If you have a need to connect some SATA disks to your computer externally, you might want to consider using a drive enclosure. The Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS2UT 2 bay drive enclosure also provides a RAID solution if you want to protect the data on your drives.
WHAT IS THE MOBILESTOR?
The Sans Digital website describes the MobileStore:
The MobileSTOR MS2UT+B series is a fully loaded 2-bay external RAID solution designed for home and small business storage needs. With simplicity and flexibly in mind, this series is equipped with two hot-swappable 3.5” hard drive trays, as well as both USB 2.0 and eSATA host interfaces. In addition to RAID 0 and RAID 1, MS2UT+ also utilizes the latest Silicon Image 5744 chipset, supporting the newest SAFE33 and SAFE50 technology. SAFE33 and SAFE50 allows the creation of two hard drive volumes where 1/3 (SAFE33) or 1/2 (SAFE50) of the volume is used for mirroring and the rest is used for Spanning (Big). In comparison to SAFE (RAID 1) mode, which utilizes both hard drives for mirroring, SAFE33 and SAFE50 increase storage space by setting aside a portion of disk space for regular data storage while performing mirror simultaneously. By incorporating SAFE33 and SAFE50, the MS2UT+ eliminates the cost of additional hard drives needed for various storage modes.
FEATURES
SPECIFICATIONS
Model : MS2UT+B
Form Factor : Cube
HDD Trays : 2 Hot-Swappable 3.5″
RAID Level : Big (Spanning), Safe (RAID1), Fast (RAID 0), JBOD, SAFE33, & SAFE50
Maximum Capacity : 4TB
Auto Rebuilding : Yes
Host Interface & Transfer Rate : USB 2.0 (480Mbps) & eSATA (3.0Gbps)
Drive Interface : SATA I / SATA II
Cooling Fan : 1.6″ Ball Bearing
Power Supply : 80W (110V~240V)
Control Interface : LCD Panel
Status Indicators : RAID Alarm, Fan / Temperature, Power LEDs
Dimension (in) : 4.8″W x 8.0″D x 4.0″H
Weight (lb) : 3.8
Safety Regulations : CE, FCC, UL, RoHS
Limited Warranty : 1 Year
Package Contents :
MS2UT+B (1)
Removable Tray Modules (2)
Power Cord (1)
Hard Drive Tray Keys (2)
RS232 Cable (2)
USB 2.0 Cable (1)
eSATA Cable (1)
Quick Installation Manual (1)
WHATS IN THE BOX?
It’s quite a small box, and it contains the MS2UT, power cable, an eSata bracket, an eSata cable, and USB cable, a quick start manual, and some screws and keys.
This looks like a very nice way to add raid 0 to a small form factor system i.e. my itx media center build.
just added this to my HTPC system with the 4 tuner ceton coming out i wanted to be ready for the 4 channel recording, transfer is a steady 20megs per windows