ARGGGGG Enclosures

dingobiatch · Sep 24, 2014

I'm losing my mind. My setup is a new Mac Pro.

I had two Startech USB3.0 UASP dual bays. Four drives plugged into them. I also recently got a Mediasonic USB3 UASP enclosure, for portable use.

I noticed one of my drives was disconnecting and/or getting total read/write failure through the Startech. I checked SMART status, drive is healthy.

Switched it to the Mediasonic, things work great, I decide to replace my Startech bays with four Mediasonic enclosures.

Now I'm getting I/O errors in console with one of my drives. Also I realized SMART status doesn't work with these enclosures, and my startup time with the enclosures plugged in is SO long now [that, or if I plug my drive in after the computer starts up, it takes ~5 min to show up on my desktop'

Obviously I can't test my drives by directly connecting them, since there's no SATA bays in the nMP....

Are USB3.0 enclosures/bays this unreliable??? I'm happy to shell out $600 for an OWC Thunderbay or something, if it'll be reliable.

ColdCase · Sep 24, 2014

Not that USB3 enclosures are that unreliable unless you stick green drives in them, but I have had much more satisfaction using thunderbolt devices. Never an issue where USB drives like to disconnect once in awhile. Over the past six months I've had three USB3 enclosures fail and replaced under warranty where not one issue with the TB stuff.... or the old USB2 stuff for that matter. USB3 enclosure controller chips seem to run hot.

dingobiatch · Sep 24, 2014

ColdCase said:
Not that USB3 enclosures are that unreliable unless you stick green drives in them, but I have had much more satisfaction using thunderbolt devices. Never an issue where USB drives like to disconnect once in awhile. Over the past six months I've had three USB3 enclosures fail and replaced under warranty where not one issue with the TB stuff.... or the old USB2 stuff for that matter. USB3 enclosure controller chips seem to run hot.

And what TB enclosure are you using? I can't decide whether to get a 4-bay like the OWC Thunderbay, or a two 2bays. I have three or four drives I want to keep plugged in...

Mr. Retrofire · Sep 25, 2014

dingobiatch said:
...I'm getting I/O errors in console with one of my drives...

Did you try a USB-IF certified cable? See also:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=19236547#post19236547

dingobiatch · Sep 25, 2014

What's a USB-IF certified cable? My Startech was having errors and if Startech sell USB-IF cables, I'd imagine the one they included would be one, no?

I'm not sure about my Mediasonic cable..

g4cube · Sep 25, 2014

Cable construction is important for best USB 3.0 performance, right along with bridge chip, driver, and overall construction.

Many, many USB 3.0 cables have issues, and weren't resolved until Intel's white paper talked about potential issues with WiFi and Blue-tooth interference unless cables and devices were properly shield and constructed.

Certified cables will be labeled as such, but not all cables must be certified. Up to the manufacturer.

Likely the expensive cables in the Apple Store, or the cables bundled with the drives sold in the store would be best.

Quality has it's price.

And think about all those non-name manufacturers who may have dumped poor quality USB 3.0 cables that were made before Intel published the white paper!

matreya · Sep 25, 2014

dingobiatch said:
And what TB enclosure are you using? I can't decide whether to get a 4-bay like the OWC Thunderbay, or a two 2bays. I have three or four drives I want to keep plugged in...

I have two of the Thunderbays, they are excellent.

Mr. Retrofire · Sep 25, 2014

dingobiatch said:
What's a USB-IF certified cable?

The USB-IF is the USB-Implementers Forum.

About USB Implementers Forum, Inc.

USB Implementers Forum, Inc. is a non-profit corporation founded by the group of companies that developed the Universal Serial Bus specification. The USB-IF was formed to provide a support organization and forum for the advancement and adoption of Universal Serial Bus technology. The Forum facilitates the development of high-quality compatible USB peripherals (devices), and promotes the benefits of USB and the quality of products that have passed compliance testing. Some of the many activities that the USB-IF supports include:

USB Compliance Workshops
USB compliance test development
http://www.usb.org Web site
USB pavilions at CES, IDF, and other events
Marketing programs and collateral materials, such as retail newsletters, retail salespeople training, store end-caps, etc.
USB Developer Conferences
and many more...

Source: http://www.usb.org/about

They created the USB standard and validate certain USB (3.0) products. See also:
http://www.usb.org/developers/compliance/

Non-certified components (hubs, cables, ...) are not officially USB (3.0) specification compliant.

dingobiatch said:
My Startech was having errors and if Startech sell USB-IF cables, I'd imagine the one they included would be one, no?

