[Russ One]

So what's everyone using for 1 or 2 drive external enclosures these days?

I was using the MiniStack V3, nice size etc, but they don't seem to last more than 18 months and there is, according to tech support, no way to repair them since they don't sell the bridge boards. So I'm off trying to find a reliable housing.

 

[LiquidTension]

a couple months ago I picked up two of these and 4 1TB Western Digital Green drives.


been great so far

 

[greedo]

I've had good luck with these . I have 2 of them and they're reasonably cool and quiet. Nothing I'd want in the same room as my AV gear though.

 

[Phantom Gremlin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ One /forum/post/18159975


I was using the MiniStack V3, nice size etc, but they don't seem to last more than 18 months and there is, according to tech support, no way to repair them since they don't sell the bridge boards.

Ouch. That is a $110 enclosure. I'd expect longer life than that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by greedo /forum/post/18162632


I've had good luck with these . I have 2 of them and they're reasonably cool and quiet.

Hmmm. Sold (and made?) by the same company that sells the Ministack. So what will make this box better?

 

[jamerican]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/18163012


Ouch. That is a $110 enclosure. I'd expect longer life than that.

Hmmm. Sold (and made?) by the same company that sells the Ministack. So what will make this box better?

OWC has another version of this box which is USB only and cheaper. I have 2 of them housing 4 TB of video (2 disks in each enclosure) and they have been working fine for nearly 2 years now.

BTW, OWC does not make the Newertech box, they only sell it. I have one of those also which I use as the backup drive for my 24" iMac. Been working fine for over 2 years with no problems.

 

[Russ One]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jamerican /forum/post/18166156


BTW, OWC does not make the Newertech box, they only sell it.

The odd thing is OWC and NewerTech have the same address, also when you go to Support at NewerTech you get sent to OWC. Same people? I don't know who owns who but there is a connection. I use to be a fan of OWC but their attitude kind of sucks recently and it's not just me, others have had the same experiance and the reviews on Amazon about this housing is pretty poor.

I just hope the rest of my MiniStacks hang in longer.


Still looking for something I can trust running 24/7 but it looks like they are all much bigger-like a foot long, ugly and at least twice the price. Most come with drives only. I'm looking at the Wiebetechs and housings from Macgurus.

 

[tommylotto]

I use 2 of these . They come populated with 2 1TB drives already and they can be set to automatically mirror 1TB. I do not time machine my media library, but this gives me some protection from drive failure.

 

[kenliles]

it's more expensive, but I just use a stack of time capsules (2TB is the latest);

I like the the choice of connections; Gigbit, USB, wireless;

the latest include 2 radios for independent WiFi connection (ie Iphone remote);

the enclosures look really good (no WAF);

I like the independence of failure (all separate enclosures);

I use Time Machine for real-time backup and attach a USB drive to TC for a second archive of critical data..


downside - more expensive...


ken

 

[Phantom Gremlin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by tommylotto /forum/post/18169845


I use 2 of these .

I'm not a big fan of WD right now. I bought a f***ing POS "My DVR Expander" for my TiVo, and it has crapped out after about 18 months. I'm not the only one with this problem.

 

[Russ One]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/18171949


and it has crapped out after about 18 months. I'm not the only one with this problem.

That seems to be the common story, even with the Time Capsule - 18 months and you buy a new one - though I think it's the drives in the TC which you can replace. Nice of these companies to forget that all that stuff goes into the environment. Replacement parts should be reasonably available to keep this stuff out of landfills as long as possible or last a lot longer an keep our wallets fatter, not theirs. I'm not a tree hugger but I do love trees etc. and an 18 month life expectancy on this stuff is a joke.

I have Seagate drives, purchased w/o housings, that are still running after 9 or 10 years almost everyday, all day but even their enclosures have problems. I've had WD drives fail after 3 or 4 years. I've had more enclosures die than drives in the past 12 years or so. It always seems to be the bridge boards in them and the newer ones are worse.

