After a recent rebuild of my main computers (one Windows, one Linux)
I was looking at external drives to use with them, and discovered
that my nice, recent 6TB external drive (SeaGate Backup+ Hub) will not
to SMART on my Linux system, although it apparently will on Windows.
The recent story about "incredible" hard drive prices at Walmart
was interesting. The product page did say that the product was shipped
to customers from a 3rd party vendor in China/HongKong/Taiwan. The price
was less than what similar offshare vendors charge for the better
enclosures (without a drive). So yes, clearly this would be trash.
After a recent rebuild of my main computers (one Windows, one Linux)
I was looking at external drives to use with them, and discovered
that my nice, recent 6TB external drive (SeaGate Backup+ Hub) will not
to SMART on my Linux system, although it apparently will on Windows.
At least on Windows, I can read the SMART attributes with the SeaTools utility, but the Linux version of SeaTools does not show a SMART tab. "smartctl -a /dev/sd?" says SMART is "available but disabled".
The drive inside is a "Firecuda" which has a full complement of SMART
data.
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to $60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
The recent story about "incredible" hard drive prices at Walmart
was interesting. The product page did say that the product was shipped
to customers from a 3rd party vendor in China/HongKong/Taiwan. The price
was less than what similar offshare vendors charge for the better
enclosures (without a drive). So yes, clearly this would be trash.
After a recent rebuild of my main computers (one Windows, one Linux)
I was looking at external drives to use with them, and discovered
that my nice, recent 6TB external drive (SeaGate Backup+ Hub) will not
to SMART on my Linux system, although it apparently will on Windows.
At least on Windows, I can read the SMART attributes with the SeaTools utility, but the Linux version of SeaTools does not show a SMART tab. "smartctl -a /dev/sd?" says SMART is "available but disabled".
The drive inside is a "Firecuda" which has a full complement of SMART
data.
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to $60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
On Wed, 2/18/2026 2:26 PM, Lars Poulsen wrote:
[snip]
After a recent rebuild of my main computers (one Windows, one Linux)
I was looking at external drives to use with them, and discovered
that my nice, recent 6TB external drive (SeaGate Backup+ Hub) will not
to SMART on my Linux system, although it apparently will on Windows.
At least on Windows, I can read the SMART attributes with the SeaTools
utility, but the Linux version of SeaTools does not show a SMART tab.
"smartctl -a /dev/sd?" says SMART is "available but disabled".
The drive inside is a "Firecuda" which has a full complement of SMART
data.
So I am looking for (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
As you would imagine, enclosures come and go. These suggestions
are based on availability, rather than absolute goodness. There
are a couple Asmedia chips for SATA to USB3, so for a while at
least, we can have a good adapter.
...
For most HDD-only enclosures, the adapter is 12V @ 2A, and this is supposed to cover the spinup current until it comes up to speed. I have two or three of
these adapters, and this hasn't caused a problem. The controller board
can have a 12V to 5V regulator, and that makes the 5V at up to 1 amp
that older drives needed. The modern drives use a bit less 5V for the controller board.
...
At one time, the first HDD wall adapters, they were crap. They were
dropping like flies. But eventually the people who make them,
did enough of the engineering right, they no longer fail like that.
*******
This is an older Vantec, aluminum enclosure removed (too small, no cooling), just the controller board. Chip is ASM1053 from Asmedia.
[snip]
On Wed, 2/18/2026 2:26 PM, Lars Poulsen wrote:
[snip]
After a recent rebuild of my main computers (one Windows, one Linux)
I was looking at external drives to use with them, and discovered
that my nice, recent 6TB external drive (SeaGate Backup+ Hub) will not
to SMART on my Linux system, although it apparently will on Windows.
At least on Windows, I can read the SMART attributes with the SeaTools
utility, but the Linux version of SeaTools does not show a SMART tab.
"smartctl -a /dev/sd?" says SMART is "available but disabled".
The drive inside is a "Firecuda" which has a full complement of SMART
data.
So I am looking for (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying >>> they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART. >>> The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
On 2026-02-18, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
As you would imagine, enclosures come and go. These suggestions
are based on availability, rather than absolute goodness. There
are a couple Asmedia chips for SATA to USB3, so for a while at
least, we can have a good adapter.
...
