Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 RAID 0 / 1 / 3 / 5 / 10 4 3.5" Drive Bays USB 3.0 & eSATA PRORAID Box 4 Bay Raid Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA

Pros: I've had this little box running full time since Oct 2011 with 4x2TB Hitachi GST Deskstar H3IK20003272SP HDD's in RAID5 configuration. Never experienced any issues via USB 2.0/3.0 or eSata. I hope to reuse it next time around with 4x4TB HDD's...

Cons: None that I can think of.

Pros: Died very yang- 8 month
Was used as raid 5 - for occasional backup, two or three times a month.
Suddenly pass away without worming. Cannot be turned on. Not any error just shuts down.

Cons: Rest in peace
Will purchase some more reliable unit

Pros: Pretty Well put together, simple to use, setup a RAID 1 to replace my old onboard RAID 1. Everything went right in under Windows 7. Hardware RAID internal to the enclosure, JMicro. I coupled it with their own USB 3 card, but it is the same Chip as everyone else Renesas.

Cons: Haven't got any for this particular unit.

Other Thoughts: I wasn't aware that this level of devices are not mixed mode, guess you have to look for that term and it would cost more. I was just use to server scsi.
So you can only chose ONE of the RAID Levels. So a RAID 1 mirror setup can only use 2 of the 4 bays, so buy a 2 bay.

You can't move your old RAID to a differing Enclosure. You did to start with 2 drives in the enclosure and they will be initialized. Any data is lost, so you have to copy your data from old to new RAID.

YOU CANNOT BOOT USB 3 FROM AN EXPANSION CARD, at least in the crop of cards that are out there. If you have onboard USB 3 this is probably.

Pros: * Price
* 4 bays

Cons: * Slower than turtles copulating. Sometimes I pull out a chisel and a stone tablet just to see if I can record 1s and 0s faster than this enclosure. I'm not saying I'm undefeated, but I would definitely qualify for the playoffs.
* Despite what the description says, this enclosure is NOT actually USB 3 for many (most?) users. The USB3 connection only works for _some_ motherboards and only with _some_ drive configurations. This is a known bug with no planned resolution
* Reliability seems to be junk. After 4mos of use, the fan in mine is dead. That's hardly a good sign from a piece of hardware that is used to protect against data loss due to mechanical failure.

Other Thoughts: Apparently, you get what you pay for.

Pros: Works as intended, reasonably quiet, pretty LEDs. USB 3.0 is FAST FAST FAST.

Variable fan speeds are nice, even the medium setting seems reasonably quiet to me.

Mounting the hard drives in the enclosure was relatively easy. RAID 0 was a breeze to do.

Was exactly what I needed in a budget, portable, multi-drive enclosure.

Cons: Kind of a goofy spot to put the power connector port (right side of the enclosure) instead of on the back.

The front door falls off much too easily, sometimes when being carried or bumped. Would be nice if there was a way to lock it shut, since I rarely will be opening it up to swap out drives...

Pros: Running (3) 2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 drives in Raid 5. Runs decent on USB 3.0 (50-60MB/sec write speed on large files). Will attempt eSATA connection and compare throughput speeds. The front activity lights look cool as hell when in use and they're just the right brightness not to become a major distraction.

Cons: Setup instructions could be a little more detailed. A bad power supply somehow made it through QC and had to be replaced (though Mediasonic provided a prompt replacement).

Other Thoughts: The unit arrived with a faulty power supply, so rather than avoid a complete RMA through Newegg I contacted the the Mfr directly and to my satisfaction received a new P/S within 2 days. Mediasonic stands behind their product, so kudos to them... and buy with confidence!

Pros: Price. Size. USB3. eSATA.

Cons: Long term reliability is questionable. Problems with USB3 connectivity. Tech support appears weak, with only the forums on the Mediasonic site to help those with problems. Lights are a little bright.

Other Thoughts: Decent little device for creating a RAID array in your home or office. Small size is nice. I populated mine with four 3TB Western Digital Red drives. They work perfectly. Getting the drives into the device is a little tight, especially the top hard drive mount. After installing the drives, you need to configure the type of RAID you desire. I had some problems with the USB3 connection. Had to install the latest drivers to get it to work properly. eSATA worked perfectly straight away. I have mine set as RAID 5. The total 12 TB drive space became 8.8 TB when creating the RAID. I have been getting between 35-50 MBs when writing to the array using USB3, slightly faster when using eSATA. So far I have moved 3TB worth of files without 1 hiccup.

Device is very fussy about USB3. If you plan on using USB3, prepare for some issues. I had several USB3 cables that it didn't like, even though the same cables worked fine with other USB3 drives.

Pros: Very easy set up. Drives are all supported well within the device. After setting the correct mode, the device does it's job as you would expect.

Cons: Mounting of Drive 1 was found to be a bit tricky; once the mounting bracket was installed, I attempted to slide it into the enclosure. It hung up on the sides and after some wiggling finally broke free and went in. Not sure what's catching it. This happened twice as I did pull Drive 1 back out again at a later time, so it's something in the way with the way the bay was built.

Other Thoughts: For an external raid-powered enclosure, I couldn't have found something this nice at this price. I really enjoy it!

Pros: Easy to setup & use. Great USB 3 speeds. I have this setup with 4 2TB drives I shouldn't have it setup with (Samsung Ecodrives) and have not had any issues after 20 months. I really should be using enterprise drives as this is on pretty much 24/7. I have it setup in Raid 5 and it has worked great....so good in fact I'm about ready to buy a second one.

Cons: I thought long and hard for a con and just can't seem to find one.

Other Thoughts: When setting this up I did have to update my USB 3 drivers which took about 10 minutes since the ones that came with the MB wouldn't work correctly with this box which is a non-issue......needed to be done anyway!

Pros: everything except usb 3.0 works in the beginning. The usb 3.0 failure might not be mediasonic's problem.

Cons: fan making high pitch noise a few months into service, emailed their customer service multiple times, no response; posted on their forum, got their rma email address, sent rma request multiple times, but no reponse; no phone number provided.
You basically bought the product "as is". no warranty at all as they will ignore you completely.

Other Thoughts: will not buy anything from mediasonic again