Highpoint RocketStor 6114V 4-Bay Raid 5 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Storage Enclosure

HighPoint RocketStor 6114V 4-Bay Raid 5 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Storage Enclosure  This product is great for backup storage.I am not using the advertised RAID 5 support, but instead I have configured two RAID 1 arrays. These are used to backup heavily modded game installations for TES/Fallout (if you mod these series, you probably understand why I am doing this). I cherish what little free time I have and would rather not spend it recovering lost files if something goes sideways (which is almost guaranteed – Bethesda fans understand).Unlike the docks and USB drives I have, and despite the unavoidable USB “overhead”, the 10G capability allows the hard drives to operate at max speed, which significantly speeds up file transfers. This is important If you do not want to waste time with cheaper solutions.The Advanced options of the RAID utility are very handy, and provide a lot of features for those willing to read up on the tech. I especially like the ability verify the RAID arrays and check the drives for errors (which you can also schedule). The more peace of mind the better...Works great with 3 systems – an ancient Gigabyte-based IBuyPower gaming PC running Windows 8 (via USB C to A adapter cable), an ASUS ROG laptop running 8.1 Pro x64, and a newish work-related HP laptop running Windows 10 Home x64 (though this was just for testing purposes).This item is not cheap compared to other USB RAID devices, but certainly still qualifies as good value. The performance and RAID features are not usually associated with USB in general, the build quality is good, and the unit is surprisingly quiet. I would highly recommend this for anyone with hobbies that require a lot of secure storage.

**UPDATE** - Purchased 7/2020, review updated 3/2021. Device has now quite recognizing any drives and ruined one drive - failure on second happened within days. Do not trust this device anymore - it worked great up until it did not. Steer clear.Will this be fast like an SSD? No. Will this be as fast as hardware dedicated raid? No. (Look at the mini-sas and get a good LSI controller) But if you're like me you're looking for a lot more storage on the cheaper optioned side, you aren't a video editor, and you're about full on your standard single disk enclosure.I use my setup to store Ortho4XP tiles for flight simulation. A single USB 3.0 enclosure was fast enough to swiftly load a tile during flight - however after covering the United States with satellite imagery I was running out of space. I knew that a raid5 setup over USB3 would saturate and potentially harm any performance to have. So decided I would risk this - which is much higher end feeling and more solid software than the other options tried.As seen in the screenshots you aren't going to be setting speed records, but 4x 12TB 7200 rpm (256Mb cache) HGST HC520 drives are reaching 400+ MB/s on the high end and matching the write speeds which is expected from Raid5. Compared to the USB3 enclosure at 170+ MB/s I fully expect this to work terrific.Thought about picking up the 8 bay enclosure but to get full advantage of it would require picking up at least a mini-sas card to control it and the cost just didn't make sense at this time. However should I fill this up - on initial impression - I wouldn't think twice before picking up the larger enclosure.On the size of the enclosure it's a nice tight, small, sturdy built package. Almost 100% metal, very little plastic, and feel worth the money build quality wise. No vibration when drives are running and no weird noises in operation. So far - great purchase.

I purchased this box as a backup solution for a Windows 7 system using a USB 3.1 Gen 2 PCIe card as the listing says in two places that it works with both Windows and Mac. However, when I visited the web site to get an owners manual in anticipation of receipt of the item, I was very disappointed to find that it only supports Windows 8 & later and Mac 10.9 & later. The vendor needs to clearly state which versions of Windows and Mac it actually supports within the listing. It sounded like the solution I was looking for at a decent price, but turned out to be a dead end for me.I see that the listing now clearly lists the operating system requirements and provides a link to the manual, so I have changed my review to 4 stars in light of the decent price for the enclosure and feature set.

The good:Performance acceptable. Enclosure can handle intensive I/O. Build quality is good. Quiet enough. Looks good. Trays are simple and easy to use.The bad:1) Uses some kind of a port multiplier. Why does this matter? If you pull a drive the entire bus resets, disconnecting/resetting all drives. Wrecks havoc if you have drives connected as individual disks. How it should function, is if you remove a drive, the rest of the drives should not be affected. This can cause data corruption.2) Does not work correctly as a USB 3.1 connected device.To be specific: On a Mac, in JBOD, (individual disk) mode, drives do not appear with the supplied cable on a 2016/2017 MacBook Pro. This is unacceptable.Note: I have not tested this as a hardware RAID.With a USB C to USB C cable (connecting to the Thunderbolt 3 connector on the MacBook Pro), the drives show up fine. This is sold as a USB 3.1 gen 2, but does not ship with an equivalent cable.(This box comes with a USB C to USB 3.1 cable.)I do not understand why this problem exists, it should work as both USB 3.1 or USB C, especially if they supply a USB C to USB 3.1 cable!