For most HDD-only enclosures, the adapter is 12V @ 2A, and this is supposed >> to cover the spinup current until it comes up to speed. I have two or three of
these adapters, and this hasn't caused a problem. The controller board
can have a 12V to 5V regulator, and that makes the 5V at up to 1 amp
that older drives needed. The modern drives use a bit less 5V for the
controller board.
...
At one time, the first HDD wall adapters, they were crap. They were
dropping like flies. But eventually the people who make them,
did enough of the engineering right, they no longer fail like that.
*******
This is an older Vantec, aluminum enclosure removed (too small, no cooling), >> just the controller board. Chip is ASM1053 from Asmedia.
[snip]
It looks like the "good" enclosures are advertizing that they support
UASP , which gives better transfer rates when used over "good" USB-3 connections. I suspect that most of these use the "good" chips, and so
have the "right" features. But the ads from these Chinese vendors have precious little technical information in them, and Amazon's AI assistant insists that they will not support SMART passthrough, even though your example seems to contradict that. Despite different cosmetic appearance,
they all seem to have a lot of similarities; f.x. they all use a USB-B formfactor for their USB connector; they all get enough power over USB
for 2.5" drives, but require 12V/2A DC feed for 3.5" drives.
You have good experiences with Vantec, so I think I will look on Amazon
for drives that are USB Prime Eligible and offer next-day delivery
(meaning they in stock at a Los Angeles Amazon warehouse, giving
preference (in this order) for Vantec, Orico and Sabrent, while looking carefully at the lowest-rated reviews. Does this make sense?
Amazon gives me listings for
* Vantec NexStar TX (Black) at $24
* Vantec NexStar G (Silver) at $25
Reviews report a small but not neglible amount of quality issues.
Poor cooling, loose fit for drive tray. Older NexStar 3 was better
built.
* Orico 3588C3 Black at $30
Similar problems.
* UGREEN at $30
External power cube is 24V; when the enclosure's controller board
failed, it fried the drive.
None of them have 80+% top rating in reviews.
Not encouraging.
Part of the problem with advertising listings now,
is the pictures are poor, and a lot of useful info
is non-existent.
I have one "enclosure", one of those that you plug the hard disk in
vertical position, pins down, half of the disk outside (sorry, I'm not
at home, so I don't remember the model). A caddy, I think is the name.
Well, it sees the sectors differently than the disk connected on other
boxes or directly to the computer.
Nasty.
That's reasonably accurate.--
Now you know why I extracted the controller PCB and
just use one of those "loose" on the table. I have some
wooden blocks with rubber covering over them, as
a surface to lay the hard drive on.
The enclosure on that one, had no fan, and there wasn't
any convection cooling scheme either.
I like to see a fan on an enclosure. There should
also be an intake and exhaust vent, so the fan can
actually blow air through. I had one enclosure, I had
to drill holes in it, so the fan could actually work
to cool the thing. The fan was blowing into a closed box,
which does not encourage cooling particularly.
On one enclosure, the fan used a sleeve bearing. The unit
was received "with a pool of oil sitting in the bottom of the case".
The fan lasted a matter of seconds, as the sleeve was so loose,
the fan could not rotate without "rattling". In other words,
the fan was already dead. And I replaced it with one from
my stock of 40mm (ball bearing) fans.
The adapter should be 12V, because the 12V rail is
used directly by the drive. The 5V rail (generated
by the enclosure controller board), could still fail, and if
the voltage were to rise sufficiently above 5V, it could
fry the controller on the hard drive. At one time, the
wall adapter had a four pin connector, with GND GND +5 +12
on it, and that is how the hard drive was powered. But
they decided to simplify the wall adapter, make it
output only one rail, and generate the +5V locally
on the enclosure controller PCB.
Part of the problem with advertising listings now,
is the pictures are poor, and a lot of useful info
is non-existent.
The last decent enclosure ("had a fan"), it still had
one shortcoming. The drive was held against the
connector, by a "chunk of stuff" that sat between the
opposite end of the drive, and the housing. And
that did not fit snugly.
What you're looking for then, is "ingredients".
Having a fan is good. Having a fan with sufficient
clearance so the air can actually blow somewhere,
that's good. Having holes in the case so the air
can escape, that's good. Having a mechanism to
hold the drive securely, and shock mounted, that
would be very nice if they could manage it.
