Sabrent 4-Bay USB 3.0 SATA 2.5in/3.5in SSD/HDD Docking Station (DS-U3B4)

USB Options: 3.0 | Type C (out of stock @ egghead)

 

Home Setup:

1. just for testing UNRAID, no production, just a home project for future production.
2. UNRAID installed: hp envy x360 convertible 15m-cn0xx, NOTE: the only available computer for testing w/Intel VT-x
   1. upgrading to 16G RAM,
   2. upgrading to WD Blue WD20SPZX 2TB 5400 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive.
   3. want to add Sabrent 4-Bay w/4 HDD above

 

Questions:

1. Will I have problems using the Sabrent 4-Bay USB 3.0?
2. Live testing only, what problems can I expect w/this setup?  NOTE: 2nd - phase High Performance Desktop, 3rd phase Server.

Can't speak specifically for that 4 bay station, but a lot of USB stations give the host (unRAID) the same serial number for each drive that is installed in it.  If that's the case, then it won't work, as each hard drive must have a unique s/n (as they all do natively) 

 

Beyond that, USB for connected drives while it does work isn't particularly recommended, as USB is highly prone to drop outs (ever notice on a Windows machine that every once in a while the computer will make the noise that a device was disconnected and then reconnected)

15 minutes ago, Squid said:

Can't speak specifically for that 4 bay station, but a lot of USB stations give the host (unRAID) the same serial number for each drive that is installed in it.  If that's the case, then it won't work, as each hard drive must have a unique s/n (as they all do natively) 

Thanks, I will check on this...

Edited April 23, 20206 yr by nasheayahu
typo

The only way I would consider USB connections for anything except Unassigned Devices is for a system where parity or cache isn't used at all, such as backups only. Otherwise you are just going to be constantly rebuilding due to disconnects.

56 minutes ago, Squid said:

Beyond that, USB for connected drives while it does work isn't particularly recommended, as USB is highly prone to drop outs (ever notice on a Windows machine that every once in a while the computer will make the noise that a device was disconnected and then reconnected)

Is this a reported behavior for the Type-C also?

Edited April 23, 20206 yr by nasheayahu
typo

7 minutes ago, trurl said:

The only way I would consider USB connections for anything except Unassigned Devices is for a system where parity or cache isn't used at all, such as backups only. Otherwise you are just going to be constantly rebuilding due to disconnects.

Good info! Looks like I will be abandon this addition or like you said use it for backups.  Any suggestions for a small project like this to add additional HDD's?

Edited April 23, 20206 yr by nasheayahu
additional response

There are enclosures with SAS or eSATA connections. Best if you get something without port multipliers. You don't want to connect multiple disks with a single eSATA port, for example.

39 minutes ago, trurl said:

There are enclosures with SAS or eSATA connections. Best if you get something without port multipliers. You don't want to connect multiple disks with a single eSATA port, for example.

Thanks, I will change and do this instead.  Appreciate your help!...

I stumbled upon this post after trying the exact same setup and can confirm it doesn't work.  The sabrent 4-bay USB seems to work fine in windows 10 but throws crc errors on all disks inside UNRAID.  Looking for an eSATA enclosure now.