Pros: none

Cons: This is worthless. After wiping 4- 4TB drives. Hours on the phone with Apple trying to find out what happened. It comes down to tiny print in the booklet that came with the tower. May be possible to use with 2TB drives. Absolutely no warning on 4TB drives. Should not be on the market. Have to say Kudos to Apple. They took the problem seriously and I have been submitting regular data to get to the bottom of this. I have Just alerted Rosewill. Lets see how they handle the loss of two years of storage. My Back ups too.

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.

This unit can support up to 5 TB drives.
Please contact our support team to assist you with troubleshoot and/or warranty options.

Phone: 1- 800-575-9885
Email: rma@rosewill.com
Email2: techsupport@rosewill.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Rosewill Customer Care

Pros: Drive is quickly identified by Windows. Easily formatted/partitioned.

Cons: Had initial problems with continually receiving "must format" message.

Other Thoughts: Okay, I switched from eSATA to USB and started realigning movies/TV shows on some older hard drives. The process went smoothly. I was even able to fill the hard drive I mentioned in my first review without problem.

I had one drive left over and it is now running using eSATA. I'm still waiting to get new hard drives (local UPS got them in last night, but they aren't scheduled to be delivered until tomorrow so they didn't put them on a truck for delivery this morning). Once I get those drives, I will load all four bays and run under eSATA for a while to see how it does.

I want to run using eSATA since my computer only has two USB 3.0 ports (one which is used by my wifi adapter). That didn't leave any 3.0 port for backing up to another external drive, which would lengthen backup time considerably by having to use a USB 2.0 port. I may just have to buy a PCI card with more USB 3.0 ports. It seems this unit is a little more stable running via USB than eSATA. At least initially. My upcoming testing will determine which port I use in the end.

I'm not quite ready to give a review of 5 stars because I am not quite ready to trust my 12GB of movies/TV Shows to the unit. I will give it some more burn-in time and then maybe trust one 3GB drive for a while. Burning one drive from backup beats having to burn four.

For Rosewill, I know you make good products and am going to stick with getting this unit up and running to my satisfaction.

Pros: It does work

Cons: It only works if I use it in a way that bypasses the problem design

Other Thoughts: I've had mine five months now. Initially I felt pretty positive about this. I installed one 3 TB 7200 RPM HDD. I have backup software that backs up automatically at specified times. This box initially worked fine, and seemed compatible with my disk and backup software. The box goes into sleep mode automatically after about 10 minutes of no use. Then it takes about 10 -15 seconds to wake up from sleep mode and allow for data transfers. There is no way to shut off the sleep mode. First flaw.

The real problems started when I added another drive - a brand new 3TB 5400 rpm WD red. During transfers I started getting corrupt file errors on the disk and the folder would then be inaccessible on the 3TB red drive. I would use Windows scan disk and it would then correct the errors every time. Initially I suspected a bad drive. It passed all WD Data tests, but I decided to warranty it anyway. I received the new 3 TB red, ran WD data lifeguard and the new disk also passed fine. But same problem. Corrupt data error messages during transfer. Both drives worked flawlessly installed internally, and tested extensively with transfers, and the backup software.

Here's the problem as I see it. My backup software kicks in automatically every three hours for some transfers. But this Rosewill box is asleep. It initially attempts transfer and then has to wait. This results in the corrupt data. Scan with Windows it's fixed. Often the error messages shows on the next startup, in the location of that first attempted transfer.

So the only way I can use this is to leave it off. When I do weekly backups I turn it on, make sure it's awake then start the backup process. When done, I turn it back off. I can't leave it on and use it for incremental backups that require the box to wake up.

Another problem with this is that the fans only kick in when it hits 40C. In my opinion that's way to hot for a fan to start kicking in. I'd like to see the fans kick in around 35C - or offer an optional manual on \ off for fans. 40C is safe but not optimal. If it comes on at 40C, drives climb past 40 of course, then only cool back to 40 and fans shut off. Poor design.

The bottom drive sled sticks and I need to reach in from the above drive sled to open.

Overall, I'm not really happy with it. Every time I turn it on I'm afraid of more data corruption errors during transfers. Not good for piece of mind. I can only use it with the above limitations.

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.

Thanks for the feedback; we will pass it along to our QA and Design teams for further investigations. In the event that you are having troubles, please do not hesitate to contact our support team at the number below.

Phone: 1- 800-575-9885
Email: rma@rosewill.com
Email2: techsupport@rosewill.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Rosewill Customer Care

Pros: Drive is quickly identified by Windows. Easily formatted/partitioned.

Cons: Copying files from external hard drive to drive in this unit (3TB to 3TB), taking my time: 30-60 minutes to copy, 60 minutes off to cool down both drives. I have done this twice now and am on the third try--keep getting "must format" messages. On the second try I had completed the copy of all movie files and shutdown the enclosure and the computer because I had other things to do. Booted everything back up, and got the "must format" message again. Will copy all files using another connection, then see if using the case causes another "must format" message. Will also be trying another hard drive as soon as it arrives. So far, three days wasted trying to get a 3TB hard drive loaded with movies for use on my HTPC.

Manufacturer Response:

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

We are sorry to hear that, please contact our support team to assist you with troubleshoot and/or warranty options.

Phone: 1- 800-575-9885
Monday - Friday 8AM - 5PM PST

Email: rma@rosewill.com
Email2: techsupport@rosewill.com


We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Rosewill Customer Care

Pros: Follow the instructions and this thing works great!!!!! Installed 4, 2TB drives and attached unit to a Linux home server and it works perfectly. Just cause I was curious, I heated up the case with a blow dryer while it was running and the fan came on and cooled case back down very quickly. LOL

Cons: This unit WILL NOT WORK with Windows Home Server.