If all the enclosures had a youtube video with
the enclosure open, you could see more of the details
and so on. This presenter is known for doing things
while too full of caffeine. He doesn't know the first
thing about what people expect from a video like this.
The chip on this could be an ASM1051, but because
we don't even have the model number of the unit to work
with, no further research is possible. But at least
you can see this one has no cooling to speak of.
# Linux Tech Tips unpacks a VantecUSA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA20nrjjxDg
Comment on SMART:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/q759te/usb_sata_adapter_that_can_pass_through_all_the/
"USB SATA adapters with UASP support allow a pretty direct
passthrough of SATA commands, including those for SMART.
They're also a bit faster when using SSDs,
compared to the more traditional USB mass storage adapters."
"One just needs to make sure to look up the controller chip
it uses before buying, as quite a few of
them have faulty UAS implementations that lead
to problems and then get blacklisted in Linux to make them at least
semi-stable by falling back to plain USB mass storage."
It's going to be pretty slow going, to track down the
status of the chips, one discussion thread at a time.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=207621
I would think more of the chips today, would be in a working state.
https://linux-sunxi.org/USB/UAS
(Sidenote: All three controllers support SAT so you can
query S.M.A.R.T. values and trigger selftests: "smartctl -d sat")
ASM1051 BOT JMS567 BOT INIC-1608 BOT ASM1051 UASP JMS567 UASP
Any experience and recommendations?
Summarizing until now:
My rebuild of my Linux home workstation/server with new Seagate 2TB
drives has made me look for how to best reuse the older drives. A
handful of 1TB drives and external HDD drives of 1TB, 2TB and 6TB.
Some of these were recycled and I had been using them in open
"caddies", while others were bought in external enclosures for use as
backup drives. Since the triggering factor for the rebuild was
discovering "bit rot" in my large archives of JPG photo files
(approaching 2TB), and MP3 music files (about 600GB by now), that
had been building up so gradually that when I found it, even some
2 year old backups were bad, I have now become acutely aware that
I need to look at reliability issues and monitor SMART data so I get
warnings before the errors become uncorrectable.
Quite recently, I had bought a 6TB external drive "Seagate Backup+ Hub"
with the intention of consolidating the video files that had been
squeezed into corners with a little free space here and there into
a single file system. As I was preparing to clean and repartition it
for use with the new system, I discovered that Linux will not show
SMART data for it. That has made me consider ripping the drive out of
the enclosure and putting it in a "better" enclosure.
There are a ton of enclosures (as well as caddies/adapters) on the
market, starting at $10 and with many in the $18-$30 range. All ofr
these are Chinese made, and even on Amazon, most of them are shipped
from China. Whether on Amazon, Walmart or other marketplaces, there
is no reliable technical information posted, such as whether they
support SMART or what chip(set) they use. While I have good experience
with caddies, they look messy on a desk, and scare the house cleaner,
so I'd like a tidy enclosure. When looking at enclosure reviews on
Amazon, less than 80% (in some cases down to 60%) have 5 star ratings.
Some reviews say "dead on arrival", "computer did not recognize drive
when mounted in enclosure" on other obvious flaws that would give you a chance to return the product, others describe initial success, followed
by failures after a week, or 3-4 months, that seem consistent with overheating quickly but gradually deteriorating the controller board,
often killing the drive.
There are some enclosures where the supplier explicitly says that
SMART is supported, the product is stocked in local Amazon warehouses
and there is a decent warranty, but now we get into a different price
range: $60-$80. At which point, why bother: For not a lot more, I can
buy a new external drive package from Seagate or Westerni Digital with
a decent warranty (2 years with my BestBuy membership).
But it bothers me to throw away drives, some of which are likely
to have years of service life in them.
It looks like Paul has similar thinking, and has put efforts into
researching the topic.
The recent story about "incredible" hard drive prices at Walmart
was interesting. The product page did say that the product was shipped
to customers from a 3rd party vendor in China/HongKong/Taiwan. The price
was less than what similar offshare vendors charge for the better
enclosures (without a drive). So yes, clearly this would be trash.
After a recent rebuild of my main computers (one Windows, one Linux)
I was looking at external drives to use with them, and discovered
that my nice, recent 6TB external drive (SeaGate Backup+ Hub) will not
to SMART on my Linux system, although it apparently will on Windows.
