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OWC enclosure FRIED two HDDs - help!

I'm more worried about the enclosures than the drives, since I had two (enclosures) fail on me this morning.

I'm thinking of trying the eSATA Mercury AL Pro, but after this morning's experience I'm hesitant.
 
badlydrawnboy said:
How do you connect that to the Mac Pro? Do you use one of the SATA ports on the motherboard?
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In my case, the $49 eSATA PCIe card from your favorite vendor - OWC. Lose the USB connection - I can get well over 100 MBs on an eSATA connection to an external drive. Why on earth cripple yourself with 20 MBs on USB? Even Firewire 800 is 40-60 MBs real world.

In fact the new 2.5" stuff is pretty attractive because it can be bus powered from the FW 800 cable - one wire. I am using one of these for my iTunes library (its almost 500 GB so I don't want to junk up Time Machine with it - hence the RAID 1)
 
badlydrawnboy said:
I'm more worried about the enclosures than the drives, since I had two (enclosures) fail on me this morning.

I'm thinking of trying the eSATA Mercury AL Pro, but after this morning's experience I'm hesitant.
Click to expand...

Have on of those exact enclosures that I used daily for 2-3 years to hold my TM drive on my iMacs - never a lick of problems.
 
khollister said:
In my case, the $49 eSATA PCIe card from your favorite vendor - OWC. Lose the USB connection - I can get well over 100 MBs on an eSATA connection to an external drive. Why on earth cripple yourself with 20 MBs on USB? Even Firewire 800 is 40-60 MBs real world.

In fact the new 2.5" stuff is pretty attractive because it can be bus powered from the FW 800 cable - one wire. I am using one of these for my iTunes library (its almost 500 GB so I don't want to junk up Time Machine with it - hence the RAID 1)
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Thanks. Just to make sure, is this what you're talking about?

Do I need to buy SATA cables as well, or are they included with the eSATA enclosure?
 
badlydrawnboy said:
Thanks. Just to make sure, is this what you're talking about?

Do I need to buy SATA cables as well, or are they included with the eSATA enclosure?
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That's it - eSATA cables have been included with any OWC enclosure I have ever bought.

Two important safety tips on that eSATA card (and most other eSATA cards too)
1) It will not boot a connected drive. If you need to actually boot from a clone attached, you will need to temporarily connect a FW cable (also included with the enclosure) to boot it.

2) It doesn't hot swap reliably with most enclosures (it is an issue with the bridge chipsets). It does hotswap perfectly with the OWC Voyager drive dock, which is what I use for my backups with bare drives. It definitely does not hot swap with the enclosure you are looking at (I tried it). The next card up ($79 RAID eSATA card) is supposed to be better on the hot swap front but I have not tried it. If you connect the drive and leave it on, it is a non-issue. If that bugs you, use FW 800

Oh, one more thing (channeling Steve) - regardless of the setting in the Energy Saving pref pane, most eSATA connected drives will not sleep. Sometimes they do, but more often than not they don't. Again, if this bothers you, firewire 800 is your friend.

It's kind of like motorcycles - you want speed or comfort?
 
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khollister said:
2) It doesn't hot swap reliably with most enclosures (it is an issue with the bridge chipsets). It does hotswap perfectly with the OWC Voyager drive dock, which is what I use for my backups with bare drives. It definitely does not hot swap with the enclosure you are looking at (I tried it). The next card up ($79 RAID eSATA card) is supposed to be better on the hot swap front but I have not tried it. If you connect the drive and leave it on, it is a non-issue. If that bugs you, use FW 800
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But if I'm just planning to leave the one enclosure connected to the eSATA card, this shouldn't be an issue, right?

Thanks for the heads-up on the FW800/boot. I wasn't aware of that.
 
khollister said:
1) It will not boot a connected drive. If you need to actually boot from a clone attached, you will need to temporarily connect a FW cable (also included with the enclosure) to boot it.
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Good catch.

