Best Dual bay enclosure for multiple 3.5" drives?

[pjny]

Hi,

I would like to find a dual or quad bay enclosure where I can insert/remove different 3.5" drives without a cage. I saw units from Orico and Aukey but not sure they are reliable.

I currently have an Anker USB 3 3.5" dock that I put archival drives into to access data but don't like the exposed parts of the Hard drive.

I would like to find a 2-4 bay enclosure that treats each drive as a separate drive.

Thanks.

 

[matreya]

I've read horror stories about Orico enclosures, but I used to own one of these (before I gave it to a friend and upgraded to OWC Thunderbay 4 enclosures) and it worked very well:

http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-ProBox-HF2-SU3S2-SATA-Enclosure/dp/B003X26VV4/

 

[pjny]

Thanks. I would like to have an enclosure where I can store 3-4 drives from different years.

I usually archive my photos on a dual-bay Newertech RAID enclosure from OWC + an external 4tb drive. I also backup important files on an external 2 tb drive offsite.

At the end of the year, I remove the drives from the OWC and store them in a safe. I move the 4tb drive to the offsite storage and reformat the 2tb drive for next year images.

I would like to be able to have access to older images/files from these drives with a reliable enclosure I can just pop drives in/out of.
[doublepost=1453045336][/doublepost]I am also looking for an enclosure that requires a sled or having to screw on a handle on the drive for easier removal/insertion. I liked the mechanism on this but the reviews are pretty bad. Just flip a switch and the drive pops out.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/981256-REG/xcellon_drd_101_dual_raid_external_storage.html

BTW, can OWC thunderbay run in JBOD non-raid mode?

 

[matreya]

BTW, can OWC thunderbay run in JBOD non-raid mode?

That's how they come, unless you bundle the SoftRAID software to give RAID functionality.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2IVKIT0GB/