At least on Windows, I can read the SMART attributes with the SeaTools utility, but the Linux version of SeaTools does not show a SMART tab. "smartctl -a /dev/sd?" says SMART is "available but disabled".
The drive inside is a "Firecuda" which has a full complement of SMART
data.
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to $60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
Summarizing until now:<snip>
My rebuild of my Linux home workstation/server with new Seagate 2TB
drives has made me look for how to best reuse the older drives. A
handful of 1TB drives and external HDD drives of 1TB, 2TB and 6TB.
Some of these were recycled and I had been using them in open
"caddies", while others were bought in external enclosures for use as
backup drives. Since the triggering factor for the rebuild was
discovering "bit rot" in my large archives of JPG photo files
(approaching 2TB), and MP3 music files (about 600GB by now), that
had been building up so gradually that when I found it, even some
2 year old backups were bad, I have now become acutely aware that
I need to look at reliability issues and monitor SMART data so I get
warnings before the errors become uncorrectable.
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:26:32 -0000 (UTC), Lars Poulsen
<lars@beagle-ears.com> wrote:
Any experience and recommendations?
I am using a pair of Sabrent 4-drive external USB boxes.
Well made, quiet, and have front loading of each drive in its own bay.
I use 4TB and 16TB drives. All run in the 35-39 degree C range, so no
issues. I use HD Sentinel software to monitor hard drives.
Recommended.
I like the 4-bay because they have an EXTERNAL power supply. Been
using external 4-bay boxes for 20+ yrs. Gave up on most as they all
had an internal power supply that would die--and the only replacement
source was to buy from China--until the cost of swapping the power
supply became stupidly expensive.
New, much larger capacity drives coming, so there will be changes in
data transfer speeds (i.e. to make back-ups, etc). Can't say how this
will impact the need to replace boxes/cables due to those changes.
Carlos E. R. wrote:
I have one "enclosure", one of those that you plug the hard disk in
vertical position, pins down, half of the disk outside (sorry, I'm not
at home, so I don't remember the model). A caddy, I think is the name.
Well, it sees the sectors differently than the disk connected on other
boxes or directly to the computer.
Nasty.
That type are "ok" if you're cloning several disks every day, or
swapping between multiple system disks to test variations ...
Lars Poulsen wrote on 2/18/2026 12:26 PM:
The recent story about "incredible" hard drive prices at Walmart
was interesting. The product page did say that the product was shipped
to customers from a 3rd party vendor in China/HongKong/Taiwan. The price
was less than what similar offshare vendors charge for the better
enclosures (without a drive). So yes, clearly this would be trash.
After a recent rebuild of my main computers (one Windows, one Linux)
I was looking at external drives to use with them, and discovered
that my nice, recent 6TB external drive (SeaGate Backup+ Hub) will not
to SMART on my Linux system, although it apparently will on Windows.
At least on Windows, I can read the SMART attributes with the SeaTools
utility, but the Linux version of SeaTools does not show a SMART tab.
"smartctl -a /dev/sd?" says SMART is "available but disabled".
The drive inside is a "Firecuda" which has a full complement of SMART
data.
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
I've been using a Thermaltake BlackX Duet(2.5/3.5 SATA; USB 3.0) for ~12 years($59 purchased from Amazon in 2014), today ~$45.
- no complaints, continues to function without issue and has on Windows
7, 8/8.1, 10, 11.
Amazon
<https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-External-Enclosure-Docking-ST0014U-D/dp/B01J4XNLN6>
Also available on Newegg $49
<https://www.newegg.com/thermaltake-st0014u-d-dual-hard-drive-enclosure/p/1B4-006X-00028?>
Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to $60/unit.
On 2026-02-19 08:22, Paul wrote:
Part of the problem with advertising listings now,
is the pictures are poor, and a lot of useful info
is non-existent.
I have one "enclosure", one of those that you plug the hard disk in
vertical position, pins down, half of the disk outside (sorry, I'm not
at home, so I don't remember the model). A caddy, I think is the name.
Well, it sees the sectors differently than the disk connected on other
boxes or directly to the computer.
Nasty.
If you want details, ask me in about a week.
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to $60/unit.
