FirmTek miniSwap/U3

[g4cube]

... However I have yet to see a thunderbolt powered enclosure that supports raid-0 for performance....

Actually, the LaCie 2big is Thunderbolt, has slots for 2 3.5 drives that are eaassily removable, and is daisy-chainable. You can use Apple's Disk Utility to format drives as JBOD, RAID-1, or RAID-0

frequently available as refurbs at a good price at MacMall.

Also available is the LaCie Little Big Disk; same idea but for 2.5" drives. Casing must be disassembled to swap drives.

Finally, WDC has their 2 drive Thunderbolt storage device, with a pop-top where the 2 3.5" drives are easily removed. A lot more expensive but slower performance; have not seen any refurbs available, and some have reported that not all SATA drives work reliably.

None of these alternatives is bus-powered.

 

[nomanstool]

Actually, the LaCie 2big is Thunderbolt, has slots for 2 3.5 drives that are eaassily removable, and is daisy-chainable. You can use Apple's Disk Utility to format drives as JBOD, RAID-1, or RAID-0

None of these alternatives is bus-powered.

Yes that's what I meant, I've yet to see something like those that are bus powered.

 

[g4cube]

Yes that's what I meant, I've yet to see something like those that are bus powered.

You won't be seeing bus-powered, 2-slot drive cases unless SSD or HDD manufacturers significantly lower power consumption of these devices.

Even the j2 from Promise which has provisions for 2 SSD inside throttles down performance when bus powered, and only achieves optimal performance when AC power is connected.

While Thunderbolt has 10w available per port, the Thunderbolt controller consumes more power than a USB controller. USB3 spec is also limited to 4.5w, but the power management function can be manipulated - charging protocol permits 2.1a, and even Apple manipulates power to known peripherals like the USB speakers of old (G4CUBE), and current SuperDrive. More power is made available above the spec'ed limit.

The issue is, if more power is required, there is no way to deliver it on every computer that has a USB or Thunderbolt port so vendors have to design within the limits specified.

 

[nomanstool]

You won't be seeing bus-powered, 2-slot drive cases unless SSD or HDD manufacturers significantly lower power consumption of these devices.

Even the j2 from Promise which has provisions for 2 SSD inside throttles down performance when bus powered, and only achieves optimal performance when AC power is connected.

While Thunderbolt has 10w available per port, the Thunderbolt controller consumes more power than a USB controller. USB3 spec is also limited to 4.5w, but the power management function can be manipulated - charging protocol permits 2.1a, and even Apple manipulates power to known peripherals like the USB speakers of old (G4CUBE), and current SuperDrive. More power is made available above the spec'ed limit.

The issue is, if more power is required, there is no way to deliver it on every computer that has a USB or Thunderbolt port so vendors have to design within the limits specified.

The thread title itself is a bus powered dual drive that uses USB 3.0 for its power.

MiniSwap U3

So I would be glad if they can use thunderbolt + usb 3 for power. That will do as well.

Here's what I'm actually waiting for an update (currently they only have usb 2.0)
Elite Dual Mini

They're dual hdd setup on RAID-0 plus its bus powered as well.

 

[g4cube]

The thread title itself is a bus powered dual drive that uses USB 3.0 for its power.

MiniSwap U3

So I would be glad if they can use thunderbolt + usb 3 for power. That will do as well.

Here's what I'm actually waiting for an update (currently they only have usb 2.0)
Elite Dual Mini

They're dual hdd setup on RAID-0 plus its bus powered as well.

Thanks for the follow-up. Though USB 3.0 provides more power, my comment was about "any USB" equipped computer. Unless there are provisions to overcome the 2.5w limit of standard USB 2.0, or computers that have a hard limit that current limit USB power, these dual drive systems might have issues with some drives, especially those where customers might try their own drives rather than one spec'ed by the manufacturer.

The key being is that those using DIY solutions might not be aware of the power limitations.

There are ways for manufacturers to overcome these limits and make the solutions more forgiving - providing an extra cable that gets power from another USB port, or providing an internal battery or capacitor to address peak current needs.

I am reminded of the first aluminum MacBook Pros which had a hard 500ma limit on its USB 2.0 ports rather than accommodating power-on peaks that most Windows laptops had. The MacBook Pro would report to the user that too much power was being drawn by the bus-powered drives, requiring a second USB connection to deliver the additional power needed.

 

[nomanstool]

requiring a second USB connection to deliver the additional power needed.

