Notifications
Clear all
Topic starter
I have the following hardware on a home machine, which is used for photography. I'm planning a RAID 5 archive for my images. Do I have what is necessary and will work? This will be the first time I've done this.
Mid 2010 Mac Pro With Caldigit FASTA 6GU3 Pro USB 3.0/eSATA card.
Mediasonic H82-SU3S2 ProBox 8
Right now I have a heterogenous group of Drives, including WD Green 6,3,2 TB models and a Seagate 5 GB.
Many thanks!
Posted : 11/06/2016 10:49 am
This can work fine. Thunderbolt is of course much better and much faster.
One issue with USB is it cannot tell you when your drives enter their failing state, as can be done with Thunderbolt. Its very useful to know this information so you can replace drives before they fail.
Posted : 11/06/2016 1:15 pm
Out of curiosity - why does USB not tell this?
This can work fine. Thunderbolt is of course much better and much faster.
One issue with USB is it cannot tell you when your drives enter their failing state, as can be done with Thunderbolt. Its very useful to know this information so you can replace drives before they fail.
Posted : 31/03/2017 4:38 am
The USB "committee" decided not to pass this data through the bus.
We are working on a way to accomplish this, however and have it in beta. Not all devices will be able to be supported with SMART data.
Posted : 31/03/2017 1:24 pm
This can work fine. Thunderbolt is of course much better and much faster.
One issue with USB is it cannot tell you when your drives enter their failing state, as can be done with Thunderbolt. Its very useful to know this information so you can replace drives before they fail.
How about USB drives connected to a TB dock and than the computer?
What about firewire?
Will SoftRAID work on single, non-raid external hard drives?
Do you have an EDU (student) price available?
Posted : 17/07/2017 5:44 am
SoftRAID now has a USB SMART driver, so many USB drives can be supported. Very few FireWire enclosures support SMART data.(even with our extended SMART driver)
Yes, SoftRAID can work on any drive, RAID or non RAID.
We do not have EDU pricing, sorry. But if you don't need RAID 5, then SoftRAID Lite should be adequate and it is only $49.
thanks
Posted : 17/07/2017 12:28 pm
SoftRAID now has a USB SMART driver, so many USB drives can be supported. Very few FireWire enclosures support SMART data.(even with our extended SMART driver)
Yes, SoftRAID can work on any drive, RAID or non RAID.
We do not have EDU pricing, sorry. But if you don't need RAID 5, then SoftRAID Lite should be adequate and it is only $49.
thanks
Do you have a list of supported USB/Firewire enclosures?
I currently use OWC Elite Pro (USB) and Elite Mini (USB/FW).
Saving up for an Elite Dual. SMART would also work with eSATA, correct?
Posted : 17/07/2017 11:12 pm
We do not have a formal list, one problem is identical looking enclsoures often have different chipsets, or different firmware, that affects how SMART works. So we do not have a list yet. It is possible we may create such a list, but it is not a priority at present.
SATA internal always reports SMART data. eSATA is inconsistent, as some cards/enclosures (with port multipliers) do not allow SMART data to be passed through.
Posted : 18/07/2017 1:12 pm
We do not have a formal list, one problem is identical looking enclsoures often have different chipsets, or different firmware, that affects how SMART works. So we do not have a list yet. It is possible we may create such a list, but it is not a priority at present.
SATA internal always reports SMART data. eSATA is inconsistent, as some cards/enclosures (with port multipliers) do not allow SMART data to be passed through.
TB is just overkill for my needs (speed wise & to my wallet) so a list of supported USB/FW enclosures would be very helpful.
Would be nice to get a confirmation that my current drives would work with SMART or do I need to contact OWC? It seems you are affiliated with them by their Thunderbays.
Posted : 18/07/2017 8:48 pm
I don't think anyone at OWC has a specific answer to your question. I will bring this up as a possibility for the future.
Is this a specific enclosure you want to purchase now? I can see if we can get that tested.
Posted : 19/07/2017 10:39 am
I don't think anyone at OWC has a specific answer to your question. I will bring this up as a possibility for the future.
Is this a specific enclosure you want to purchase now? I can see if we can get that tested.
Yes, it's what I planned on before learning about the possible USB/FW limitation.
Posted : 19/07/2017 9:22 pm