On 2026-02-18 19:26, Lars Poulsen wrote:
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
I can't comment on reading SMART data using it, but I've had one of
these for about 4 years, and have found it to be satisfactory for my
uses, which is mainly copying partitions &/or disks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WNPG6KP
On 2026-02-20, Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
On 2026-02-18 19:26, Lars Poulsen wrote:
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying >>> they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART. >>> The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
I can't comment on reading SMART data using it, but I've had one of
these for about 4 years, and have found it to be satisfactory for my
uses, which is mainly copying partitions &/or disks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WNPG6KP
It looks to be the same issues as all the others.
These days I look at the "one star" reviews to see if there are
reliability issues:
However, perhaps in my OP I should have remarked that I rarely try to
use it by say, putting in a couple of disks and pressing the copy button
to backup one to the other, despite the markings on the casing there's
too much possibility of putting the disks in the wrong way round - I always want visual assurance on screen that I am in complete control of
what is happening and what is happening is what I intended to happen.
More generally, in the end, you have to buy *something* to fill a need.
My needs being simply for the occasional copying of disks or partitions,
I went cheap in buying the above unit, but I have other units such as
NASs fulfilling a different need where I deliberately went towards the
more expensive end of the spectrum to get the reliability I wanted.
Your need is most probably somewhere in between, and you should be
prepared to pay commensurately.
On 2026-02-20, Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
On 2026-02-18 19:26, Lars Poulsen wrote:
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying >>> they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART. >>> The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
I can't comment on reading SMART data using it, but I've had one of
these for about 4 years, and have found it to be satisfactory for my
uses, which is mainly copying partitions &/or disks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WNPG6KP
It looks to be the same issues as all the others.
These days I look at the "one star" reviews to see if there are
reliability issues:
1) This is a caddy, not an enclosure. This may be the only way to
circumvent the overheating issues, so I am softening on that,
though the likelyhood of dust intrusion when one slot is left
open for an extended period is worrysome. And the wife and
her housecleaner get scared by things that look too techy.
2) "Just bought one from Amazon. So far so good although it doesn't
work on a USB2 port on my Linux Mint 22.1 jig so make sure that
you plug it into a USB3 port. ...
... Just less than 18 months later it packs up so reliability
is a big issue. I therefore have no choice but to down grade
the rating to one star."
3) "The docking station recognizes drives, but when copying filess
or running disk tests the connection drops and the drive
disconnects. Tested with several drives, same issue."
4) "works reasonably well bad build quality and very slow at cloning
hard drives but this is probably normal as I've never done it before
only disappointment that the hard drives are not hot swappable
will disconnect first hard drive when you plug in second hard drive
or any USB pen drives for that matter.. . The problem I have is
that this dock disconnects & then reconnects ALL the time! If
the dock is accidently nudged, if you plug-in or un-plug a USB
Stick, whatever HDD or SSD or USB Stick connected immediately
disconnects then reconnects. Which is dangerous for the the
connected drives, because if any reading or writing is taking
place at that time the data being transfered can become corrupted
which can then lead to that whole drive being corrupted & unusable!
Very poor design."
5) "Keeps disconnecting randomly. I've tried it with a MacPros
and a Mac Studio. It could be OK for a couple of hours and then
ejects for no reason. It happens with both HDD and SSD drives,
even with just one in.
I have the same device from Alxum that never disconnects."
Only 65% 5-star, 17% 4-star.
On 2026-02-21, Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
However, perhaps in my OP I should have remarked that I rarely try to
use it by say, putting in a couple of disks and pressing the copy button
to backup one to the other, despite the markings on the casing there's
too much possibility of putting the disks in the wrong way round - I
always want visual assurance on screen that I am in complete control of
what is happening and what is happening is what I intended to happen.
More generally, in the end, you have to buy *something* to fill a need.
My needs being simply for the occasional copying of disks or partitions,
I went cheap in buying the above unit, but I have other units such as
NASs fulfilling a different need where I deliberately went towards the
more expensive end of the spectrum to get the reliability I wanted.
Your need is most probably somewhere in between, and you should be
prepared to pay commensurately.
I agree that the offline copy function is very scary, and I'd rather not
even have it.
My need is for expanding my storage beyond the bays in the primary mini-tower, with reliable storage, for largish media files, and
re-using drives that have some lifetime left in them.
I am quite willing to pay good money for good quality, but it
looks increasingly like there just is not any in the market,
which surprises me. Even the enclosures that Seagate uses for
their external backup drives seem to have bugs that have caused
Linux to downgrade them from "SATA pass-through mode" to "basic
USB mass storage mode". You see can that by SMART commands being
blocked.