Pros: I can recommend this unit. It has the features and capabilities I wanted and is performing as expected. Why only 3 stars? If a device functions as expected, that is what it gets. If it functions as flawlessly as the 2 Rosewill R2-JBODs I have been using for the past 5 years, then I would rate it higher.

I purchased 2 WD20EZRX, 1 WD5000BPKX as well as an existing 6 yr old WD 640gb to go in this unit. After an initial break-in issue, it has been running smoothly since.

Cons: I did experience an issue after a couple of days that caused one of the WD20EZRX to begin showing that it had over 115petabytes (yes, that is not right). I am not convinced that this unit caused the issue. I was able to clone the good one to the bad drive. Since this was during device verification (copying data between the 2 WD20EZRX), there was no harm.

However, just in case this unit caused the problem by turning off after 10 minutes of inactivity, I set a crontab (I run linux) as follows: */6 * * * * root touch /drivein4bay1/heartbeat which prevents it from powering off. For the Windows users, setup a scheduled task to execute a BAT file - echo . > drive letter/filename - to keep it awake.

Other Thoughts: As mentioned in to pros, I have high expectations for this unit given the performance of my R2-JBODs. The wise person will take the time to exercise this unit for a while before committing valuable data to it. But this is standard advice for any hard drive and/or enclosure.

I have read some comments about issues with hotswap and drive trays. This did not bother me as once I set a device up, I have a tendency to leave it alone. Though I prefer to play things safe. When setting the device up, I turned it off every time I added a drive to it. Better safe than sorry. Or, practice safe computing and eliminate problems

Pros: Windows 7 recognizes device and 4 drives

Cons: it took 2-3 minutes to recognize device and another 2-3 minutes to "see" all 4 drives
linux only sees the first drive (using 14.04 buntu)
according to documentation should work with linux

Pros: Great concept

Cons: Poor execution. No screws in package.
In USB 3.0 mode only first drive is seen by pc(linux).
Device not seen at all in Win7 or XP.
Such high hopes, dashed to bits.

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.

We are sorry to hear that, please contact our support team to assist you with troubleshoot and/or warranty options.

Phone: 1- 800-575-9885
Monday - Friday 8AM - 5PM PST

Email: rma@rosewill.com
Email2: techsupport@rosewill.com


We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Rosewill Customer Care

Pros: Reasonable read write speeds. 4 bays for external storage of my large amount of data hoarding.
I used this to replace two external single drive cases and also offload my internal drives to it. This way, my virus scans finish more quickly as there is no reason to frequently scan 6TB of data for viruses when it is primarily archives. I placed my 4TB and two 3TB drives in the case and will be likely adding one of the 1TB's from inside my PC case. This should cut down on some minor slow downs from waiting for drives to spin up when they have gone into power save mode. All I need to do is flip the switch on the back of the external case and I have all my data at access again. This also reduces unnecessary up time for the drives since I only need them periodically.

Cons: I connected a 1TB laptop drive in the case and it caused all the drives in the enclosure to not be read by OS. This may be due to the existing OS on the drive, not something I have looked into yet. Or could be the drive itself. It came from a laptop I have sold and I just hadn't wiped the volumes and data clean yet. So, it may be possible that placing a drive into the enclosure for imaging or so on may not be a possibility if it wants to see only single volumes per drive with no OS's. Again, just some conjecture at this point, not confirmed.

Other Thoughts: If you have a case that has very few HDD bays for storage, this is an excellent solution. Or, in my case, if you just want to remove some drives from internal. I have plenty of room inside my case but preferred to have my mass storage externally when I need it rather than add to more I/O activity that wasn't necessary.

Pros: Nice style. A good physical size.

Cons: Not reliable due to bad power save mode, uses screws to fasten the disks to the sled rather than using other methods, see below.

Other Thoughts: What Ron said. I bought mine there too, and my review is also copied from there:

In general, it seems to work as advertised. Four bays requiring screws, activity lights on each bay. The lights are green but turn blue when active. It's harder to see than a normal red activity light. (minus 1/2 egg)

The trays themselves are made of fairly thin metal, but they work. The specs say the enclosure is wired for hot swapping. I originally powered up with two drives. When I tried adding a third drive, the Macintosh lost connection to two existing and mounted drives. Minus another 1/2 egg for not really being hot-swappable.

On the plus side, the latches appear solid, though I expect they'd wear down with enough swaps, as they're based on friction and made of plastic.

Power switch is on the back, just above the power plug, which is a normal but a little inconvenient.

The manual is in English and French. It is printed pretty small, so these 50yo eyes have trouble with it. It contains instructions for set up and partitioning for all of Windows, Ubuntu Linux, and Macintosh, in that order.

One thing which bugs me is that it has a power save mode I can't seem to turn off. I don't want my drives to have a delay when something tries to access them, causing problems with paused video and such. And causing problems with dismounting drives, which causes problems shutting down for the night, and with reboots. Minus 2 eggs. They confirmed that this mode can not be shut off.

When I went to their website, it wanted me to register. I did so, signed in, and got into a loop, where one URL would load, then another one would load, then the first one, then the second one. I'm using Chrome, so it's not like I'm using a strange browser. I ended up using their "Contact US" to try to get support. If I can turn off the "sleep" functionality, I'll keep the product. If not, back it goes.

Their customer service decided to RMA the device for exchange. They sent me a UPS label, so it's on their dime. After they confirmed the power save issue, I told them to change the "exchange" to a "return", which they did. Good people, who need to do more development on this device.

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.

Thanks for the feedback. We will pass it along to our QA and Design teams for further investigation.


Thanks,
Rosewill Customer Care