I'll take 2 usb for bus power over a power adapter anytime

 

[Slim381]

I know this thread is a little old, but I wanted to post something here in case people are still interested in this enclosure.

My experience with the MiniSwap/U3 has been negative. The transfer speeds are excellent and the ability to hot-swap drives is very convenient. But this enclosure has a problem that makes it worthless to me: you can't boot from it.

Each workstation at our office uses SuperDuper to create a system clone to a backup drive each night. We're not amateurs, and we've set up many, many backup drives. We follow exactly the same procedure every time we set one up. All the other drives and sleds and enclosures around the office will boot after creating a SuperDuper clone, but the MiniSwap/U3 will not.

So I contacted the people at FirmTek for support, but they were unhelpful. I didn't have a solution after several emails, and FirmTek claimed not to be able to reproduce the problem. In the end, we sent the unit to FirmTek for testing, and they claimed it worked just fine for them.

They denied our request for a refund, and we told them to keep the enclosure anyway.

 

[Chippy99]

I know this thread is a little old, but I wanted to post something here in case people are still interested in this enclosure.

My experience with the MiniSwap/U3 has been negative. The transfer speeds are excellent and the ability to hot-swap drives is very convenient. But this enclosure has a problem that makes it worthless to me: you can't boot from it.

Each workstation at our office uses SuperDuper to create a system clone to a backup drive each night. We're not amateurs, and we've set up many, many backup drives. We follow exactly the same procedure every time we set one up. All the other drives and sleds and enclosures around the office will boot after creating a SuperDuper clone, but the MiniSwap/U3 will not.

So I contacted the people at FirmTek for support, but they were unhelpful. I didn't have a solution after several emails, and FirmTek claimed not to be able to reproduce the problem. In the end, we sent the unit to FirmTek for testing, and they claimed it worked just fine for them.

They denied our request for a refund, and we told them to keep the enclosure anyway.

It doesn't sound to me like FirmTek have been unreasonable. It seems they did reply to your emails, and also they tried to reproduce your problem. Seeing as they could not reproduce it with your device, it would seem reasonable to assume there is nothing wrong with it. (Not that being unable to boot from it would be classified as a "fault" anyway.)

And given there is nothing wrong with it, I can fully understand why they would refuse to refund you. I would probably refuse too.

Whilst vendors are keen to look after their customers these days, at the same time they have to strike a balance and ultimately goods are not sold on a "free trial" basis. You bought and they supplied the goods in good faith and they have presumably accounted for the transaction and included the revenue in their figures. It is unreasonable of a customer to expect a refund in these circumstances, in my opinion.

 

[Slim381]

It doesn't sound to me like FirmTek have been unreasonable. It seems they did reply to your emails, and also they tried to reproduce your problem. Seeing as they could not reproduce it with your device, it would seem reasonable to assume there is nothing wrong with it. (Not that being unable to boot from it would be classified as a "fault" anyway.)

And given there is nothing wrong with it, I can fully understand why they would refuse to refund you. I would probably refuse too.

Whilst vendors are keen to look after their customers these days, at the same time they have to strike a balance and ultimately goods are not sold on a "free trial" basis. You bought and they supplied the goods in good faith and they have presumably accounted for the transaction and included the revenue in their figures. It is unreasonable of a customer to expect a refund in these circumstances, in my opinion.

If this was an issue of customer service, I wouldn't disagree. Their service representative was courteous and seemed to genuinely try to help me fix my problem. But the fact remains: my unit couldn't do something that it should have been able to. It wouldn't boot. I see three possibilities:

1. The fault was ours. We configured the drive incorrectly, but in reality the MiniSwap/U3 unit was totally functional. Then, when FirmTek tested it, it worked as it should have.

2. There was an issue with our device. FirmTek tested it, and misdiagnosed that it was fully functional.

3. There's a design flaw with the product in general. Some enclosures interfere with a drive's ability to boot, and the MiniSwap/U3 has this issue. Maybe FirmTek isn't aware of it, or maybe it's a product bug that they don't want to admit to. In this case, FirmTek verified that my device was fully-operational, but the fully-operational state of this product is unable to boot an enclosed drive.

Now here's where you'll have to take my word for it: it wasn't #1. We know what we're doing. I'm 100% convinced that the unit that I had was not capable of booting, and I'm happy to give you specifics of why I think this is the case if you like. Which means we're looking at possibility #2 or possibility #3, and the issue is theirs.

 

[thedeske]

You didn't mention what drive works for them (if you know) and what drive you're using or if you tested a different drive. SSD, HGST, WD, etc.