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon >warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to >$60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
4 reports complaining of disconnects... very bad device. One report can
be chance, 4? Nope.
In article <slrn10pc4j8.8gpg.lars@cleo.beagle-ears.com>, lars@beagle- ears.com says...
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying
they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART.
The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
This is what I use (though I also have a four-bay HP "Microserver" for
more regularly-used disks). What I like about the Startech docking
station is that it supports E-SATA - I have an E-SATA card in my PC.
That means I'm not going through USB, and I can readily read SMART data.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KILQOG0
--
Phil, London
On Sun, 2/22/2026 7:49 AM, Philip Herlihy wrote:
In article <slrn10pc4j8.8gpg.lars@cleo.beagle-ears.com>, lars@beagle-
ears.com says...
So I am looking at (empty) external enclosures. Cheap Chinese products
start at $10/unit, at $16/unit some decent ones are stocked at Amazon
warehouses for next day delivery, but those are disappointing. Half of
them have bad reliability histories with several customer reviews saying >>> they died after about 4 months, and the other half do not support SMART. >>> The ones that do have good reliabilty and SMART support are closer to
$60/unit.
Any experience and recommendations?
This is what I use (though I also have a four-bay HP "Microserver" for
more regularly-used disks). What I like about the Startech docking
station is that it supports E-SATA - I have an E-SATA card in my PC.
That means I'm not going through USB, and I can readily read SMART data.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KILQOG0
--
Phil, London
I would find the idea of ESATA amusing. The problem ?
The local computer store has zero ESATA cables. None.
I like to visually examine that particular item, because there are
variants with power-ears on them. Depending on situation,
the power-ears can have the wrong voltage on them (or at least,
there was concern expressed about this issue, at the time
the connector came out).
My P9X79 has two connectors, mainly I guess as a "puzzle-provider":
External SATA port (green tab, but colour irrelevant) \
\___ Motherboard has a PCIe to dual SATA chip.
Power eSATA 6G port (red tab, but colour irrelevant) / (Bottom one ESATA with power ears and no USB)
There might be, in total, three or four variants. You can
make them up for yourself, by starting from the "most populated"
connector in terms of total contacts. Various subsets are possible.
https://pinoutguide.com/HD/esata_usb_EUHP_pinout.shtml
1 USB VBus \
2 USB D- \___ Underside of wafer
3 USB D+ / ESATAp (USB2 rates)
4 USB GND /
5 GND \
6 A+ \
7 A- \___ Usual 7 contacts for an ESATA
8 GND /
9 B- /
10 B+ /
11 GND /
12 GND \___ Ears of ESATAp, called ESATApd if +12V
13 VBus / called ESATAp if +5V. *Different* VBus than +5V at top
A "plain" "legacy" ESATA is just the seven pin section and
carries no power. On a dock, a dock with a 12V 2A adapter
and an internal +5V regulator, no power is required of the
computer when the dock is "fully furnished".
In cases where dock has barrel power plug plus it has
a ESATApd or so, read the instructions regarding not
having two power sources at the same time. The powering
cannot be diode directed, because a Schottky with an
ampere of current, has practically as much drop as a
silicon diode (1N4007 type). Disk drives are voltage
sensitive and the Helium ones don't allow as much
variance from +12V as the legacy drives (legacy +11V,
Helium seems +11.5V tighter behavior).
I love science experiments.
Paul
What is the experiences with running multiple additional drives through a USB hub?-a
Any limit on the number of ports on the hub?
On Sun, 2/22/2026 4:58 PM, knuttle wrote:Thanks>
What is the experiences with running multiple additional drives through a USB hub?
Any limit on the number of ports on the hub?
It should be a "powered" hub, if the intention is to run
2.5" drives on USB to SATA adapters. The drives can need
spinup current, for the HDD type.
If you had a four port hub and a 5V @ 4A supply for the hub,
you could run three Toshiba 2.5" HDD at ~1A spinup current
for each. During the first ten seconds, ~3A would be drawn from
the 4A powered hub source. Once the drives are up to speed,
the current draw is reduced.
Generally, powered hubs don't come with big-enough power sources.
