Sometimes setting up a RAID array can be a pain in the butt. For one, professional RAID cards can be expensive. Two, many “easy RAID” features of motherboards are closed solutions. Three: cheaper solutions may not be reliable, and often require offline rebuilds when something goes wrong.. What if you want to have the redundancy protection or speed of RAID, but in an external modular box that doesn’t mess with your system’s current configuration?
SansDigital presents the industry with their MobileStor solutions, which are external hard drive enclosures with a built-in RAID controller. This solution allows you to instantly create several RAID arrays. Since the enclosure is its own little island, you can take your RAID array with you on place it on any computer.
You can now have the benefits of RAID on computers that otherwise could not do it. Imagine video editing at work on a laptop, and then taking your RAID box home for some finishing touches. What about using the device as a redundant backup unit? You can plug it in to all of your computers, perform your backup, and then move it to a secure location… and your data is safe even if a drive fails. There are many reasons I can think of to have a portable RAID device such as this.
The MobileSTOR MS2UTN+B series is a fully loaded 2-bay external RAID solution designed for home and small business storage needs. With simplicity and flexibly in mind, this series is equipped with two hot-swappable 3.5” hard drive trays, as well as both USB 2.0 and eSATA host interfaces. In addition to RAID 0 and RAID 1, MS2UTN+B also utilizes the latest Silicon Image 5744 chipset, supporting the newest SAFE33 and SAFE50 technology.
SAFE33 and SAFE50 allows the creation of two hard drive volumes where 1/3 (SAFE33) or 1/2 (SAFE50) of the volume is used for mirroring and the rest is used for Spanning (Big). In comparison to SAFE (RAID 1) mode, which utilizes both hard drives for mirroring, SAFE33 and SAFE50 increase storage space by setting aside a portion of disk space for regular data storage while performing mirror simultaneously. By incorporating SAFE33 and SAFE50, the MS2UTN+B eliminates the cost of additional hard drives needed for various storage modes.
Features
- Hardware RAID engine, supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, Spanning, JBOD, SAFE33, and SAFE50.
- GUI mode allow customized RAID mode setup. Up to 2 RAID volume with different RAID mode can be set.
- Drive interface: 2 x 3.5″ SATA I / SATA II hard drive.
- Removable trays for fast access of additional hard drives and easy trouble shooting.
- Utilizing the lastest RAID chipset, supporting SAFE 33 / SAFE50 mode.
- SAFE 33 / SAFE50 creates two hard drive volumes where 1/3 or 1/2 of the hard drive volume is used for mirroring and the rest is used for spanning (Big).
- Temperature controlled cooling fan for quieter operations.
- Supports Windows, Linux, and MAC OS X.
Note: For eSATA connection, port multiplier support required for 2 RAID volume, such as JBOD, SAFE33 and SAFE50. eSATA without port multiplier support will only detect the first volume.
Specifications
| Model | MS2UTN+B |
| Form Factor | Cube |
| HDD Trays | 2 Hot-Swappable 3.5″ |
| RAID Level | Big (Spanning), Safe (RAID1), Fast (RAID 0), JBOD, SAFE33, & SAFE50, GUI mode allow customized RAID volume setting. |
| Maximum Capacity | 2TB |
| Auto Rebuilding | Yes |
| Hot-Spare | N/A |
| Host Interface & Transfer Rate | USB 2.0 (480Mbps) & eSATA (3.0 Gbps) |
| Drive Interface | SATA I / SATA II |
| Cooling Fan | 1.6″ Ball Bearing |
| Power Supply | 80W (110V~240V) |
| Control Interface | N/A |
| Status Indicators | RAID Alarm, Fan / Temperature, Power LEDs |
| Dimension (in) | 4.8″W x 8.0″D x 4.0″H |
| Weight (lb) | 3.8 |
| Safety Regulations | CE, FCC, UL, RoHS |
| Limited Watrranty | 1 Years |
| Package Contents | MS2UTN+B (1) Removable Tray Modules (2) Power Cord (1) Hard Drive Tray Keys (2) RS232 Cable (2) USB 2.0 Cable (1) eSATA Cable (1) Quick Installation Manual (1) |
The MobileStor MS2UTN+B comes in two colors: silver or black, and we received the silver model. Inside the box is the enclosure itself, two sets of plastic “keys”, a standard power cord, eSATA cable, sofware CD (including NTI’s Shadow backup) and SATA-to-eSATA adapter.
The silver enclosure is made mostly of aluminum, and doesn’t have a lot of distracting bells and whistles. On top of the unit is a printed SansDigital logo, and the sides are featureless, except for rounded corners. The rear of the unit has all of the cable hookups. The front panel has three LEDs: Power, temperature warning, and Alert. There is also a Mute button to turn off any audio warnings the unit may present. Below this panel are two drive trays, with pinhole “locks”. The rear panel features a standard power plug, power switch, small exhaust fan, eSATA port, USB port, a recessed reset button and a recessed pot for setting the enclosure’s RAID mode.
I’m glad to see the unit has its own internal power supply rather than an external power brick. The PSU may introduce more heat into the enclosure, but it is rated for 80 watts (well under what two hard drives will require) so it shouldn’t even run at half capacity. Since the power supply won’t be running anywhere near full load, it should only get mildly warm, which can easily be taken care of by the enclosure’s exhaust fan.
Most of the ports seem pretty standard. The only thing you’ll need to do is set the RAID mode before you insert any hard drives. There is a recessed pot which can be set to one of six positions, each with their own RAID setting.