I've only seen bootable eSATA from Highpoint, and I don't trust their gear as far as I can throw it (seen enough and heard far more horror stories than I care to remember). One of the worst Customer Support Depts. I've ever dealt with.

khollister said:
2) It doesn't hot swap reliably with most enclosures (it is an issue with the bridge chipsets). It does hotswap perfectly with the OWC Voyager drive dock, which is what I use for my backups with bare drives. It definitely does not hot swap with the enclosure you are looking at (I tried it). The next card up ($79 RAID eSATA card) is supposed to be better on the hot swap front but I have not tried it. If you connect the drive and leave it on, it is a non-issue. If that bugs you, use FW 800
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Ye olde "works if the chip maker is the same on both ends". :rolleyes:
 
this esata card boots. I have tested it and it boots will only see 1 drive so only works as a single hdd option but it will do 115MB/s

total cost is about 45 to 50 bucks but you get speed of 115MB/s and it will boot. it will also use usb2 in a pinch. it will take a 2tb drive. looks match the pro. the pci e esata card is the cheapest card that boots with a 2010 mac pro. don't knock speed of 100 to 115MB/s fw800 will get you about 60 to 75MB/s and FW800 case cost more.
 
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Just to catch-up. Are the drives physically ruined or just the data lost?
 
Good question.

I originally thought both drives were gone. But then I put one of them in an internal bay in my Mac Pro, and it mounted without a problem. The other one won't mount, so it may be finished.

It's okay, though, because it was only 750 GB and I've been planning on upgrading to a 2 TB. This just provided the extra motivation.

And in fact, I've decided to just run my SSD boot drive off an internal SATA port and stick it in the 2nd optical bay, and then put the 2 TB in the empty internal HDD bay to use as TM backup. I won't even need an external enclosure or PCI card.
 
badlydrawnboy said:
Good question.

I originally thought both drives were gone. But then I put one of them in an internal bay in my Mac Pro, and it mounted without a problem. The other one won't mount, so it may be finished.

It's okay, though, because it was only 750 GB and I've been planning on upgrading to a 2 TB. This just provided the extra motivation.

And in fact, I've decided to just run my SSD boot drive off an internal SATA port and stick it in the 2nd optical bay, and then put the 2 TB in the empty internal HDD bay to use as TM backup. I won't even need an external enclosure or PCI card.
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Uh, OK, but bear in mind that having all your drives in the Mac means you have no disaster recovery in case of theft, fire, catastrophic power surge that fires everything in the Mac, etc. Might want to think that through a little more. an integral TM drive is good for "crap, I didn't meant to delete that" or a drive taking a dump, but it's not mush good for other types of disasters. That's where CCC and a removable drive comes in.
 
khollister said:
Uh, OK, but bear in mind that having all your drives in the Mac means you have no disaster recovery in case of theft, fire, catastrophic power surge that fires everything in the Mac, etc. Might want to think that through a little more. an integral TM drive is good for "crap, I didn't meant to delete that" or a drive taking a dump, but it's not mush good for other types of disasters. That's where CCC and a removable drive comes in.
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Very good point. I think I'll get that enclosure after all!
 
I do have a cloned backup of my boot drive, and a cloned backup of my data drive already. But right now they are all inside the Mac Pro, so I see your point. If something happened to the Mac Pro itself that fried the internal drives, I'd lose it all. Guess I need another big drive and an external enclosure.

Thanks.
 
badlydrawnboy said:
I do have a cloned backup of my boot drive, and a cloned backup of my data drive already. But right now they are all inside the Mac Pro, so I see your point. If something happened to the Mac Pro itself that fried the internal drives, I'd lose it all. Guess I need another big drive and an external enclosure.

Thanks.
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Off-site backup would cover you as well (ideally have this in addition to, not as a replacement for any on-site backup/archival media, as restoring from off-site over your ISP tends to be S-L-O-W; it can cover you in the event of things like floods, where all on-site storage media are damaged).


In such a case, slow or not, your data is still in tact, and insurance won't cover data. Just the hardware.

Something to think about anyway. ;)
 
Bought two OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pros and placed a WD Green 2TB in each of them in early October this year, so they are at half capacity and with low power drives aaaanndd..

