Question 1

is it come with any hard drive or i need to buy extra ?

Accepted Answer

If you are using the box for a raid configuration you must provided four same size drives. If sequential, then the bays can be filled with any size disk dirives.

Question 2

The CineRaid home page says the CR-H458 supports 10TB hard drives in each drive bay. Is this true?

Accepted Answer

Yes that is correct, I have 4 of these and they all have 10TB drives in them, you get use of all the space.

Question 3

Will it work with 4x6tb drives for 24tb total?

Accepted Answer

No it won't. If you look under the "Hightlights" part of the page just above the "features" It states that it "Supports SATA HDD/SSD drives up to 4TB, with total storage capacities up to 16TB."

Question 4

I bought one of these several months ago but haven't bought disks for it yet.  I would like to buy 4 X 4TB drives and the description says it supports 4TB drives but a lot of reviews say only 3 TB.  Can anyone confirm if this works with 4TB drives?  Also, can this be hooked to a router via USB 3 or does it have to be connected directly to a computer?

Accepted Answer

Yes, 4 x 4 TB will work with CR-H458.  No. This device is not a NAS enclosure, and it won't be able to connect to network via a router.  It works well connected to a computer via usb 3.

Question 5

Can multi-drive arrays be extended? I believe this is called JBOD. I currently have an older model of this CineRAID with 4x4TB drives. It is set up as one 12TB drive, the "Y drive". I wanted to buy a new CineRAID and start with 2x8TB drives for 16 TB. Then, later, I wanted to add 1 or 2 more drives, increasing the capacity to 24TB or 36TB. Can this be done "on the fly", (not necessarily hot), or do I have to copy all the data to another device, recreate the array from scratch, then copy all the data back again?

Accepted Answer

It really does not seem like it is possible. Once you make a raid array you can only take out drives and replace them with new ones when the old ones fail, but the array including the number of drives in it is locked in stone and can not be changed.

Question 6

Can the RAID volume be expanded without damaging the data?
Eg.  Using 4 x 3Tb hard drive = approx 9Tb if upgrade to 4 x 4Tb hard drive = 12Tb???

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can add a 4th drive without losing any data. The RAID will need some time to distribute data to the 4th drive before performing at 100%, but you can still use the RAID during this time, albeit more slowly. For more info, look up RAID 5 online. It is designed to add/remove drives without losing data.

Question 7

1. Which hard drive (make, type, please provide links) can I use with this device?
2. Do I need any additional software to setup and get this device up and running for my file backups, OR it comes with everything?
3. How difficult it is to setup this device as my backup system?

Accepted Answer

Should be able to use any SATA harddrive.  It is best to use 4 of the same harddrive but all that it needs to be is the same size (you can use different size HDs but they will be limited by the smallest HD).  It comes with its own software to set up the device but you don't even need that.  You can set the switches on the back and follow the instructions to set it up but the software is easier.  It is pretty easy to set up but I and a lot of other people have had many difficulties with it not working correctly so I don't recommend this unit.

Question 8

Does this enclosure support JBOD?

Accepted Answer

Not sure. I should say, however, that I bought two different RAID enclosures and this is by far higher quality and has been working well so far.

Question 9

Does this support SATA III drives?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it does. I currently have 4x Seagate SATA III drives in mine, and it is as happy as can be. Keep in mind that it will only communicate with them at SATA II speeds.

Question 10

I have a large number of backup hard drives which I would like to organize. To do that, I want to be able to mount or replace individual drives while other drives are in operation. Is this possible with this product in a JBOD configuration?

Accepted Answer

you could, there is "normal mode" which allows you to access the drives individually, however it you are just looking for a JBOD, there are cheaper solutions out there. The Cineraid CR-458 was developed for NL Video Editing on a small scale. It is very Fast, easy to configure and setup and Supports E-sata and USB3. if all you are looking for is the ability to hot-Swap individual Drives  and have the USB3/SataIII interface I would suggest the thermal take Dock NewEgg # N82E16817153146. 50USD, very portable, supports Dual Drives, PnP  No Configuration needed. if you want more than that Sans Digital 5 Bay tower.
The Cineraid is a quality piece of HW, Good Price, Great performer, and looks good also, but it doesn't seem to be the HW you are looking for

Questions & Answers