Rosewill RX-358 V2 BLK (Black) 3.5" SATA to USB & eSATA Ext. Enclosure w/Int.80mm fan

Pros: this is a great enclosure - I own 4 of them.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: fan could be a little more quiet. You can always turn it off if you are not going to use drive for a very long time.

Pros: Inexpensive, has a fan, and works well with <2TB written to the drive.

Cons: This will report a 3TB drive's full capacity if you set up GPT properly, but if you try to actually write more than 2TB, it will destroy the filesystem and corrupt your data. 2 stars because it not only doesn't support 3TB as stated, but it LIES about it and will corrupt data after reaching 2TB written. I'm recovering what data I can as I write this.

Other Thoughts: If you don't care about drives larger than 2TB, this is actually a pretty nice enclosure.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you very much for purchasing this unit.
We strive to provide the most reliable and highest quality products to our customers.

Please confirm the following

1. Have you tested the drive outside the enclosure after the 2TB capacity to confirm the enclosure has indeed cause HDD failures?
2. Has this enclosure been tested with other 3TB HDD to confirm similar findings?

There have been no reported cases with such issues please provide HDD specs.

Please kindly contact the Rosewill support team
Phone: 1- 800-575-9885
Email: rma@rosewill.com

Thanks,
Rosewill Customer Care

Pros: Easy to assemble. Built in fan.

Cons: I had this enclosure on my external HD, it fell once about a foot and a half and the drive failed.

Pros: Contrary to some reviews you see here this enclosure does support 3TB drives. I just went from a Seagate 2TB to a Hitachi 3TB with this enclosure.

To use 3TB for Win7:
Install the drive like normal and connect to PC. Open Computer Management, click Disk Management, right click the "Disk x" where x is some number pertaining to this drive, and select Convert to GPT format. NOTE - you cannot do this if you have already partitioned it (delete partitions). Once you convert (from the default of MBR) to GPT you can create a single volume that will be the entire size of the drive.

Cons: False information in other reviews....

Pros: has a fan, feels solid

Cons: Minor problem: enclosure designed with more screws and parts than my entire computer case.
Major problem: it died after 3 months of very light use. I used it few times a month for 2 hrs for backup and then would turn it off. When I turned it on for my last backup, windows didn't recognize the drive (the drive spins up, light and fan turn on). I removed the drive and connected it directly to my comp and it was working fine. Tried placing the drive back in the enclosure and it didn't work.

I saw other reviews similar to mine...

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you very much for purchasing this unit.We strive to provide
the most reliable and highest quality products to our customers.

Please kindly contact the Rosewill support for in-warranty replacement.

Feel free to contact the Rosewill Customer Support team for further assistance at 1-800-575-9885 Monday - Friday 8AM - 5PM PST or via email at techsupport@rosewill.com

Pros: Heavy duty case with great fan. Good to use and running a 1.5 tb drive in it. Works great

Cons: Loud when running the fan. Bulky

Pros: The case and fan are great without the power management feature.

Cons: The power management "feature" that spins down the HD after awhile sucks! The drive is basically unusable when not being activity written to. Just terrible move by Rosewill to include this feature. Stay away from this drive.

Other Thoughts: I purchased one of these cases before this PS "feature" was introduced and still love it. They have ruined a wonderful case by adding this useless "feature."

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,
 
We have recently made available a new firmware update which disables the power savings feature of the RX-358 V2. Please download the firmware update tool, firmware .bin file, and the firmware update procedure .pdf on our Rosewill.com website. Direct link http://www.rosewill.com/products/916/ProductDetail_Download.htm
 
The firmware update will need to be performed over a USB connection.
 
