Question 1

Why does the product claim to be 4tb, but all the comments talk about this being a 2tb or 3tb device?

Accepted Answer

I fully agree with Erick E's comments about Newegg website http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=22-178-354&turntoqid=SUYEak0e&turntosuid=TUYEbE8&sourceId=1&iqrlId=6570827&turntosku=N82E16822178354&turntoflow=answer#turntodone When you click on drop down box and select 3TB, The model number changes to STBV3000, select 2TB, model changes to STBV2000 AND prices change accordingly.

Question 2

How big is this product? I need dimensions please

Accepted Answer

The drive is 4 3/4 inches wide X 7 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick. Its just a little but larger than an actual hard drive.

Question 3

How noisy/quiet is this drive? I'd like to place it next to my silent iMac and not have something I can easily hear.

Accepted Answer

As far as I can tell this thing is silent.  I may not be the best person to ask however.  I have the drive sitting on top of my PC tower case which has multiple fans that are kind of noisy.  I do have another one of these drives though, a 2 TB model that is connected to my wifi network.  It sits in the living room underneath the television.  I've never been able to detect it audibly.

Question 4

can you connect to this device wireless?

Accepted Answer

Not directly, however, I have this connected via a USB port to my router. My router's firmware allows me to set any USB drive connected as a personal cloud device so in effect anything that connects to the router has access to the drive.

Question 5

I assume this external enclosure has four 1tb drives.  
My question is can it mirror 2 drives?  Does each drive show up as a different drive letter?  My question is so that if one drive fails, will I lose all my data?

Accepted Answer

No.. This enclosure is ONE 4TB drive.. the enclosure is barely bigger than one drive..  Matter of fact, I've bought 4 or 5 of these specifically to open them up and use the 4tb drives as internal drives on a regular SATA connection because sometimes the external goes on sale and is cheaper than the internal...  BUT, to directly answer, yes.. each USB drive will show up as a separate drive, and since it's one drive, it wouldn't have any redundancy internally to itself..  I guess depending on the O/S you could buy two of these and mirror to each other, and have a protected 4tb partition..

Question 6

works with windows 7?

Accepted Answer

Yes it works with Windows 7, 8. and even XP. You will have to install the driver for USB 3.0 if you use that port. Otherwise, it will work with USB 2.0 just fine if you don't have 3.0.

Question 7

what is the adapter output voltage? I want to use with my external 12V power supply that is powering all of my other external hard drives.

Accepted Answer

On the adapter it says: 12V == 1.5A

Hope that helps. And yeah, that's about all it says. :) Have a good life.

Question 8

Do you have to plug it into an energy source, other than the USB connection?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and there isn't an on/off switch.  However, this is an incredible deal, and extremely reliable.  I've been using it for my massive MP3 library, and have had it plugged in literally for 5 or 6 months with no problems.

Question 9

How long is the power cord? I don't have much room at my laptop station.

Accepted Answer

The power cord has the power brink on the 120V plug end. The cable that that plugs into the drive is about 70" long. It's thin wire so you should be able to fold it up to make the cable shorter if need be.  The USB cable is about 46" long, so if you need it to be longer you should get an additional cable.

Question 10

Is this drive compatible with Macs?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All drives are compatible with Macs. You just format it to Mac format.

Select the drive device in the list of devices, which is the item above any storage volumes on the drive, and which may show the manufacturer name, media size, and so on.
Choose the "Partition" tab that appears.
Select "1 Partition" from the drop-down menu (or more, if you have specific need for more than one volume).

When you select a new partition layout from the drop-down menu, each new partition will be formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) by default, but be sure to double-check this by selecting each in the partition diagram and then choosing the format for it.
Click the Options button and ensure "GUID" is selected as the partition scheme.
Click Apply to save the changes.

Questions & Answers