For example, a hub with 8 ports on it, might have a 5V @ 3A supply
and then you could connect two 2.5" HDD to the hub via USB
to SATA adapters. The barrel power connector has a current flow
limit, and maybe 5A is about as much as you could put through
an M plug. Larger diameter barrel plugs/jacks allow more current,
but the upper limit on barrels isn't that much higher. We cannot blame
the cheapness of the supplier entirely for the limitations. But
most of the time, the lower current adapters are a *lot* cheaper
for them to source. The oddball larger ones should be much
more expensive. Pound for pound, you can get more amperes
out of ATX power supplies (you could get ones with 5V @ 40A at
one time, but today 5V @ 20A is about it for the average ATX).
When you connect 3.5" drives in their own wall-powered enclosures,
those don't draw hub current, so an unpowered hub works just as
well as a powered hub for that case.
That would be one reason for me recommending the "larger enclosures"
-- they tend to be self-contained solutions. And if they have a
fan ? You're laughing.
Paul
I would find the idea of ESATA amusing. The problem ?
The local computer store has zero ESATA cables. None.
On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 12:25:29 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:
I would find the idea of ESATA amusing. The problem ?
The local computer store has zero ESATA cables. None.
My first 2-3 external 4-drive boxes were all eSATA/USB. They came with
the appropriate cables, so I chose eSATA because it was faster than
USB. MB came with eSATA connector on it (or an eSATA card came with
the box), so easy connection.
Back when I had the choice, I was 100% in the eSATA camp. It was a
complete no brainer, performance-wise.
On 2026-02-19 08:22, Paul wrote:
Part of the problem with advertising listings now,
is the pictures are poor, and a lot of useful info
is non-existent.
I have one "enclosure", one of those that you plug the hard disk in
vertical position, pins down, half of the disk outside (sorry, I'm not
at home, so I don't remember the model). A caddy, I think is the name.
Well, it sees the sectors differently than the disk connected on other
boxes or directly to the computer.
Nasty.
If you want details, ask me in about a week.
When you connect 3.5" drives in their own wall-powered enclosures,
those don't draw hub current, so an unpowered hub works just as
well as a powered hub for that case.
That would be one reason for me recommending the "larger enclosures"
-- they tend to be self-contained solutions. And if they have a
fan ? You're laughing.
On 2026-02-23 05:11, Paul wrote:
When you connect 3.5" drives in their own wall-powered enclosures,
those don't draw hub current, so an unpowered hub works just as
well as a powered hub for that case.
That would be one reason for me recommending the "larger enclosures"
-- they tend to be self-contained solutions. And if they have a
fan ? You're laughing.
They have their own troubles.
I have two Yottamaster bay, 5 slots each, implementing an 8 disk software raid 6 array (the extra slot is for the hot spare).
-a* The firmware sends the disks to sleep at 10 minutes.
-a* A box can suddenly go away for an instant, destroying the array, needing manual action to recover.
-a* All the disks get almost the same name, depending on what type of name you choose (Linux).
It is difficult to make sure which hard disk of the lot one is accessing. -a* Insert or remove one disk, there is a reset and name change of all the disks.
-a* It has a fan, but it is not enough. I had to piggyback an external fan. -a* It is slow.
On Wed, 2/25/2026 7:28 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2026-02-23 05:11, Paul wrote:
When you connect 3.5" drives in their own wall-powered enclosures,
those don't draw hub current, so an unpowered hub works just as
well as a powered hub for that case.
That would be one reason for me recommending the "larger enclosures"
-- they tend to be self-contained solutions. And if they have a
fan ? You're laughing.
They have their own troubles.
I have two Yottamaster bay, 5 slots each, implementing an 8 disk software raid 6 array (the extra slot is for the hot spare).
-a* The firmware sends the disks to sleep at 10 minutes.
-a* A box can suddenly go away for an instant, destroying the array, needing manual action to recover.
-a* All the disks get almost the same name, depending on what type of name you choose (Linux).
It is difficult to make sure which hard disk of the lot one is accessing.
-a* Insert or remove one disk, there is a reset and name change of all the disks.
-a* It has a fan, but it is not enough. I had to piggyback an external fan. >> -a* It is slow.
There could be a SATA mux in the thing. I don't
know what happens when a SATA mux also has to
support HotSwap.
If you use separate, one-drive enclosures, chances are
that could give a bit more predictable behavior. Then
you need a USB3 hub "that won't go away" :-)
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