SANS DIGITAL MobileSTOR MS2UTN+B Big (Spanning), Safe (RAID1), Fast (RAID 0), JBOD, SAFE33, & SAFE50, GUI mode allow customized RAID volume setting. 2 x Hot-Swappable 3.5" Drive Bays USB 2.0 (480Mbps) & eSATA (3.0 Gbps) 2 Bay SATA to eSATA/

Pros: - Loaded up with 2 1.5 TB 7200RPM drives and placed in safe mode, seems to work OK - Looks/feels solid, small device overall, built in power supply (no external brick) - Audible alarm

Cons: - Need to update firmware to at least 1.15.76, otherwise OSX Leopard cannot partition/format the drive. - Selector is difficult to use. I recommend you download the Steelvine GUI, put the device in 'GUI' mode, and set the mode from the GUI. - Little or no documentation. Hint: The password for the GUI is 'admin' - Device has no fan speed monitor. - Steelvine Daemon opens a port for inbound connections from manager, which is insecure.

Overall Review: Make sure you update the firmware first, use the GUI for management, and once you are done, follow the uninstall directions to remove the daemon - which you need not run unless you want email notifications (at home, the alarm seems sufficient for notifications of issues).

Pros: I did some research before buying this product, not extensive but quite a bit. This company specializes in storage solutions for data centers etc. so it must know how to make a quality product and it does. The RAID encolsure is well constructed and supports USB, eSATA and regular SATA via an adapter. The instructions are not very comprehensive but I looked online for more details. If you want RAID 1 (mirroring) its as simple as setting the mode in the back, popping in two drives and letting it do the rest. The Steelvine application tells you what is going on in the enclosure. I haven't used any other modes but there is a GUI mode which lets you set things up using the GUI I believe instead of the selector in the back. Transfer rates for RAID 1 are good. I read online that its not the fastest for RAID 0 compared to more expensive controllers.

Cons: The selector on the back is terrible. There is no way to know for sure what mode you have selected. Luckily the Steelvine GUI tells you the mode it is in when plugged it. This is a minor complaint for an otherwise excellently designed product. It has a fan that is supposed to be temperature controlled but I can always hear it running and its pretty loud compared to my Dell XPS 420 since its a small fan. Not sure if its a firmware issue or if its just designed to be always on at the same speed but this is something I thought I should mention.

Pros: The the SansDigital Mobilestor MS2UTN+(B)is a well-designed and solidly-built enclosure. The power is internal and eliminates the clutter of another power brick. The two WD 750Gb Caviar Black drives installed easily onto the sliding supports which fit perfectly into the enclosure. I configured the "Storage Design" as a 500Gb SAFE (mirrored RAID 1) and the remaining 196Gb on each drive as a BIG 396Gb drive. The guide for doing this is provided on the software for the GUI interface which must be downloaded from SansDigital's web site. The building of the SAFE mirror on the second drive took several hours. The drives are kept cool and the enclosure is not warm. Note: If you change the configuration switch, you must then press the reset switch with the power on. The controller with take over and configure the RAID or allow GUI interface.

Cons: The instructions are minimal; mechanically you could figure out how to install the drives on your own. They are useful in interpreting the red and blue activity lights and in recommending that new, identical drives be used. The fan is noticeable. The slotted configuration selector switch is recessed and ambiguous. The ambiguity can be removed by noting that the original setting is "0" and using a Sharpie marker to mark the selector. Note: You cannot access more than one physical or virtual drives with eSATA unless your eSATA host is port multiplier aware.

Overall Review: This is my first experience with RAID and I had to do some research. This uses the SteelVine Silicon Image SiL5744 RAID controller. In addition to the switch selectable configurations you can set SAFExx with BIG or FAST for the remaining space using a GUI interface. A guide for the SteelVine 57XX family is contained in the downloadable package available from SansDigital. Read it first to Chap. 5 before doing anythin. Find it under the C:\Program Files\Silicon Image\57xx SteelVine for SteelVineManagerHelp.pdf after software install. Note that some other reviewers suggested that the drives be formatted prior to setting a RAID configuration. Don't; you format after the two virtual disks have been configured by switch selection or GUI. Exception is the JBOD configuration when you are just using the enclosure to house one or two independent disks. Use Windows Disk Management to initialize, partition (format) the resulting RAID drives. Note: You cannot access more than one physical or virtu

Pros: Just installed my second copy of this product today, and it worked beautifully right out of the box. I've only used this product consistently in JBOD mode, and this works very well, but see below. Excellent product for the money. I searched a long time for a two-drive e-SATA external enclosure, and I feel I made the right choice. RAID capability wasn't a requirement for me, but as soon as my two new drives arrive I plan to put it to use. I'll be a bit less wary now that I know there will be (purple? alternating red and blue?) flashing lights for 3 or 4 hours while the 2nd drive in each unit builds.

