USB 3.0/eSATA Dual 3.5” SATA III Hard Drive External RAID Enclosure w/ UASP and Fan – Black

SATA hard drive controllers require a feature called port multiplier to read more than one hard drive per SATA or eSATA port. The port multiplier feature is not standard on many SATA hard drive controllers.

If your computer is only recognizing one of your hard drives, you need to plug the eSATA cable into a SATA controller that includes the port multiplier feature. If none of your current hard drive controllers include this feature, you can add a hard drive controller that does support port multiplier in any available expansion slot (for example, PCI, PCI-Express, PCMCIA, CardBus, or ExpressCard). StarTech.com has hard drive controllers available that support the port multiplier feature. To view the hard drive controllers, click here: http://startech.com/Cards-Adapters/HDD-Controllers/SATA-Cards/?filter_PORTMULTIPLIER=Yes.

If you have a hard drive controller card that does support the port multiplier feature but it is only reading one hard drive at a time, update the drivers of the hard drive controller. To find the most current StarTech.com drivers, click here: http://www.startech.com/Support.

When you troubleshoot issues with a hard drive enclosure, there are some quick tests that you can complete to rule out potential problems. You can test to make sure that the following components are working correctly and are not the source of the issue:

• Cables
• Hard drives
• Hard drive enclosure

To test your setup components, try the following:

• Use the cables, hard drives, and hard drive enclosure in another setup to see if the problem is with the components or the setup.
• Use a different cable, hard drive, and hard drive enclosure in your setup to see if the problem persists. Ideally, you should test a component that you know works in another setup.

When you test the hard drive and hard drive enclosure, it is recommended that you do the following:

• To check Disk Management, press the Windows key + R, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter. Check to see if your hard drive is listed.
• If the hard drive is listed with unallocated space, the hard drive needs to be reformatted. Right-click unallocated and click New Simple Volume. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the reformatting.​

Note: Formatting a hard drive erases all of the data on it. Make sure that you back up all of your data before you reformat the hard drive.​

• If the hard drive is listed as healthy but does not have a drive letter, for example, C:, right-click healthy and click Change Drive Letter and Paths. Click Add, assign a drive letter, and click OK.

Note: A formatted hard drive will not show up in Computer or My Computer until it has a drive letter assigned to it.

Note: Any data currently on the drives will be lost during this process. You need to back up all of your data before you set a RAID mode.

To set a RAID mode, complete the following:

1. Use a USB cable to connect the hard drive enclosure to a computer.

Note: Your computer needs to be turned on while completing these instructions.

2. Turn off the hard drive enclosure.
3. Set the RAID switch to the RAID mode that you want to set.
4. Press and hold the Set button and turn on the hard drive enclosure.
5. When the enclosure is turned on, release the Set button.

Note: When you change the RAID mode again, complete the steps above to set the unit back to JBOD before you set a different RAID mode.

In order to rebuild a RAID array, you need to replace a physical drive with an identical drive on the same RAID controller. Although standard RAID levels are generally agreed upon throughout the industry, the implementation varies between manufacturers. RAID arrays are typically not accessible when they are moved to another controller, and data may be unrecoverable if the drives are out of order or have been formatted or accessed by another RAID controller.

If a RAID controller has failed, you should get the exact same model of RAID controller.  

Note: If a drive or drives were damaged, it is possible that the RAID array may be permanently unrecoverable.

RAID should not be considered a replacement for backing up your data. If critical data is going onto a RAID array, you should back up the data on another physical drive or logical set of drives.

Rebuild a RAID array

With the following RAID modes, recovery is possible using the same StarTech.com product. Refer to the following table for the appropriate method to use to recover your RAID array.

You should not upgrade your device's firmware if you do not have any issues with the functionality of your device. The only time you should consider an upgrade is if you are experiencing a problem with the device, and you have confirmed that the firmware addresses this problem.  You can confirm this is the case by reviewing the documentation included with the firmware or by consulting with our Technical Support team. Incorrectly upgrading firmware can result in diminished performance so it is best to contact StarTech.com if you would like to perform this operation.

To confirm that the Mac OS detects your USB device, complete the following:

1. Click the Apple icon.
2. Click About This Mac.
3. Click More Info or System Report.
4. Under the appropriate heading, confirm that your USB device is listed and that there isn't an error. For example, a network card would be under Ethernet Cards.