 

[Phantom Gremlin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ One /forum/post/18172848


I'm not a tree hugger but I do love trees etc. and an 18 month life expectancy on this stuff is a joke.

IMO Apple is the worst. They're moving to difficult-to-replace batteries for just about all their products, even laptops. So, for older iPods, most people will just pitch them when all that's needed is a new Li battery. But Steve doesn't make any money if you put a new battery in your old iPod.


This, despite the fact that ozone-man himself, Mr. Nobel Prize Algore, is on their BOD.


Why is it that Apple always gets a pass for stuff like this?

 

[greedo]

I don't think Apple gets "a pass" for this. They're routinely criticized for their battery policies, even though there's a vibrant after-market industry that'll gladly replace your iPod's battery if you can't do it yourself. For their laptops, it's the same deal. I'd much rather have a built in, high-performance battery, than the crap I have to put up with in our Dell's at work. And most consumers aren't ditching their iPods when the batteries go out, they're ditching them because they have to have the latest "shiny" that comes along. Don't blame Apple for that.

 

[jcar901]

I have 4 of these in my media cabinet with drives ranging from 750gb to 1.5TB. I like them because they are fanless and very quiet. They are connected via Firewire. I also use a smart powerstrip that powers them down when the computer goes to sleep.


If want more protection I would recommend the Drobo

 

[Russ One]

How about one of these?
http://www.macworld.com/article/1461...id_server.html

Similar to the Drobo.


If you reply to my original question it would help if you indicate how long you've be running a particular housing since most seem to last up to 18 months then die. Thanks.

 

[kenliles]

I've been using a combination of Time Capsules and OWC-Mercury Elite Pro;

Just passed the 2 year mark and just recently had one of the TCs die (actually wasn't the drive but the power supply, but still lost it...


ken

 

[kenliles]

update:

I just had a second Time Capsule crap out - same exact problem, the power just goes out (not the drive itself); I'm going to take this one in as well - time seems consistent about 2 years same problem... This is clearly something that is a design or other flaw - not random...


I just ordered a new 2TB capsule but may have to do something else;


ken

 

[phas3]

wit the time capsule power dieing on you, are you still able to save the data in the time capsule?

 

[Russ One]

So here's my update. It would have cost me $220 and up for a decent FW housing so instead after a lot of research I ended up building a NAS (UnRaid server) that has a a parity drive for data protection and I can put 6 drives at least in the case I got. The parts for the server cost me $267 including shipping (I already had the drives). I have been running it for a month on a gigabit network and i love it. I'm recording 2 1080p channels and playing a 3rd at times with EyeTV. No part cost me more than about $55 so if something fails like a power supply or mother board I can replace it for about that. That being said most of the major parts have a 3 year warranty. The license is free for up to 3 drives and $69 for up to 6 drives. I'm done paying big $s for junk that only last a year or so and can't repair it.


Here is my parts list:

PSU Corsair|CMPSU-400CX 400W RT - Flash Drives 2G|Lexar Firefly - Sempron 140 CPU- Biostar A760G Mother Board - 2x1GB Kingston ValueRam DDR2 800 - Rosewill R101-P-BK RT case + additional 120mm varispeed fan - Hard Drives (Seagate Barracuda 2x 1TB 7200.12 and 1x 500GB 7200.11)

 

[phas3]

do you have a mac mini?


is a drobo a NAS too?

 

[Russ One]



Quote:
Originally Posted by phas3 /forum/post/18551726


do you have a mac mini?


is a drobo a NAS too?

Yes I have a Mac Mini, late 2009 / 2.26 GHZ / 2 GB ram running Leopard. It came with Snow Leopard but I could never get it to play a smooth as Leopard. I tried Snow Leopard again with the latest Eyetv 3.3 update and made it worse so I went back to Leopard.


I don't recall but I think that the drobo is a NAS as well as having FW connections but is more expensive and not as cheaply or easily expandable as the unRaid. That being said the Unraid works best with Apple if you install avahi to get AFP but will work without, just at a reduced transfer speed.