 system.

PC with sis7000/ 7001/ 7002 PCI to USB host controller.

As far as I can tell, the MSS uses a sis7001 controller so does that mean it won't work?

If it does work then will the MSS recognize all 4 drives?

What about the big brother TR8U? Will that add 8 drives?

Thanks for your help,

His post up there answers all your questions, lol.

Nope. Unless I missed something he's talking about towers that you connect via sata and I'm asking about the USB products.

Hi tmontana,

We have not heard any reports from MSS users regarding USB compatibility. We do not have a MSS on hand to test this out. I will have to look into that and get back to you.
If it has been confirmed that the MSS is compatible after all, then all four hard drives will be recognized. The is also the case with TR8U. Unlike eSATA, in the case of USB, all 8 hard drives should be recognized.

Stanley

PHAWX is having a problem with a TR4M at this link:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2244

He could use some assistance!

Hi John,

I have taking a look on his problem and thanks for the head up.

Best regard,
Stanley

FYI, there is a "Hands On" review of the TR4M on WeGotServed today:

http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2008/09/21 ... re-review/

Hi guys,

Please bare with me. We don't have a MSS in the headquarter, so I would need to contact our factory, where everything gets pre-tested. They have all the necessary equipments there. I'm still working to varify the USB specs.

Thanks.

We have contacted a previous user of MSS, and was told that the TowerRAID USB has no compatibility issue with the HP unit.

As I recall there are different configurations of the TowerRAID USB unit? Four and eight drive versions? Does the HP MSS work with the 8-drive unit?