Question 1

does this product support home server which is an off shut of server 2008?

Accepted Answer

This is an external drive bay, not a NAS.

Question 2

Anyone running windows 10 with this ?

Accepted Answer

Yes, I run it and it works perfectly.  Currently have a Rasp Pi 2 and B+ hooked up and pulling info from it.

Question 3

Can i use an esata to usb3 cable with this. Will it show up as 4 individual drives or one large drive? thanks

Accepted Answer

Conventional port-multiplier requires a SATA to SATA connection, unless the unit is designed for USB, in which case it will multiply a single USB connection to support 4 drives.  I am unsure (but probably not) if the required data handshake required for the SATA port multiplication will be transmitted across a hybrid connection such as you described.  However, if you have a unused USB 3.0 port, you can but a variation of this same San Digital 4-drive unit that does indeed multiply a USB 3.0 signal to 4 ports.  That might be your best approach.  Hope that helps.  The Beagle

Question 4

Anyone have any data on the speeds they are getting?  Is there an add on card to add hardware RAID.

Accepted Answer

What is VERY important to consider when using the TR4M6GNC JBOD unit is that because it's a true SATA3 (6Gbps) protocol to ALL four of the internal hard drives, it is absolutely necessary to have AT LEAST a 2x controller card feeding the data signal from the PC to the Sans Digital unit.  A 1x "SATA3" car will NOT provide enough bandwidth to support the full 6Gbps data stream to the hard drives, and will choke out very quickly under any kind of significant load.

Question 5

Is there a USB 3.0 port? Is this SATA III ? Can I put four 4 Terebyte hard drives inside for a total of 16TB?

Accepted Answer

The HDD interface is SATA III.

As Stephen S said, PC interface is eSata only. PC interface speed is dependent upon Port Multiplier speed (the bandwidth available is limited to the bandwidth of the link to the controller) and mode (Command-based switching is much slower than FIS–based switching).

Yes, I used 4 4TB HDDs in this for 16TB total capacity.

Question 6

What Esata card should I use? I am not using it for a raid.

Accepted Answer

Depends upon your system and OS.

I used a HighPoint RocketRAID 642L but I no longer use an eSATA expansion box.

Question 7

Any reason this wouldn't be compatible with a 3.5" Seagate SSHD rather than a HDD?

Accepted Answer

I can't say for sure, but you'd have to make sure the drive doesn't have a sleep mode it goes into.  If the drive has a sleep mode when it's inactive the raid will drop the drive from the array.

Question 8

As I will be putting 3 5tb 3g drives in this in a raid 0 configuration can this unit be connected to a rocketraid 2220 8 port 3g controller instead of the included rocketraid controller? Will it have any issues with the existing raid 5 array already in use?

Accepted Answer

The "RAID" is handled by the controller, not the tower. As long as the RR2220 support port multiplying you can use it. Your new drives will have to be formatted into the RAID 0 config using the card's management software (with RR, usually an installed web interface).

Friendly advice from someone who has used several different SANS DIGITAL port multipler towers. Don't consider, not for one second, of NOT using enterprise class drives. They are what SD recommends for a reason. Also, if going with a RAID 0 config, I would be sure you have good backups until your absolutely sure the setup is stable. Some of the RR cards do not use the best RAID chipsets and these result in instabilities (dropped volumes) under I/O loads. Especially if you have more than one tower attached to the same controller in my experience.

Best of luck.

Question 9

I want to put 4 4tb wd red drives in this unit -SANS DIGITAL TowerRAID TR4M6GNC--would there be any problem?-will i be able to have the drives show up as 4 separate drives on my macbook pro and tower.  I will be using as storage /2nd backup for a lot of digital photos
Thanks JohnG

Accepted Answer

they will be treated as a raid aray and will show up as one drive.  you can partition them into more than one drive.

Question 10

can this unit be use on a lap top which is my primary system which I all ready run two external drives, and is I can use this will I need a special connection? thanks

Accepted Answer

PC interface is eSata only. Never seen a laptop with an eSata port. Sans Digital makes USB 3.0 versions if your laptop doesn't have eSata.

Questions & Answers