1. Download the Firmware update tool, firmware .bin file, and firmware update procedure .pdf
2. Power on your RX-358 V2
3. Connect your RX-358 V2 enclosure to your computer via USB
4. Run the Firmware update tool
5. Select the correct USB Disk
6. Click on Load File and select the .bin firmware file
7. Click on Run
8. The unit will begin the firmware update process.
9. Once the firmware update is complete, it will prompt you to Turn-Off the RX-358 V2 unit and Turn-On again.
10. Close the Firmware Update Tool program
11. End.
Sincerely,
Rosewill Customer Care

Pros: construction, fan, etc

Cons: Just one glaring problem and i cant honestly say if im simply unfortunate...but what was supposed to hook up easily via USB or eSata and work, doesnt. I placed a WD Green EARS HDD, 1TB formatted inside, gently snugged up case and screws and tried eSata first (which always seems to be a pita w/WIN7) and it didnt work, i then thought-USB, a snap. Didnt work. I then tried 2 laptops, 2 desktops even a 5th at work, didnt get recognize it. Frustrating to say the least as now i must box up and email Cust Svs and get an RMA lbl and ship to CA. Maybe, im just a sm % of the unlucky. I do see good reviews on the prod here and the sale made it a no-brainer. However, I always say dont cheap out and get what you pay for. A good % of time prods from Rosewell will work-i bought a Rosewill Microsoft Center controlling remote w/usb receiver inc. Worked great-couldnt go wrong for $12. Ive bought refurb logitech harmony 300 here to and worked great. Im open to trying stuff 3rd party or generic brand (id say Rosewill-connected to Newegg). However most times if i buy say Logitech or Western Digital or Seagate, etc (brand names) I dont go wrong.

Other Thoughts: Here's where'd recommend another name brand. Rosewill is a decent co. most times and I think they are a subsidairy of Neweggs however inc independent mfg. Prices are always the best on them and most of the time do work fine. However, tried and true brands which specialize in specific types of products are often a good decision as they dont dabble in everything electronic. HDD mfg co's might be a better choice which focus on storage only and also enclosures. I like aluminum ones w/eSata (i read they are faster-ive yet to get eSata to work on my OEM WIN7-i dont know why) but honestly USB 3.0 or 2.0 connects are just fine (and cheaper). My first shot at ext storage was w/a Maxell 500MB USB 2.0 unit which also had a firewire connection. It still works w/my XP desktop and had its own software plus it fired right up on first plug-in and still works today in 6 yo home-built machine. Buying a $50, 500gb HDD by any mfg is simple here and placing it in an enclosure is a snap-you push on golden connectors and screw in the screws. You then plug in usb on both ends. And plug it in to A/C outlet. You'll save $ and have 2-3x the storage. Plus if HDD does bite it, you just by another and snap it in not an entirely new ext storage unit. I know folks are leary when they have never tried but go for it and learn. Google how and watch a Youtube video...you can learn anything!

Pros: Whats good about this enclosure is that its heavy duty, well build and has a built-in fan to avoid overheating of a drive. And its great to finally use my computer's eSATA connectors.

Cons: It may be on the bulky side and it will turn off the drive after a period of time has gone by but that's to be expected.

Other Thoughts: I was amazed to have received this drive enclosure within 2 days when I needed it the most. I removed a drive from my system that I thought wouldn't be useful so I used it as an external scratch disk and it works great with Fraps on eSATA.

Pros: Well, the good news is that the firmware update I posted info on in my previous post appears to work. Piece of cake to install (follow instructions carefully) and the drive does not automatically go into power saving mode now. I've tested it with a scheduled update and also just not accessing it for an hour and no issues at all.

The bad news -- none yet. I'll post back if anything does crop up but for now this looks like the Rosewill folks paid attention to customer feedback and provided a fix for this issue. Kudos to them.

Cons: None yet, other than as previously mentioned the fan being a bit loud. Probably better to use it as the temps when not having the fan on are 36 - 39C compared to 30 - 33C when turning fan on.

Other Thoughts: I have had no issues with connecting via either USB 2.0 or eSata.

My system spec:
Silverstone TJ08B-E micro ATX case
ASRock Z77 Pro4-M micro ATX MB
Intel i5 3570K CPU
Samsung 830 256GB SATA 3 SSD
WD Caviar Black 500GB SATA 3 HDD
EVGA GTX 650 GPU
16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 SDRAM
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Corsair VX 550W PSU
Windows 7 HP 64-bit