BYTECC BT-M150BK SATA Hot-Swap Mobile Rack - Tray Less Design

Pros: Easy installation, fits any spinning disk hard drive, sturdy, well ventilated.

Cons: Does not work for solid state hard drives with provided mounting bracket. no eggs off because this product is not supposed to fit SSDs, but it would have been nice! Of the five I have purchased, only one of them had a problem. The HDD activity LED stopped working after 5 months. No eggs off, as this was probably a power surge related fault.

Other Thoughts: Purchased five of these to make secondary boot drives for security purposes in work environment. Works excellent, never had a problem swapping drives. Door feels flimsy, but is secure and actually quite intelligent in its design. Other drive bays similar to this work with very flimsy spring loaded doors that usually break after a few swaps. This tray has very high quality ejection lever and I never have to fish a drive out. The metal enclosure really protects the drive and can take a beating! I dropped one bay on the floor before installation and everything was perfect! The fan keeps hard drive cool as a cucumber. Best swap bay I've used in a decade!

Pros: Works good for 2 years. I have taken all four of mine out of service.

Cons: The fans wear out quickly. If you buy one of these, buy spare fans. Even though these devices have a key lock it is useless. I can pull the door open regardless. Additionally the fan is on even though there is no drive inside. Save yourself the trouble, stay away from these.

Other Thoughts: If the doors were made out of metal they might lock better. If these were 100% aluminum, had better fans and locked solidly I would recommend.

Pros: Older model already in use works perfectly.

Cons: Once the hard drive was inserted it was impossible to remove using the normal release and remove lever. Had to disassembled the rear backplane to release the contact connector so I could free it up. On the second try it still would not come out easily. Pulled a little harder on the plastic lever and the plastic lever attachment point snapped. Found out that the RMA shipping cost is $12; conveniently half the cost of the new item therefore in my opinion not worth returning. This is my second one of these. The first one purchase a couple of years ago works flawlessly. Perhaps the problem is due to the location where it is manufactured. Very disappointed in this product.

Other Thoughts: Great concept. Too bad it is not designed properly with sturdy materials.

Pros: None

Cons: I bought two of these units almost a year ago. The power connector on one unit would come loose every so often. Item was also advertised for Sata I & II yet box showed differently and ended up removing the units after many a BSOD.

Other Thoughts: There are a few other sata hot swap mobile racks from other vendors which do support Sata I,II, and III. They are a bit more but the fans do keep the drives cool and no BSOD.

Pros: Solid metal except for the door. Decent alternative to the cheap all-plastic ones
Drives slide into place with a solid fit and eject easily with a pull of the handle.
Works with Antec P180 drive bays that require side rails

Cons: Interface died after 5 months
Fan started to die at that time too
RMA is not feasible

Other Thoughts: Worked great for 3 months until the fan started to make ticking noises - classic bearing wear. But the fan still moved air and the device as a whole was still operational and tolerated until 5 months at which point it died completely. Inserting any drive caused the computer to freeze for 5 minute periods, resuming for a few seconds, then freezing again. Reboot was required. It did it every time, in both of my computers, and with any size/type drive.

RMA to Bytecc requires that I ship the product to their facility in CA at my expense (~$10), and include a personal check to them for return shipping too ($10). I paid $25 to buy it originally. At $20 I might as well buy a new one.

I might have just been the unlucky guy to have a bad enclosure. That happens. But charging for return shipping is something that will make me avoid Bytecc in the future.

Pros: Drives work when inserted.

Cons: Drives get way too hot when used with these enclosures. I use many other enclosures in the computers I use and none of them get drives as hot as this one does. The brand I usually buy is not available any longer. The fan on the unit was working and the case of the computer was still open. The drive was not even working, had been idle for hours. When I extracted the drive it felt twice as hot as any other drive I have felt. The drive I was using was a Seagate 1T xt Barracuda.

Other Thoughts: I am going to try the Icy Dock enclosures next

Pros: It seems to work okay when the drive is in it and the door is finally shut.

Cons: The door on the unit I received is exceedingly difficult to get closed. It only reaches it's latch after pushing very hard on the door (long after the drive has already settled into the sata connector at the back of the unit). It's so hard to close the door that my tower slides backward across the desk when I push, which is not easy given my case's weight and grippy feet. In order to successfully close the door, I have to hold the case with one hand and push the door with my other hand. Either there's something wrong with the unit I received, or it's a design flaw common to all of them.

Other Thoughts: If it weren't for the door problem I'd be happy with it.

Pros: After reading some of the reviews I was skeptical about how this wold work out. But I went ahead and bought it anyways. Turns out it's a, pretty well built and solid rack. Definitely recommend. Having a lock and key is an extra plus.

Cons: none.

Pros: Easy to install and it feels solid. No problems yet. Working as advertised.

Cons: Not sure if this is a con, but i don't think the fan is necessary. Although it's nice that it is there.

I've had issues fitting one of my hard drives into one of the bays I purchased. I got four of these product and the hard drive in question fits on the other three. May be it's a fluke. Despite of this weirdness, I"m happy w/ this purchase.

Pros: Does what it's supposed to do.
Red power light above the lock and a blue light below the lock to show drive activity. Both are not that bright to warrant a change in the leds.

Cons: The door on the drive does open from left to right when the product is installed correctly (from the lock side). For me that is not a con. Product will not work in a vertical position. It says tool-less install but I use the four screws that came with the rack.

Other Thoughts: It was an easy install and works very well. I do have both the SATA and the IDE power plugged in. The box says that it comes in black and beige, so my question is where is the beige? I have even done a google search to no avail. Help out Newegg and Bytecc.