Rosewill R2-JBOD Aluminum 3.5" USB 2.0 DUAL-BAY External Enclosure

Pros: Very easy setup with 2 drives. Worked perfectly first time with no issues.

Cons: Newegg does not stock these any more.

Other Thoughts: Gets a little warm but probably more to do with the drives I chose to use.

Pros: Easy install, took a 1TB Seagate ST31000520AS from a failed enclosure and placed in this one. Plugged it in and Vista recognized it instantly.

The fan is very quite. However, I have not needed to use it because it never gets hot. While encrypting the one drive the enclosure never got warm (only slightly). Very impressed.

Over the USB 2.0 connection and with the drive installed HDTune produced an average transfer rate of 27MBs and an access time of 15.3ms.

Cons: After the enclosure goes into a low power state for an extended period of time and I try to access information, I receive IO errors. So I cut power to it when I'm not using it. This wouldn't work if I needed to randomly access files throughout the day.

The drive was fully tested and it works (minus a few bad sectors, but its a work horse) and my other external enclosures have had no problems.

The JBOD switch is inside the unit. Though I don't think I would need to access it often, I'm used to having it on the outside.

Other Thoughts: All in all not too bad for the money.

Pros: Nice finish to enclosure. Holds two 3.5 HDD's without a problem. USB 2.0 cord is long enough at 3 feet. Using the bay as a backup enclosure in JBOD. Installed two WD Black 1T drives. Because these drives are backup's no need for a USB 3.0. Set was easy and my computer saw both drives. The fan made no load noise as far as I can hear. If I need another dual bay enclosure I would buy this again.

Cons: Maybe a little high priced. But if you buy two enclosures they will cost more then this enclosure. See other thoughts.

Other Thoughts: It took me longer to unscrew the 4 screws that hold the internal bays then to install the HDD's. Shipped 8 screws to hold the HDD's in place. Be a little carefully when screwing the 4 screws that hold the bay in place. The screws screw into plastic so it might be easy to brake the female part that the case screws into. Youtub has a video on this enclosure, take a look if you have time. I bought this enclosure at another online store because the price was lower and they had free shipping.

Pros: Overall its been a great device for storage. Its been working almost none stop for over a year hooked up to a router for storage space.

Cons: Only con is that it is a little slow, I dont think I ever got 3 Mb/s within network transfer through the router.

Other Thoughts: If your just looking for a good enclosure to keep some files on and move around from time to time, this is a good buy. Some people have had issues with theirs mine is now going on almost 2 years strong.

Pros: Great budget enclosure. I used with 4tb wd green drivers(2x2tb) and is very quite for both the drive and the enclosure(fan). Running tests on the drive for three days straight and is solid. People complain about the fan is not automatic, but i actually love it since is not auto.

Cons: Need usb3.0 version of this enclosure since it took awhile to transfer filles with usb2. Since is very stable so not a big deal just leave it on.

Other Thoughts: Great enclosure with solid builtin fan.

Pros: None

Cons: After a couple months the I couldn't read some of the files on the drive or the back up drive in the enclosure, kept getting disk I/O errors. Removed the drives and they could be read in another hard drive 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 kindly contact the Rosewill support team either via phone at 800-575-9885 or via email at rma@rosewill.com so we may assist you with a replacement.
Thanks,
Rosewill Customer Care

Pros: Simple and works as advertised. Never had an issue with it.

Cons: None.

Pros: Reliable, easy to install drives.

Cons: Slow. Large file transfers are about 20 MB/sec.

Other Thoughts: Have two of these enclosures for more than a year now. Currently running two 1TB WD Green drives in the BIG configuration, basically a poor man's RAID 0. Everything works fine. Only complaint is that the USB 2.0 transfer speed is really slow, 25 MB/sec would be about the max.

Pros: Cheap and does what it suppose to. Got it to work without problem. Stuff two 2TB wd20exrz for total of 4tb.

Cons: Usb 3.0 not supported which for my purpose isnt bad but extra speed never hurt.

Other Thoughts: If speed matters to u then get other enclosure with firewire, usb3.0 or thunderbolt.

Pros: Purchased in 2008. Used as a mirrored raid for nearly 4 yrs and still going strong. Now ordering a second to use as a mirrored Plex server w/ 2 tb hdds. Good bang for the buck!

Cons: Fan getting noisy after 4 yrs