Introduction

Sans Digital, a well-known contender in the storage market, recently introduced a new storage device which combines the features of configurable RAID with the convenience of USB and eSATA. The MobileSTOR MS2UT+B dual bay enclosure accepts two hard drives up to 1 TB in size. It can then mirror or stripe the drives, or use what Sans Digital calls "SAFE33" or "SAFE50". ThinkComputers takes a look.

Features

- Hardware RAID engine, supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, Spanning, JBOD, SAFE33, and SAFE50.
- 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.
- SAFE33 / 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.

Specifications

Model: MS2UT+B
Form Factor: Cube
HDD Trays: 2 Hot-Swappable 3.5"
RAID Level: Big (Spanning), Safe (RAID1), Fast (RAID 0), JBOD, SAFE33, & SAFE50
Maximum Capacity: 2TB
Auto Rebuilding: Yes
Hot-Spare: N/A
Host Interface & Transfer Rate: USB 2.0 (480Mbps) & eSATA (3.0Gbps)
Drive Interface: SATA I / SATA II
Cooling Fan: 1.6" Ball Bearing
Power Supply: 80W (110V~240V)
Control Interface: LCD Panel
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: MS2UT+B (1) Removable Tray Modules (2) Power Cord (1) Hard Drive Tray Keys (2) USB 2.0 Cable (1) eSATA Cable (1) Quick Installation Manual (1)

Packaging

The MobileSTOR arrives in a squat black box which depicts the unit on one side and shows information on the other. It highlights the USB and eSATA connectivity, as well as its variable disk modes via hardware RAID.

The device is well-packed and includes the unit itself, plus removable trays, a power cord, eSATA cable, USB cable, tray keys, and an eSATA bracket. It also includes a copy of Shadow, a backup software.