Big (Spanning)
This mode takes two disks anc combines then to one big virtual disk. If you insert two 250GB hard drives, then you get one 500GB volume.
JBOD
Just a Bunch of Disks. Each drive is treated as a stand-alone disk, so one drive letter is mapped to each drive.
RAID 1 (mirrored)
Data is written to both disks at the same time, meaning that if one drive fails, then the data still resides on the remaining drive. You lose 50% of the drive capacity of your drives, however. If you have a good RAID controller, then the read speed can reach that of RAID 0, as the controller can read from two drives at the same time.
RAID 0 (fast)
This mode splits your data across two or more disks (two in this case). No parity or redundancy is included, meaning that if one drive fails, then all of the data in this array is lost. Read and write speeds are practially doubled, which makes this mode appealing for write-intensive appliations, like video editing.
SAFE33 and SAFE50
Sans Digital has implemented two “hybrid” modes that allow the unit to perform as a backup device and speed demon… SAFE33 and SAFE50 modes. When selecting either of these modes, either one-third (SAFE33) or one-half (SAFE50) of the array is set up as RAID 1 (mirrored), while the remaining space is JBOD. This method will map two drive letters to your PC when plugged in, however (one for each partition). These modes can only be used via USB.
GUI
This mode allows you to set the enclosure’s RAID mode via included software
It is nice that the SAFE modes are included, and can be an alternative to 3-drive arrays with parity (like RAID 5), but you still must manage what data is important to you. What makes some data more important than others? My guess is that if someone is buying an external RAID enclosure such as this, then they’ll probably be using RAID 1 over any other mode.
As mentioned before, you should set the RAID mode via the 7-way switch on the back panel before inserting any drives. Many users will either want the sheer throughput of RAID 0, or the data redundancy of RAID 1. Since this enclosure only takes two drives, advanced RAID modes like RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10 are not possible. Once you have selected the RAID mode you want, press the Reset button to confirm the changes, but once you do, any existing data will be lost.
Drives are mounted to the internal drive trays. The trays have little pinhole “locks” which unlock little handles which allow the tray to be pulled out. This locking mechanism is not secure in any way, as anyone can just insert a paperclip and run off with your drives. But then again, any would-be theif would just unplug the whole unit and take off with it. This method does prevent accidental tray removal, but a little plastic pinhole key seems unnecessary.
Once the trays are pulled out, you can secure your SATA hard drives to them. Drives are secured with low-profile screws (to reduce interferance with the rails) to the sides of the drive. Once the drive is mounted to the rails, the tray can be inserted back in the enclosure, and locked by pressing the handle back into position.
Once the drives are installed, you can use the enclosure almost immediately, but you won’t get full protection of RAID 1 or SAFE modes until the drives have been built. During the building process you may not experience the full speed of this unit.
As mentioned previously, you can customize your volumes using GUI mode, but basically this just allows you to make more partitions, and/or select the different modes of your drives. You can have several combinations of RAID 1, BIG and RAID 0, and can create as many volumes of each as you like. Keep in mind though, that more than one volume will limit the drive’s usage to USB only. This limitation is due to eSATA’s limitations, and you can get around it by using a SATA port replicator, but most users won’t go that far. If you really need an advanced configuration such as this, then you are probably barking up the wrong tree with this enclosure. It’s nice that the features are available, but there are too many caveats to make them useful.
The SansDigital MobileStor was tested using both eSATA and USB interfaces, to see how the unit scales with both modes. We also tested RAID 1 and RAID 0 arrays, and compared this performance with an internal SATA hard drive. We used the same model of hard drive in all tests, to level the playing field.
- Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600 CPU (check prices)
- 8GB OCZ PC2-8500 (check prices)
- Asus P5W Deluxe motherboard (motherboard prices)
- Panasonic Blu-ray drive (check prices)
- 2 x Western Digital 250GB HDDs (check HDD prices)
- HD Tune Pro
Hard Drive Performance
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As expected, performance is limited to USB’s interface, but eSATA unleashes the power of your drive array. If you think you’ll actually need more than 30MB/second of throughput, then you’ll want to stay away from the advanced RAID modes of this enclosure, and simply go RAID 0 or RAID 1 on the entirety of both drives.
To test disaster recovery, we pulled one of the drives out, which essentially simulates a hard drive failure. The unit immediately starts flashing its LEDs. When using RAID 1, you can still read and write to the array, but changes will not be mirrored until the array is rebuilt. As soon as the drive is re-inserted (or a new drive of the same or more capacity is inserted), the enclosure immediately starts rebuilding. The warning LED switches between red and blue, and it takes a few hours for the rebuild to complete.
The MobileStor MS2UTN+B is a great storage solution for home or small business users. It has a “no-muss” RAID configuration that can be easily added to any computer: even laptops. The unit comes with many enhanced “hybrid” RAID modes, but due to caveats aren’t worth exploring. This unit is most useful and powerful when configured as straight RAID 0 or RAID 1 through eSATA. You can still access the device using USB, so you can take the enclosure anywhere and know it will work on any PC.
If you’re considering another external RAID enclosure, take a good look at SanDigital’s MobileStor, but don’t let the extra SAFE modes entice you: they’re not worth it for the average user. The MobileStor is extremely inexpensive at around $60-100, especially considering the price of professional-grade RAID hardware. Also consider that you get name-brand backup software to boot.
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