philipus Posted March 24, 2012 Share #1 Posted March 24, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) I'm looking for an external case with 4 HDD bays to connect to my Mac. The only thing it will be used for is to house the drives on which I'll backup my internal drives. In other words, I don't need internet access to the drives, NAS or anything like that. However, the case must work with OS X fully so that the drives mount automatically when the computer wakes up (I've set up a schedule to wake the computer at a certain point each day and launch SuperDuper for an automated backup). Any suggestions for reliable, good value options? Cheers philip Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 24, 2012 Posted March 24, 2012 Hi philipus, Take a look here Any suggestions for an external hard drive case?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Jeff S Posted March 24, 2012 Share #2 Posted March 24, 2012 Perhaps something here. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalArts 99 Posted March 24, 2012 Share #3 Posted March 24, 2012 A lot of friends who work in post in the film industry here use CalDigit. But maybe that's because it's a local business (but with offices in the UK.) Anyway, here it is: About CalDigit CalDigit HDElement You already have your own drives and there are lots of basic enclosures with decent chip sets out there, I'm sure. But drives are relatively cheap, so I probably would concentrate on the bridge and the quality of the Raid card, etc., and so maybe buy the best enclosure even if they might come with drives already. Other friends in the music industry swear by Glyph. They make rack style enclosures. Glyph - Products Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
billib Posted March 25, 2012 Share #4 Posted March 25, 2012 A while back I was faced with a similar dilemma to the OP but I wanted an external HD Enclosure for Video captures. The below links may prove entertaining. 123Macmini.com - Forums - View topic - "Affordable" 4-Bay RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 HD Enclosure http://support.mediasonicinc.com/HFR2-S3B/HFR2-S3B%20V1.pdf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanyasi Posted March 25, 2012 Share #5 Posted March 25, 2012 I hate to get down on a particular brand, but I bought 5 Western Digital Green 2TB drives in November for my Drobo RAID system. One failed in February and another failed in March. In fairness, WD did honor the warranty on the first and I will be sending the second one back shortly. I do wonder whether they are having manufacturing problems because of the floods in Thailand. These weren't bargain drives and were made by a highly reputable manufacturer, but because I value my files, I will now be using top of the line hard drives. I was advised by a tech at Drobo to go with Hitachi Deskstar. He also advised to go with 7200 RPM drives rather than 5400 drives. He said the 7200 are more durable. One thing is for sure (and most of my stuff is backed up on another system), when you see the drive warning light go from green to red, you have a real sinking feeling. I now keep several spare drives on hand. Bottom line: Spend the $50 or $75 extra and go top of the line, but don't skip on redundancy. Even the best stuff eventually fails. You can get WD external drives. I also have used Lacie and found that my Mac had a bit of trouble finding the Lacies. I wouldn't buy those again. Best Jack Siegel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipus Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share #6 Posted March 25, 2012 Sorry to hear about the drive failures, Jack. That's a real pain. I'm really only after a 4-drive enclosure that supports RAID and connects using FW or ethernet. It will only be for backup. I would, in other words, use software RAID which has worked really well for me over the years. I find Apple's implementation of it through Disk Utility to be very stable: until I got my SSDs I actually used two HDD in RAID 0 for a very quick boot drive. billib, thanks for linking to that thread. There are interesting options in there. I saw that Newegg has lots of enclosures however I'm a bit concerned to order from the US. Ideally I'd like to buy from a European dealer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roguewave Posted March 27, 2012 Share #7 Posted March 27, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) philip, I use a Drobo & have found it to be essential. It is a RAID, with it's own operating system and allows multiple users & access for both Apple & Microsoft OS. Price is moderate & the performance is wonderful. With the price of very fast & large drives plummeting, it's a great solution. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
algrove Posted March 27, 2012 Share #8 Posted March 27, 2012 I'm looking for an external case with 4 HDD bays to connect to my Mac. The only thing it will be used for is to house the drives on which I'll backup my internal drives. In other words, I don't need internet access to the drives, NAS or anything like that. However, the case must work with OS X fully so that the drives mount automatically when the computer wakes up (I've set up a schedule to wake the computer at a certain point each day and launch SuperDuper for an automated backup). Any suggestions for reliable, good value options? Cheers philip Try OWC since they offer many external cases and they cater to Mac users too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeEvangelist Posted March 31, 2012 Share #9 Posted March 31, 2012 I second the OWC recommendation. I have a pair of these and they've been solid performers - OWC MEQX2KIT0GB Mercury Elite Pro Qx2... in stock at OWC Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/175575-any-suggestions-for-an-external-hard-drive-case/?do=findComment&comment=1968855'>More sharing options...
philipus Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share #10 Posted April 4, 2012 Thanks very much for all the replies and suggestions. Having looked around a bit I'm wondering if OWC might not be the best option even though they're outside of Europe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastgreenlander Posted April 7, 2012 Share #11 Posted April 7, 2012 I highly recommend OWC too and they even ship here to Greenland :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted April 7, 2012 Share #12 Posted April 7, 2012 DROBO. Have two, one connected to the minimac server and one that is a NAS drive hidden in a secure location. They seem to work well although I have had a power supply(brick) failure but, I suppose that can happen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
algrove Posted April 7, 2012 Share #13 Posted April 7, 2012 OWC emailed this week that they now have in stock 4GB 3.5 inch drives-so that's 16GB not RAID'd. From time to time they have sales on their products so at least put your name on their mailing list. I used to live near you out by Zandvoort. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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