Looking for solid, 3.5" USB 3.x drive enclosure with easily removable tray

[bkaral]

Hi all:

In the past, I've generally used Raidon/Stardom drive external 3.5" drive enclosures. My experience has been great so far. I'm looking for a new enclosure or two, but I can't find anything of similar quality.

I'm looking for:

• High quality *
• External, 1-bay 3.5" enclosure (I might go 2-bay if that's all that's available)
• USB-C (and/or Thunderbolt)
• Removable Drive Tray
• Easy to remove tray (NOT the ones that make you insert a key/pin/whatever).

I'm really unimpressed with the usual junk:
Yottamaster
Orrico
Vantec
and so on.
The quality is beyond poor and many of the reviews are awful.

Can anyone suggest anything? I've come across Oyen brand, but most of the reviews are fake/paid, etc. Anyone used Oyen? I've attached a pic of the front of the Raidons I like.

Also, a second question: Some of the many reviews I've read report drive partitions being wiped out by current enclosures. Is this a chipset issue? The electronics survive, but partitions are scrambled and data is lost.

Thanks

 

[continuum]

Removeable drive tray definitely limits your options. Anything over at Other World Computing?

As far as partitions, IIRC yes, this is a chipset issue. Something we've dealt with pretty much the entire time I've been using external enclosures (aka my entire computing life as an adult over nearly 30 years...) unfortunately.

 

[bkaral]

That's what I thought. OWC doesn't have anything with removeable drive tray. They have their Thunderbay series, but the smallest one is 4 bays, and they're pricey. If you think of any other brand, please let me know.

Which bridge chipsets are good for USB 3.1 or higher drive enclosures these days?

Is it possible to do a firmware update on the drive enclosures with the buggy bridge chips?

 

[Paladin]

Wait, by removable, do you mean hot swap style where you are meant to be able to remove it and insert a new drive while the USB connection is still in use?

If so... why? The whole point of a USB external drive is that you can just disconnect the USB connection and move it or replace it as needed.

If you're planning to swap the SATA drive on a frequent basis, the SATA connector will wear out fairly soon.

I would recommend (assuming you want to swap multiple drives) just buy a few of the same external drive enclosures and put your drives in them and swap between them as needed. The Ugreen, Vantec, Orico, ones I have used have worked very well for that purpose. Just make sure they mention supporting UASP.

 

[bkaral]

No, not hot swap while in use. Just removeable trays. I don't do it constantly, but I want the convenience.

I'm not going near Vantec or Orico. I've read the reviews and have friends that had that <pleasant> experience. Some of the Ugreens look better, but they don't have that exact product. I might just consider a used OWC Thunderbolt, as Continuum suggested, but I really don't have the space for it.

 

[steelghost]

Icydock? Fantec?

(not related to Vantec)
Not sure about US availability of Fantec though. Icydock likely your best bet. They do several "tiers" of gear from the cheap and cheerful to tank-like.

 

[Paladin]

No, not hot swap while in use. Just removeable trays. I don't do it constantly, but I want the convenience.

I'm not going near Vantec or Orico. I've read the reviews and have friends that had that <pleasant> experience. Some of the Ugreens look better, but they don't have that exact product. I might just consider a used OWC Thunderbolt, as Continuum suggested, but I really don't have the space for it.

So... that's basically what every external 3.5 inch drive enclosure has. They all have removable trays. That's how you put the drive in (aside from the weird drive dock style ones where you pop the drive down into it like a piece of toast going into a toaster).

Given that, you can just choose whatever one meets your desired user review criteria.

You have to remember, the reviews you see on Amazon or whatever are highly suspicious and unreliable. A huge majority of the positive reviews are either bots/paid reviews (free product review, etc.) or are just people who bought it, used it for a few minutes to do a data transfer and then put it in a closet or whatever. The only ones who bother to post a negative review are (along with paid negative reviewers from the competition) the ones who happen to be the edge of the bathtub curve who get a bad one and have it fail right at or near the time of purchase and first use, or are too obtuse to follow instructions and connect things correctly.

Essentially, the risk you run is basically getting a dud product you can immediately return for replacement or it will probably work fine for months or even years before it eventually fails or becomes outdated.

And the failure modes are usually just a fragile cable or port that gets iffy after many use cycles, a cheap power wallwart that dies after a few months or years, or a faulty USB to SATA board inside it, which means you return it immediately. The reviews you might see that mention some kind of data loss or whatever are generally people who made dumb mistakes, mistreated their gear, or similar things. It's pretty hard to have a USB to SATA converter somehow delete your files.