You may need to refresh the System Information page after you plug in your device.  To do so, press Command + R with the System Information page open.

Your USB device is listed according to the name of the chipset. To determine the name of the chipset of your USB device, navigate to www.StarTech.com and look on the Technical Specifications tab for your product.

To determine if your hard drive will work in this enclosure, on the product page, click the Technical Specifications tab, and do the following:

• Make sure that the enclosure supports the storage size of your hard drive. If the storage size of your hard drive is larger than what the enclosure was tested with, the hard drive will likely still work with the enclosure.
• Confirm that your hard drive uses the same interface type as the enclosure. For example, IDE, SATA, or M.2.
• Make sure that the enclosure supports the physical size of your hard drive, such as 2.5 inches or 3.5 inches.
• Make sure that the enclosure supports the height of your hard drive. For example, 9 mm or 15 mm.
• Verify that the power consumption of your hard drive doesn’t exceed the power output of the enclosure. If you’re using multiple hard drives, make sure that the combined power consumption of all of the hard drives doesn’t exceed the power output of the enclosure.

Note: Not all StarTech.com devices support each of the RAID modes described below. For more information on the RAID modes that your device supports, refer to the manual or the StarTech.com product page.

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) is a virtual disk technology that combines multiple physical drives into one unit. RAID can create redundancy, improve performance, or do both.

RAID should not be considered a replacement for backing up your data. If critical data is going onto a RAID array, it should be backed up to another physical drive or logical set of drives.

The following are terms that are normally used in connection with RAID:

• Striping: data is split between multiple disks.
• Mirroring: data is mirrored between multiple disks.
• Parity: also referred to as a checksum. Parity is a calculated value used to mathematically rebuild data.

Different RAID levels exist for different application requirements.

Refer to the following table for the list of RAID modes offered by some StarTech.com products:

Windows 10 

Before you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive. A partition defines an area of the drive to use for storing data. The partition uses a file system (for example, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on).

Initialize a drive

Note: You typically only need to initialize a drive if the drive is new. If you cannot find an uninitialized drive in Disk Management, skip the following steps and try to partition your device.

1. Press the Windows key + R, type compmgmt.msc, and click Run to open Computer Management.

2. Navigate to Disk Management.

3. When prompted to, initialize your disk(s). If you are running Windows^® 7 or later and are using a drive larger than 2TB, initialize the disk(s) with GPT. If you are running an earlier version of Windows, initialize the disk(s) with MBR. For more information, visit the following FAQ: https://www.startech.com/support/faqs/technical-support?topic=hard-drives#mbr-vs-gpt.

4. Click OK.

Create a partition in a drive

Note: The following steps create an NTFS partition that uses the entire drive space. To use a different file system, select a different option in step 6.

1. Right-click Unallocated or RAW volume, and select New Simple Volume.

2. In the New Partition Wizard, click Next.

3. Select Primary partition.

4. Leave the partition size set to default, and click Next.

5. Assign a drive letter or leave it set to the default, and click Next.

6. Enter the following settings to format the partition:

• In the File System field, enter NTFS.
• Set the Allocation unit size to Default.
• In the Volume label field, enter <your name/reference>.
• Select the Perform a quick format check box.
• Clear the Enable file and folder compression check box.

7. Click Next > Finish.

The new drive should appear in Windows Explorer.

Mac OS

Before you can access a new or formatted drive in your operating system, you need to initialize it first and then create a partition on the drive. A partition defines an area of the drive to use for storing data. The partition uses a file system (for example, HFS+, ex-FAT, NTFS, and so on).

Initialize a drive

Mac OSX detects a drive that needs to be initialized and automatically prompts you to initialize the drive. If you are prompted to initialize the drive, click Initialize. If you are not prompted to initialize the drive and you cannot find the drive in Finder, you will need to create a partition on the drive.

Create a partition on a drive

Note: The following steps create an HFS+ (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) partition that uses the entire drive space.

To create a partition on a new drive, complete the following:

1. Open Finder.

2. Navigate to Applications and click Utilities.

3. Open Disk Utility.

4. Select the new drive and click the Partition tab.

5. Click Options and verify that it is set to GUID Partition Table.

6. Enter a name for the partition.

7. Click Partition.

The drive should now be accessible in Finder.

For products related to this article, click here.