Unit is small and compact and looks very professional. As you can see in the speed tests using a single 2TB IronWolf HardDrive, you can use USB3 but there is definitely a speed increase when using USB3.1, and of course a massive speed decrease when Writing if you have WriteThrough enabled. When configured as a RAID-5 with 2TBx4 IronWolf HDs, it has a respectable 150MB/s write speed and maxes out a little over 300MB/s read speed. I was also curious about the included Type A-C cable and compared it to a Type C-C cable. As you can see the included cable was actually slightly faster than using a Type C-C cable. The manual states to initialize the Hard Drives, it takes approx 2 hours for every TB so 8TB should take 16 hours... but it actually took 29 hours for 8TB... that's getting close to almost 4 hours per TB. If you run a check to Verify the integrity of the HardDrives and Data once everything is up and running, it takes about 15 hours for 8TB. I'm assuming there is onboard RAID hardware since computer CPU usage does not increase while reading/writing/initializing the Hard Drives... but maybe it's onboard software, which might explain the slow initializing and verifying? The cooling fan is not loud at all and only comes one when the internal temperature gets to high. The only con other than the slow initialization/striping of the Hard Drives is you can't find extra trays at a reasonable price to store spare drives so when you eventually have a failure, it's a quick swap process.

Windows 10 Update 1809 上で、USB 3.1 Gen2 接続を使って 4TB x 4 の RAID5 モードで運用しています。Windows 10 Update 1809 で使うにはちょっとコツがいるようです。HDD を RAID に組んだままセットアップせずにしばらく放っておくと個別の HDD が UAS ドライバ経由で Windows 側から中途半端に認識されていまい、HighPoint RAID Manager 側から操作できなくなってしまうようです。この問題を回避するためには、Windows を再起動したあと、手早く RAID Manager を立ち上げて、個別の HDD が Windows から握られてしまう前に Create Arrray をかけてしまえばよいようです。今のところこの方法でうまく使えています。

38TBの高速RAIDドライブとして使用中です。WINDOWS 10を最新にアップしたら使えなくなったのは少し残念です。まだFCUにアップしていないPCはそのままうまく動いています。コストパフォーマスの高い製品ですが、まだドライバーなどは少し未熟ですね。これからメーカーがよくしてくれることを信じて、WIN10をアップせずに現状維持で使う予定です。

It's software RAID and not hardware. This was clear as RAID didn't exist until the full driver was installed. The speed is perfectly fine as I use it as a backup device, not as primary storage. Once in a while the last channel will disengage and pop back in. One instance where a RAID5 rebuild was required and not sure why but after rebuilding it was functional again. It is a good unit when one considers the price. Its better than all the other similarly priced arrays and I have tested many.

追記です。タイトル通りRAID5で運用を10/13から始めて10/20に1台failedとなり、たて続けに2台failedで死亡です。smart情報は3台共に正常と表示されます。PCを再起動して再度セットアップしようとするとドライブが使用中で使用できるドライブが無いと表示されできません。RAIDドライブも表示されず、新規作成もできずでどーすんだ！？と悩んだあげく、PCの管理＞デバイスマネージャー＞認識されているUSBで表示のドライブ3台を無効にしたうえで再度有効にしたところ2台のRAID5デスクで復活しました。→現在データをbackup中です。フォルダ1つ読み込み不能がありましたが3.5T backup完了しました。backup後再起動するとやはり認識せず、同じ方法でもRAIDManagerに復活しませんでした。3台認識し、SMART情報も正常ですが。。。結論。Win7での運用は取りやめです。---NASばかりのようですが,純粋にストレージ拡張を行いたく,RAID Cardも作っている会社なのでRAID構成はVerifyタスクもきっとスケジュールできると勝手に思っての購入です。win7 sp1 64bit(x99-E マザー,マザーのUSB3.1Gen2接続) はdriverがそのままではインストールできませんでしたが、レガシデバイスの追加でwin8,win10用どちらでも認識され、違いはwin8はマニュアル通りのrDrive 6114VW,win10はHighPoint USB RAID Controllorでの認識となりました。で、win10用driverでの運用です。12T(MG07ACA12TE)x3,RAID5のinitializingに66h程掛かって完走です。diskの管理で3つおかしなドライブがありますが無視(画像)です。他にdevice認識の画像,CrystalDiskMakの画像あげときます。750G程書き込みましたが、このまま使い続けて大丈夫かどなたか判りませんでしょうか！？管理画面の温度が数字ではなくNomalという表示なので、星3つです。Verifyタスクのスケジュールはできました。