Possible, but not likely. As you can see
http://www.startech.com/Cables/USB-3.0/?page=all
not all cables are USB-IF-certified.

colorspace · Oct 25, 2014

MediaSonic Pro

I have a 4 bay MediaSonic Pro with 6.xTB storage in RAID5 (4*2TB 7,200). No problems what so ever in USB3.0 or eSata on my MacPro. Also has FW800, but there is no reason to use given the much faster speeds on the other two buses.

thedeske · Oct 26, 2014

g4cube said:
Cable construction is important for best USB 3.0 performance, right along with bridge chip, driver, and overall construction.

Many, many USB 3.0 cables have issues, and weren't resolved until Intel's white paper talked about potential issues with WiFi and Blue-tooth interference unless cables and devices were properly shield and constructed.

Certified cables will be labeled as such, but not all cables must be certified. Up to the manufacturer.

Likely the expensive cables in the Apple Store, or the cables bundled with the drives sold in the store would be best.

Quality has it's price.

And think about all those non-name manufacturers who may have dumped poor quality USB 3.0 cables that were made before Intel published the white paper!

Agree - Cables are a huge issue. There is no Go-To brand to insure quality, like Granite Digital for Firewire.

jmichael99 · Nov 3, 2014

ColdCase said:
Not that USB3 enclosures are that unreliable unless you stick green drives in them, but I have had much more satisfaction using thunderbolt devices. Never an issue where USB drives like to disconnect once in awhile. Over the past six months I've had three USB3 enclosures fail and replaced under warranty where not one issue with the TB stuff.... or the old USB2 stuff for that matter. USB3 enclosure controller chips seem to run hot.

why are green drives a problem?

ColdCase · Nov 3, 2014

jmichael99 said:
why are green drives a problem?

They can go to sleep at awkward times and often are too slow to wake or don't wake up in many enclosures. The one HGST green drive I use I have to cycle power on it often for the mac to recognize it....

jmichael99 · Nov 4, 2014

ColdCase said:
They can go to sleep at awkward times and often are too slow to wake or don't wake up in many enclosures. The one HGST green drive I use I have to cycle power on it often for the mac to recognize it....

Interesting

I have a western digital 4tb green drive in a star tech enclosure and never had an issue on my Mac mini. I guess its a ymmv thing.

I read once that you can disable the green parts of the drive. Never bothered to research

MCAsan · Nov 4, 2014

I would load a OMC ThunderBay 4 enclosure with four 6TB drives.

ColdCase · Nov 4, 2014

jmichael99 said:
Interesting

I have a western digital 4tb green drive in a star tech enclosure and never had an issue on my Mac mini. I guess its a ymmv thing.

I read once that you can disable the green parts of the drive. Never bothered to research

Yes, and most issues don't raise their head until you introduce a USB3 hub into the mix. Mu WD elements drive seem to be well behaved, however.

dingobiatch · Nov 10, 2014

Okay, so I got a different enclosure (another Startech one, only because I can return it on Amazon prime) and I'm experiencing the same thing - drives don't mount for a few minutes after being plugged in, sometimes I need to restart to get them to show up, and even after startup they won't show up for a few minutes.

Suddenly got a blast of I/O errors in Console.

This is using an IF-certified cable by the way.

Jesus at this point I'm TOTALLY fine with buying a thunderbolt enclosure, but I can't find one anywhere!! Where is a 3.5" HDD Thunderbolt enclosure? There's only RAID bays, which is completely overkill.

hfg · Nov 10, 2014

dingobiatch said:
Okay, so I got a different enclosure (another Startech one, only because I can return it on Amazon prime) and I'm experiencing the same thing - drives don't mount for a few minutes after being plugged in, sometimes I need to restart to get them to show up, and even after startup they won't show up for a few minutes.

Suddenly got a blast of I/O errors in Console.

This is using an IF-certified cable by the way.

Jesus at this point I'm TOTALLY fine with buying a thunderbolt enclosure, but I can't find one anywhere!! Where is a 3.5" HDD Thunderbolt enclosure? There's only RAID bays, which is completely overkill.

This may work for you:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backu...6&sr=8-2&keywords=seagate+thunderbolt+adapter

You can get the disk drive shells on eBay if you want a more "finished" look.

matreya · Nov 10, 2014

dingobiatch said:
Jesus at this point I'm TOTALLY fine with buying a thunderbolt enclosure, but I can't find one anywhere!! Where is a 3.5" HDD Thunderbolt enclosure? There's only RAID bays, which is completely overkill.

Thunderbolt has too high a premium for the chipset to be made for single-drive enclosures.

Your nearest bet is this dual bay unit:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/METB7DK0GB/

You can use two hard drives in independent mode...

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ARGGGGG Enclosures

dingobiatch

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dingobiatch

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