# External disk enclosures



## gpw928 (Apr 18, 2020)

Hi,

I have decided to make some changes on how I backup my ageing ZFS server.

I'm looking for feedback on external disk enclosures.

I currently have two Antec MX-1 external enclosures used for offsite backups.  Each has a 1 TB disk using an eSATA connection.

I am planning to upgrade to a 4 TB disk in the external enclosures.  However I believe that the MX-1 enclosures won't work with disks larger than 2 TB.  I have ordered a spare 3 TB disk (same size as tank disks) to test this, but my hopes are low.  So I'm shopping for new enclosures.

I intend to buy 4 TB disks for the external enclosures because they easily meet the offsite capacity need, they are cheap, and I can use two of them to evacuate the tank temporarily while I upgrade it from RAIDZ1 to RAIDZ2.

The motherboard is oldish.  It's an ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0.

It has two external eSATA ports rated at 6 Gbit/sec known to work reliably, and two external USB ports marked "USB 3.0 UASP", which I assume is 5 Gbit/sec.

I'm looking for recommendations regarding new external enclosures.

The USB 3.0 ones at 5 Gbit/sec range from Aus$20 up.

The USB 3.1 ones at 10 Gbit/sec seem to start at about Aus$80.

The eSATA ones at 6 Gbit/sec are mostly well north of Aus$100.

I know that you get what you pay for in terms of quality.  Startech looks ok.

What are people using?  Cooling?  Durable?  Reliable?  Fast? ...


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## ralphbsz (Apr 19, 2020)

Interesting question. I run my system similarly, with an external backup disk. Initially, that was a Seagate 1TB external USB-2.0 disk. This just didn't work; USB support was not reliable enough for unattended 24x7 operation; my backup used to crash every few days due to some USB outage, which too often required a reboot to get FreeBSD back to happiness. NOT ACCEPTABLE.

First: Will the Antec work with something larger than 2TB? Probably; depends on how much electronics it has in it. I don't think there is a discontinuity in the SATA protocol when it goes above 2TiB, so it should make no difference. I have an eSATA enclosure somewhere in the basement, and it worked fine with both 2 4TB disks. But that's because I used it as a dedicated eSATA enclosure. It's a bit hard to figure out what model that was ... I fell yesterday, twisted my ankle (so going down staircases is not fun), and broke a finger. But my case was very cheap, and worked like a charm. Except that the case was physically big (duh, it has a 3.5" disk in it), the eSATA cable is big and inflexible, and the external case needs two wires (eSATA and power), which have to be fished through a small hole in the wall of a very big and fireproof safe. Not practical.

So I went and bought (very cheaply) a Seagate external USB disk. It is small (2.5" form factor), uses a single USB-3.0 cable, either 2 or 4 TB, and cheap (the monthly special at Costco, about $70). It works like a charm. The speed via USB-3.0 is acceptable (it is backup after all, so I haven't even measured the throughput), and it has been completely reliable. And needs only a single and relatively flexible cable.


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## TracyTiger (Apr 19, 2020)

ralphbsz said:


> So I went and bought (very cheaply) a Seagate external USB disk. It is small (2.5" form factor), uses a single USB-3.0 cable, either 2 or 4 TB, and cheap (the monthly special at Costco, about $70). It works like a charm. The speed via USB-3.0 is acceptable (it is backup after all, so I haven't even measured the throughput), and it has been completely reliable. And needs only a single and relatively flexible cable.



A few weeks ago I bought two of these 5TB Seagate USB 3.0 drives at Costco ($100 each).  These were purchased for a major reorganization of my computers.  I have been pleased with their performance over the last few weeks.  I may purchase a few more to use as rotating offsite backup storage (bank safety deposit box).


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## gpw928 (May 24, 2020)

Sadly, I don't live anywhere near a Costco...

I wanted a flexible and generic "external disk" solution that would work with my old motherboard, provide high bandwidth, and continue work well into the future.  So I bought:

1 x Dual-Port USB 3.1 Card - 10Gbps per port - 2x USB-A - PCIe
2 x SATA to USB Cable - USB 3.1 (10Gbps) - UASP
2 x Seagate Enterprise 3 TB 3.5" disks (initially for offsite backups, but to eventually expand the ZFS tank from 5 x 3 TB RAIDZ1 to 7 x 3 TB RAIDZ2)
bonnie++ says that two spinning disks with UFS file systems can each simultaneously deliver 150 to 200 MiB/sec sequential throughput and 150 seeks/sec on the new USB 3.1 Gen 2 card.

The disks sit naked, and unrestrained.  

The only concerns were that the disk drives may get too hot without a fan or move around.  However they remained cool and stationary for the duration of the benchmarking.

I have cushioned boxes for storage and transport.


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