Question 1

Does this generate the dreaded "disk not properly ejected" warning when the attached Mac goes to sleep? I have this issue with some USB3 drives but not others, even from the same manufacturer.

Accepted Answer

I previously posted a review as "Anonymous" describing how my unit would spontaneously eject on my Mac. Upon further testing, though, I found that this occurred when the unit was plugged into my Wavlink 7-port aluminum hub with individual switches, but not when plugged into my cheap unpowered Orico 7-port hub. I must conclude, thus, that the issue lies with the hub and not this drive enclosure.

Question 2

Do all of the disks have to be the same? Or does this support a variable mixture of capacities/models?

Accepted Answer

The ORICO 5 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure can support all 3.5 inch SATA hard disks, including variable capacities and models. It supports up to 18TB for each individual disk.

Question 3

Can you setup a RAID 5 with this system?

Accepted Answer

In Windows (10 & 11, perhaps more) you can use "Storage Spaces" ( Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Storage Spaces) to create a RAID. I've been running this way on for months with no issues. Windows creates a "Software RAID" for you. Performance over the gigabit network to the PC (that his this volume shared) and then to this box is as fast as my NetGear ReadNAS (Network attached storage - about 40-45 MB / second, sustained). There appears to be a big advantage over NAS: File indexing is done on this RAID device (or any volume you make with "Storage Spaces) by Windows, just like your C: drive. If you search for a file in Windows File Explorer, even when accessing it as a Share over the network, it is indexed and very fast - faster than my NAS can find files, even though the file transfer rate is in the same ballpark.

Questions & Answers