 

[bkaral]

While part of what you said is generally true, there are known bugs with the Asmedia chips, as mentioned just a few posts above by Continuum. Many people reported that they changed a setting in the software or chose "the wrong" RAID setting and poof! The partitions are all wiped and in many cases, can't be recovered.

As for the removeable part, yeah, all can have a drive installed or removed, but I don't want to have to get out my screwdriver on a regular basis for reasons I won't get into.

I ended up by sheer luck finding a 2-bay Raidon unit today and bought it. Who knows how that'll turn out.

BTW, the OWC Thunderbay units are great in many ways, but there are a lot of reports about PSUs failing prematurely, and other issues that sound firmware-related.

 

[Paladin]

I hope that one turns out good for you. Generally there is no software for external drive enclosures. The RAID ones have a management software part but you said you wanted a single bay one so...
If that one you ordered doesn't turn out to meet your needs, there are plenty of toolfree ones that are simple USB to SATA enclosures and should be basically bulletproof outside of physical damage or worn out connectors etc.

 

[Ulf]

Something like the Sabrent USB-C dock? They also have a 3.5 inch docking station, although that's not technically an enclosure.

 

[bkaral]

I ended up needing a 2.5" enclosure as well. I came across this Rocstor aluminum model:

https://rocstor.com/Products/rocpro-d90/

The quality looked good, and their 3.5" single-bay enclosure looked suspiciously similar to Raidon models. I suspected it had a similar build quality, so I bought it.

The build quality is really nice. I think speeds are okay, but I know nothing about that subject.
Some minor complaints:

• It uses too many screws (10) to install a drive and keep the two case halves together
• The LED is on the same surface as the port. That seemed weird.
• The included cables are maybe 12" long. Useless for my needs.

But these are minor quibbles.

So far, the thing really exudes good quality.

Are these numbers okay for an EVO 860?

In a few days, I can post about my impressions on the Raidon 3.5" enclosures, if anyone's interested.

 

[Paladin]

I ended up needing a 2.5" enclosure as well. I came across this Rocstor aluminum model:

https://rocstor.com/Products/rocpro-d90/

The quality looked good, and their 3.5" single-bay enclosure looked suspiciously similar to Raidon models. I suspected it had a similar build quality, so I bought it.

The build quality is really nice. I think speeds are okay, but I know nothing about that subject.
Some minor complaints:

• It uses too many screws (10) to install a drive and keep the two case halves together
• The LED is on the same surface as the port. That seemed weird.
• The included cables are maybe 12" long. Useless for my needs.

But these are minor quibbles.

So far, the thing really exudes good quality.

Are these numbers okay for an EVO 860?

In a few days, I can post about my impressions on the Raidon 3.5" enclosures, if anyone's interested.

Those numbers are basically fine, they're just normal SATA performance. It's a basic SATA to USB 3 (5/10 Gigabit depending on what port you connect to on your host device) converter so nothing surprising there.
I'm surprised you bought that when your main point seemed to be that you wanted either nearly tool free or completely tool free design. What does it need 10 screws for?! It should have like 4 for the drive and one or maybe 2 to keep the tray in the housing.

 

[continuum]

Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA3 SSD Review (2TB) - The SSD Review

There comes a time when we all just need to stop, sit back and think; take a look around and reasses

www.thessdreview.com

What you’re getting looks close enough to me, considering USB overhead

 

[bkaral]

I needed both enclosure types. And when I see quality at what I feel is a fair price, I go for it.

Glad those numbers are normal. One of the secondary reasons for buying the 2.5" enclosure was because it had a newer chipset with better performance than my current ones. My old ones were slllooowwww.

4 screws to attach drive to tray
2 screws for bracket thingy to hold drive in place once inserted (or something)
4 screws to attach one enclosure half to the other.

I suppose on the bright side, no one can say they cheaped out on keeping the drive firmly in place.
The enclosure comes with rubber feet, but if they install over the screw holes, so if you ever have to remove them, they're likely toast, and it's just more work, so...

That being said, I'm quite impressed with the quality. I don't get to say that often enough these days.

 

[bkaral]

-ignore-

 

[bkaral]

I got the Raidons, and so far, everything is working great. Typical solid Raidon build quality and finish. Now let's see if these ones last more than a decade, like my old ones.