Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2FW Raid 0 (Spanning) JBOD Raid 0 (Stripping) Raid 1 (Mirroring) Raid 3 (Stripped set with dedicated parity) Raid 5 (Striped set with distributed parity) Raid 10 (Mirroring + Striping) 4 3.5" Drive Bays USB 3.0

Pros: 1. Works fine with WD RED 2TB drives
2. Easy install
3. Powers down when PC is off
4. Does not disconnect from my Startech USB 3.0 card

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Ensclosure is working great on a RAID 5 configuration.

Pros: Despite what I've read, it was very simple and easy to use. I think they have updated their literature since some of these reviews have been written because everything worked the way it was explained in the manual.

I got this with 4 new HDDs and it's been working beautifully since. I took it on a location shoot for a short film and am editing on it now, no issues so far except one...

Cons: The USB 3 drops in and out. I'm okay with that since I use eSATA (this drive is SATA 3 and my drives/mobo are, too, so why not). I am not sure why or what fixes this, but for now it's not much of an issue for me.

Other Thoughts: It seems sturdy and well built. I have it on a lower section of my desk and never have to see the LEDs, so that doesn't bother me, either. It's no brighter than the lights on my case, anyway. Good purchase.

Pros: Steady built

Cons: -Poor design. When you push the door open, it will fall off: it is removable. If your enclosure happens to be on the edge of a desk, it will fall onto the floor.
-It took me a WHILE to insert drives and plug in properly with flash light. The guide rail alignment is not accurate
-External power supply is inconvenient.
-Odd power connector/plug to the enclosure, along with a very thing cable.
-Poor documents. Error light stays on, cannot trouble shoot or get it work.

Other Thoughts: I need a secure external backup for large volume of photograph files. I found this for my SATA III hard drives: they are the only enclosure rated for SATA III hard drives on Newegg website. On the box, it clearly states that it is only for SATA I/II hard drives.

Pros: Awesome unit, if it works.

Cons: Constant disconnect on my Macs running Lion and Mountain Lion. Worthless if it won't stay connected.

Pros: Bought one of these last year at $199 and vowed if it came on the shocker I'd buy another. This thing rocks! I stuck 4 3TB hitachis in the first one for 9TB of RAID5 awesomeness! These weren't screaming drives but I get a steady 180+ Mb/s off it and I love the fact that it's not relying on the operating system to keep the RAID intact. In fact, I moved it back and forth between two PCs for the first month as I populated the data.

Cons: The instructions are wrong on how to set up your RAID mode. It clearly says push the button on the back and hold it down until the RAID light flashes. This is blatantly wrong, hold in the mode button on the front until it changes then use it to select the raid mode, THEN press the button on the back until the unit powers down (which confirms the RAID mode). The instructions are rubbish but the enclosure is amazing! Feels heavy like it was well constructed (although the plastic door on the front is a little cheap), but it looks great.

Other Thoughts: The 2nd one I populated with 2 WD green drives (yes, I know they aren't meant for RAID and they wouldn't do it from my onboard RAID controller). The greens are working terrific (surprised me). I think the next thing I'll do (when HDD prices finally drop again) is get 4 more 3TBs and try a mirrored RAID 50 configuration (that should get me wicked speed and double my reliability). Even at $199 this is a great product but at $129 on the shocker... no brainer... I was truly shocked!

Pros: I have the USB 2 version which works flawlessly. I wanted a second enclosure and ended up buying the USB 3 version but I bought the Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS4CT+ which is THIS MODEL only with SansDigital lipstick. I had downloaded the SansDigital RAID Monitoring Utility shortly after connecting the enclosure and I haven't had any disconnect issues. I attribute it to the Utility. The Mac can sleep then wake and it will not disconnect. I have it connected via Firewire 800. I will give you the Download Link but if it does't work then go to SansDigital. The Utility can be found on the SansDigital.com web site. You want to go to the TowerRAID TR4UT+ page (not MobileRAID) and in the Downloads Tab download the RR622 Driver for MAC. SansDigital also has a Utility for Windows & Linux. The Utility is designed to Monitor your Raid as well as build a Software RAID but you don't need the Software RAID part of the Utility because this enclosure is Hardware RAID. Heres the link:
http://www.sansdigi

Cons: None, I'm using four 4TB Hitachi 7200 RPM Hard Drive. Everything runs cool and is so quiet I can't tell its running except for the flashing lights.

Other Thoughts: Having an enclosures RAID function that works independently from your PC or Mac is PRICELESS. You DON'T need a PCIe card to get RAID. I have bought several other Enclosures from NewEgg and wanted this Mediasonic Enclosure for that reason but it was out of stock when I NEEDED it so I spent almost $100 more getting the SansDigital version. The SanDigital version is better looking but not a hundred dollars better looking. I now have two MediaSonic and two SansDigital enclosures and none have disappointed me. I have four OWC enclosures and three failed. NewEgg, Mediasonic and SansDigital ROCK!!!!!!

Pros: Great little device. Used $19 USB 3 card in older PC and no issues. Auto power down and up work fine and good xfer speeds. Using 4 x 3TB Barracuda drives with a spare and it has worked great in Raid 5. Best bang for the buck. Love this little thing. At this price it might be worth buying another and using it for offsite Disaster Recovery.

Cons: Documentation is not real good for a novice. Can see why there have been some negative comments on this. There is a a great deal of help online.

Other Thoughts: would buy again. this little thing rocks. simple admin and reliable. Not one issue and it has been running for 6 months. The power sensing works great with my UPS controller on auto shutdown as well. Caution - make sure you purchase drives that are RAID friendly. Many of the very low cost power saver drives are not. Especially with Western Digital. However they do not point that out unless you read the fine print. The Seagate Barracuda 7200's work great.

Pros: Solid construction, many connection options (Firewire 400/800, eSata, usb2.0/3.0), easy to read status indicators, price point, windows/linux compatible out of the box. Great read/write speeds without tweaking.

Cons: Extremely poor documentation. The box comes with essentially no viable setup manual and the JBOD option is not really JBOD, it is JBOD with spanning. What this means is you cannot plug your drives in and expect immediate access to your data, backup, setup the box, then copy your data back over. (should be standard to do so anyway, but its not always an option)

Other Thoughts: Overall, I would buy again. Mediasonic lost an egg for the documentation issue. Otherwise a solid buy!

Pros: Works great on my Mac and Windows 7 x64 Pro via ESATA. Although I have USB 3 as well, I don't use it so I can keep it free for thumb drives. Not sure why the folks on here were having problems, I just followed directions, inserted disks, and formatted in Disk Utility and away we went. Make sure you select the correct RAID configuration for the number / capacity of disks you are using!

Good looking case, seems to ventilate well.

Cons: Plastic construction, though I'm not worried since it seems very sturdy.

Other Thoughts: Works great for me on my dual boot machine via ESATA.

Pros: esata interface works fine

Cons: usb 3.0 doesn't work consistently under windows or linux, wasted a lot of time with customer support, installing many software packages, none of them worked.

Other Thoughts: In the end I gave up and just used the esata interface.