Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8U 8 bay JBOD reliability issues

[masty88]

Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8U+ 8 Bay SATA to USB 3.0 JBOD Enclosure

Hi all,

I have recently purchased this machine with the intention of connecting it to my WDTV SMP media player via USB to watch my ripped blurays.

It is proving very troublesome. Sometimes not all of the hard drives pop up (even when it is plugged in to my Windows pc), other times it seems to work fine (on WIndows pc).

On the occasion that I can get it working properly (all hard drives accessible on Windows) I have been unable to immediately repeat the success after turning the machine off/on. It seems to have a mind of its own, choosing when to work for no apparent reason.

I have had some success when connecting it to the WDTV SMP player but more often or not many of the drives are inaccessible (the lights for each hard drive repeatedly flash on & off all at the same time

Time is running out for me to return the machine (reluctant because I got it for a bargain price), is this normal behaviour does anyone know?

Thanks

 

[Onus]

What drives did you put in the enclosure, or were in it when you got it? Are you running it in a RAID mode, or (it sounds like) just as a bunch of drives?

 

[masty88]

JBOD mode. All of the hard drives are WD green 2tb that I already owned & have tested.

 

[jsmithepa]

If this is normal behavior, you will be willing to live with it??? I wouldn't.

See if there is a BIOS update, that's all I got. You are not using a super-long cable correct?

 

[masty88]

I guess I'm hoping that I'm doing something wrong that is really obvious so that I can correct this & keep it.

Also keen to know if others have had a similar experience with this machine or others like it - could it be a faulty item or is it just a poor product?

 

[Onus]

I'm fairly certain that WD "Green" drives are not suitable for this type of enclosure, even if not in RAID mode (for which they are definitely not suited). You'll want their Red series drives, which have RAID-centric features like TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery). This is why the drives keep "dropping out."

 

[masty88]

That isn't good to hear 🙁 I haven't had any issues with Green hard drives in my other enclosures, however they are only 1 bay. I had hoped that this was the same thing except 8 bays. As I speak I have again successfully accessed all 8 hard drives on my Windows pc but as soon as I connect it to my WDTV SMP, all 8 lights flash, disappear leaving the HD1 light to flash for a second & then all 8 hd lights flash again (process repeats over & over).

 

[jsmithepa]

I'm fairly certain that WD "Green" drives are not suitable for this type of enclosure,

Fascinating, because I have a similar product, a Cineraid, and am unable to place my Seagates to sleep, and when am successful, Windows complains, ever since, I have just let the drives spin 24x7.

 

[Onus]

The "Green" drives want to spin down and/or park their heads when they are at all idle, which can be quite frequent. You normally do NOT want drives in an enclosure like that to nod off to sleep.

 

[masty88]

Right now I have all 8 hard drives working correctly on Windows.

I tested them on the newer WDTV SMP media player but they wouldn't load at all.

Currently testing it on the older WDTV media player (Gen2 5 years old) & it is working perfectly. I can access the drives & play Bluray rips.

I have had trouble before with enclosures when used with the new WDTV SMP media player even though they work fine with the older version.

This puzzles me

 

[jsmithepa]

This puzzles me

A perfect question for the WDTV folks.

 

[masty88]

Update

I managed to get the 'Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8U+B 8 Bay SATA to USB 3.0 JBOD Enclosure' working with the WD SMP media player. However, if I try to insert more than 5 drives it refuses to load any of them.

When connected to a Windows pc it loads all 8.

Looks like the WD SMP just can't handle an 8 bay enclosure where as the Gen2 can but is not overly stable.