Cons: Installation guide is really skimpy, but then this seems to be par for the course these days. This unit gives very little feedback about what it's doing, so you may be left wondering at times. I don't recommend building a RAID system on it unless your files are backed up elsewhere. Flashing lights don't say "Oh, by the way, I'm erasing all your data" in any Earth language I'm aware of. All you get in the way of feedback are flashing lights that don't really (in my opinion) match what the supplied documentation says. To me, "flashing purple" looks exactly the same as "alternating purple and red."

Overall Review: When using an e-SATA connection, your e-SATA controller must support port multiplier, or the unit will only see your first drive when using JBOD, Safe33 or Safe50 modes. This information is given on the Sans Digital site, but not in NewEgg's information on this product (or wasn't at the time of my first purchase, anyway). I took a chance buying my first unit since I couldn't find any reviews at that time, but now there are several excellent reviews available on the web. I still am willing to give this product 5 eggs. It doesn't take up a lot of room, works quietly, and once you figure out what the heck it's doing, it does it well. Using e-SATA, my drives benchmark exactly the same as if they connected as internal SATA.

Pros: Compact form factor. Good quality enclosure and drive trays/latches

Cons: yowsa. LOUD fan. After minutes of intense use, I can hear the bearings failing.

Overall Review: Is that my meatgrinder?? oh, no, it's just the fan. Is the air force doing touch-n-go practice? Oh, nope...fan. For a decent quality enclosure, Sans *REALLY* missed the boat by putting in a $0.01 fan. As with other reviews, I agree it is impossible to tell which way the RAID mode screw is pointing, but once set I don't plan on changing it so that's a minor whine. Especially compared to the horrid grinding fan. And the "GUI software" for a Mac is really just a driver for the esata card. meh. Not recomended; even though I'm putting it in a closet, it seems inevitable that the fan will fail and then the drives will cook.

Pros: Inexpensive RAID 0 or 1 box compared to other brands (around 1/3 the price) that look very similar/identical except for decals. Has eSATA and USB 2.0. Has a lot of RAID modes - BIG (one Big spanned Drive), JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, BIG + RAID 1 33%, BIG + RAID 1 50%. JBOD and "BIG + RAID 1" modes require a specific kind of eSATA controller with a port multiplier.

Cons: Very confusing setup. Trial and error setup process b/c the dial does not have a 1 cent nob so you know what is selected (BIG, JBOD, RAID 1 etc...). You need to install the Steelvine software from SD website to know what is going on. Restart the box with a pen and scan drives in the software to know what setting mode it is in. When you find the one you want, just wait. It will build the RAID on its own. You will see flashing purple/red lights. When it is done I think they will both be blue. RAID building is slow. 1GB drives in RAID 1, 15mins = 6% Fan seems louder than other brands like everyone says.

Overall Review: Installing the drives is easy and the device feels very solid. I followed advise of others and set the <PwSupFanSpeedLo>095</PwSupFanSpeedLo> in the UserConfig.xml to get rid of the PS fan error in the SteelVine software. I also emailed SD to ask if this is correct. Compared to very similar devices, this one is much more difficult to configure (1.5hrs compared to 10mins for RAID 1 configuration). Newegg reviewers made it much easier! Hopefully this device will work as well and as long as the more expensive ones in its class. I have had that one for ~3 years now.

Pros: For the price, this has a lot of features - multiple RAID options, active cooling, eSATA. Quality of external materials was good, this thing never got very hot.

Cons: Quality of the circuitry/hardware not so good, failed after about 18 months.

Pros: none

Cons: After owning two of these for five months, one failed and would no longer register that there were any drives installed. The second failed a few days later after I installed two blank drives and pressed the reset button. The second unit no longer works over esata, only works on usb.

Overall Review: fortunately I was using raid 1. I installed one drive from each unit into single drive enclosures and they are working fine with no data loss. All four drives passed diagnostics with no errors. So I'm positive the enclosures are defective, not the drives. After experiencing such a high failure rate, and reading similar reviews from others, I refuse to trust my data to replacement units from the manufacturer. I'll be looking for a new dual drive raid 1 enclosure to replace these.