SEDNA - 1U Rack Mount USB 3.1 Gen II (10Gbp) Dual Bay Hard Disk RAID Enclosure

I bought this because it would fit in my rack and provide a backup for my NAS files. The fans are loud but because I preform the backup “manually” and it is intended to keep my most important files safe in case of hackers accessing my NAS I use the power switch to keep it off until ready/doing a backup. It stays offline and thus is quiet because it is off. Otherwise the fans don’t have a thermostat so the run constantly and that would bother me if they were in the same room. If it’s going in a server room or closet like mine that also would not matter.The other thing to note is that the dip switches are only secured along the bottom edge so when I went to switch it to up/up = Span they bent inward. I had to take off the top and push it back then hold it while I set the dip switches.Also, it didn’t set up to Span by the method recommended (put in JBOD hit reset & power off set switches and power on.) For me what worked was setting the switches to SPAN then hit reset and power down count to ten and power on. Since then it’s been in Span Mode perfectly.I have two 10TB HDDs so in span I get almost 19TB which is great. I have 27+ usable on my raid 5 NAS with the same size and brand (WD) disks. but I have that divided into different volumes with time machines and two users. also I kept 10TB unused for future expansion. So, I have just a little more than I need for backup in SPAN mode. Just sharing in case my setup is something you hadn’t considered. SPAN is good for ”recovery” purposes if you have a failure. Everything is stacked in a more linear way. So, with five PCs storing their own data and the NAS backing that up and storing extra AV files all those being backed up onto the Sedna and my Time Machines are also backed up onto the Sedna I can be confident that I can recover what I need if disaster strikes and Ransom will not need to be paid!

I use this with 2x 2TB SATA drives for a USB drive in RAID 1.I've been using it for about 1 year with no problems.My biggest complaint is that it came with no documentation about how to set the DIP switches.I contacted the manufacturer and they sent them to me.They are:SW 1 : down SW 2 : down = PM / JBODSW 1 : dwon SW2 : Up = RAID 0SW 1 : Up SW 2 : down = RAID 1SW 1 : up SW 2 : up = SPANUPDATE:I have several of these running. I'd like to address some other posts here. First of all, Windows does NOT RAID the disks. The device does it by itself. Again, the docs document how to do this. You need to start with the drive in JBOD and the drive on, then switch the DIP switches to your desired setting. Then, you push the reset button for 10 seconds then release. Then, power down and back on. The drives will initialize (erase all data) and RAID as set.Also, I was getting an error "USB Device not recognized". When this happened, I had to take the drives out, and one at a time diskpart clean then, then create a simple volume on each one. Then I put then back in the drive and ran the JBOD/reset/DIP cycle I wrote about above, then everything worked. I've only ever had to do this one time, after a storm came through.

It does, at the very least, work. But that leaves me with three major complaints about this thing:1) It doesn't seem to work with FreeNAS, even in PM/JBOD mode which is how I wanted to use it. That sucks. Stuff I've read online suggest that this controller doesn't implement SCSI properly.2) There is no documentation on how the RAID 1 rebuild process actually works or how to tell if one of the drives fail. I presume the controller reports it to the OS, but with the OS barely recognizing this as storage, so should I trust that? I don't know.3) You're just buying a $40 controller and an enclosure for it. $170 actually feels kinda steep from that especially since there is no name behind it and it can only be used on Windows out of the box.Conclusion? I'm probably going to scrap the controller from it, keeping just the enclosure and use two SATA to USB adapters to connect the disks directly to my FreeNAS. It's unfortunate because you would expect this to work with FreeNAS just fine in JBOD mode.

I have purchased 12 of these over the years. I load them with two 8TB Western Digital Purple Pro Drives in JBOD. I have only had one of these units fail so far, and it had run for a couple of years. I cut the leads to one fan, because with two fans, it is too loud. And one is enough. Also, I solder a jumper across the switch on the front so that the unit cannot be switched off from the front. This has happened accidentally too many times. I wish they would make a less expensive non-raid version of this enclosure.

You are paying extra for the ability to rack mount. I am positive they designed and priced this based on the idea that someone has too much money and wants to pay for form over function (which is exactly why I was told to install it on a job a few weeks back)It does not process raid itself - Windows is required to make it an actual raid array. You could also accomplish the same thing with two $30 usb enclosures.You do get to use 1 usb cable and one power supply to run your dual drives instead of two. But, really, the company is upcharging you because of the rack ears. Which, I suppose make the hardware look professional grade.I assure you, it is not. There was a bunch of long strings left from the gluing process, the top is finicky to get on and off, the dip switches seem to make no difference whatsoever, the drives are mounted at a slight angle (and can't easily be secured) and they used an annoying cheap blue led that is way to bright in the cabinet.Again, overpriced. You can diy yourself a better version of this with a low cost rack shelf and some name-brand quality usb enclosures and still come out ahead.