First Looks

The Sans Digital MobileSTOR MS2UT+B hard drive enclosure looks like it would be at home with any powerful external device, such as a UPS or NAS device. In fact, when I first looked at it, I thought it is a NAS-it wasn't until I read the packaging and saw no mention of a network interface that I realized its true form.

The enclosure is long and black with some buttons and a pair of trays on the front. There is also an LCD display and a few LEDS for status indication. The buttons control the LCD screen and include a one-button backup and mute button.

The rear bears a small fan for cooling, as well as the power, USB, and eSATA ports. There is also a confusing hardware selector for storage modes-there's not a visible arrow pointing to which mode is selected. The bottom has four rubber feet to prevent slipping.

The trays are simple, metal inserts with a support bar for shorter drives. The locking mechanism, if one would call it that, uses a stick key which is flimsy and easily lost. There's no place on the device to keep it, but I can imagine that most users would end up taping a key or two to the bottom of the unit.

The inside of the enclosure has two connectors for SATA devices on a green PCB. The board uses a Silicon Image 5744 chipset (codename SteelVine) for its RAID operations.