Enclosure 1: Time Machine backup, used 24/7 - working fine
Enclosure 2: Weekly backup, usage: <24 hours - dead, HD, thankfully, fine.

Let's see what OWC support says, really don't think I should be out of pocket as these were shipped to the UK!
 
Concorde Rules said:
Bought two OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pros and placed a WD Green 2TB in each of them in early October this year, so they are at half capacity and with low power drives aaaanndd..

Enclosure 1: Time Machine backup, used 24/7 - working fine
Enclosure 2: Weekly backup, usage: <24 hours - dead, HD, thankfully, fine.

Let's see what OWC support says, really don't think I should be out of pocket as these were shipped to the UK!
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Hopefully all you'll be out is the return shipping for the DOA unit (standard practice these days :rolleyes:). :)

BobD2 said:
Anyone know anything about this enclosure:
http://www.macgurus.com/store/ecom-prodshow/Burly2Hotswap.html

I'm thinking of it as a replacement for a Wiebetech enclosure that didn't work for me (described in another thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1066188/)

They also have one that works with FW 400/800 or USB2:
http://www.macgurus.com/store/ecom-prodshow/BurlyMultiDriveFWHS.html

I don't need RAID -- just JBOD would be fine for my purpose.
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Unfortunately, I've not used any of their hardware.

But there's no reason why it won't work due to specification compliance (just need driver support for the eSATA card, assuming you're running it that unit; otherwise it will be fine with USB or FW). Interface Standards are a good thing. :D
 
nanofrog said:
Hopefully all you'll be out is the return shipping for the DOA unit (standard practice these days :rolleyes:). :)
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I'll be very unhappy if that is the case, shipping is expensive if I want it back in the next month.

I'm afraid they are going to have to arrange collection on this one...
 
Concorde Rules said:
I'll be very unhappy if that is the case, shipping is expensive if I want it back in the next month.

I'm afraid they are going to have to arrange collection on this one...
Click to expand...
I'm under the impression the UK has half-way decent consumer protection laws, unlike the US. But I'm not sure if it extends to your situation (can't haul it into a physical store for replacement, and not sure if the supplier has any legal obligation to provide a Pre-Paid Shipping label to send in the return).

Here, I usually end up sending the DOA item back at my expense (some exceptions, but it's still paid for - just up-front, as part of an upgraded warranty), wait for them to receive it, then ship out a new one via UPSlow.

The only way to get it faster (assuming there's no upgraded warranty available), is give them a credit card to ship the replacement immediately (essentially purchase the replacement unit). Then they'll do a refund to the CC once they confirm receipt of the DOA unit (funds are slow to return as well). The given excuse is they could get scammed out of a new unit, so this is for their protection. Granted, I can see this to some extent, but not sure what the actual statistics are (how much it would push the retail/street prices up to absorb the losses).

Either way is standard practice here. :rolleyes: :(
 
nanofrog said:
I'm under the impression the UK has half-way decent consumer protection laws, unlike the US. But I'm not sure if it extends to your situation (can't haul it into a physical store for replacement, and not sure if the supplier has any legal obligation to provide a Pre-Paid Shipping label to send in the return).

Here, I usually end up sending the DOA item back at my expense (some exceptions, but it's still paid for - just up-front, as part of an upgraded warranty), wait for them to receive it, then ship out a new one via UPSlow.

The only way to get it faster (assuming there's no upgraded warranty available), is give them a credit card to ship the replacement immediately (essentially purchase the replacement unit). Then they'll do a refund to the CC once they confirm receipt of the DOA unit (funds are slow to return as well). The given excuse is they could get scammed out of a new unit, so this is for their protection. Granted, I can see this to some extent, but not sure what the actual statistics are (how much it would push the retail/street prices up to absorb the losses).

Either way is standard practice here. :rolleyes: :(
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Pfft, if I send it back I might get a refund instead and buy from a UK e-tailor, as if this happens again then there are other options within in the UK which would be far less faffing about. Shame really, as these enclosures were exactly what I wanted (FW800 :/)

Also ordered $350 of memory from them too, let's hope that arrives :eek:
 
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