Is there some setting you have to set from a configuration console to get a bootable J4?
Mine doesn't boot OS X, probably because the driver isn't installed at that point and it doesn't provide a "bios" to inject one into the initial system. I notice that the blue "disk icons" on the front panel are not lit until I actually log-in to OS X, so they are in my personal environment (I may look into trying to move that process to the basic OS X system level so all logins will have access to the drive system). I notice that it also goes to sleep when the iMac does, shutting down into a standby mode.
I don't need it to be bootable, but I thought it would be nice to have that capability for emergency booting if something were to happen to the internal boot drive (but I always keep a bootable portable drive in my desk for such occasions).
I had originally ordered the R4, but changed my mind minutes after I pressed the button and cancelled and ordered the J4 instead. I am really glad I did that. The J4 will give me much more flexibility to mix and match drives and configurations and be much more than just a big disk like the R4. It is also way smaller, quieter, and easier to integrate into the iMac "minimalist" desktop environment.
It is actually like my old Mac Pro with the 4 drive bays that I could configure as I desired.
-howard
Howard,
I am not too sure I understand your comment (bold above). I believe the J4 only supports RAID 0,1,5. The R4/R6 supports RAID 0,1,5,6,10.
With the R4... you first map physical drives into one or more logical drives. Then you select the RAID level for the logical drives. Hence... the R4 supports JBOD by allowing multiple logical drives.
I agree with the smaller/minimalist comments.
/Jim