QNAP TR-002 External Raid Enclosure Black

I got this to replace an old USB3 RAID case that died after 7 years. The box is bulkier than many others and it is expensive however the setup, quality and speed is excellent. Compared to my old aluminium case, the drives are fairly quiet due to the thick plastic + metal casing and rubber retainers holding the drive in place which absorbs vibration extremely well. The fan cannot be turned off completely but is bigger than some cases and stays at a low RPM so the noise it makes is quite soft and not annoying. I am a light sleeper and have it running about 2m from my head when I sleep and its fine. It does make a couple of very loud beeps when it first turns on. Configuration is very fast and easy. You do need to insert the drives first or it doesn't detect on the PC. ... MoreI got this to replace an old USB3 RAID case that died after 7 years. The box is bulkier than many others and it is expensive however the setup, quality and speed is excellent. Compared to my old aluminium case, the drives are fairly quiet due to the thick plastic + metal casing and rubber retainers holding the drive in place which absorbs vibration extremely well. The fan cannot be turned off completely but is bigger than some cases and stays at a low RPM so the noise it makes is quite soft and not annoying. I am a light sleeper and have it running about 2m from my head when I sleep and its fine. It does make a couple of very loud beeps when it first turns on. Configuration is very fast and easy. You do need to insert the drives first or it doesn't detect on the PC. I use it in Linux even though there is no management software for it, its fine as it can be configured using hardware switch. If a drive has an issue it will show on the hardware LEDs and beep anyway so you dont need the software, except when you want to update firmware (suggest to do right after unpacking).

DAS or NAS expansion

I've not had this drive long, but so far so good, does what I thought it would. I have the drive acting as a RAID1 backup drive to my Intel mac, M1 mac and windows machines. This is one of only a few options available which support RAID1 as Direct Attached Storage (DAS). It acts as an attachable external hard drive but with double protection should one of the two drives fail, the other can restore your files (RAID1).

Fast. Inexpensive. NO software needed.

I have several NAS/DAS units from QNAP. Every one of them performs exactly as advertised. This particular unit comes with a manual switch to configure the type of raid you want without having to have software constantly running in the background burning up your computer's resources. Running manually also allows the unit to be used on multiple computers without installing software on each one of them. If you are looking for a easy to use DAS (Direct Access Storage), this is a great choice. B&H shipping was quick.

Functional RAID enclosure

I bought 2 of these to replace older RAID enclosures for local back ups on our office PCs. The TR-002 was easy to set up & monitor using the QNAP RAID manager software. I'm running these with hardware control, not software RAID, for compatibility with other external enclosures. I set the switches for RAID1 before installing 2 existing RAID1 drives, and the TR-002 recognized the drives and preserved the files. (YRMV - always make a backup before moving populated drives to a new enclosure.)B&H had an excellent price for these, and free 2-day shipping across the country. Great place to do business.

Issues with QNAP External RAID Manager

Had device set to RAID 1 via physical switches. Just after three months, the RAID volume stopped mounting. I was aware that reconfiguring the device to software RAID would wipe out all data, but since I didn't want to be stuck with a QNAP paperweight and had other copies of my data saved elsewhere, I proceeded with the reset. No data lost, just time wasted.

Neil's review of QNAP TR-002 2- Bay Desktop DAS (Direct Attached Storage) Enclosure

Pros: Have upgraded the drives in my NAS and am using the old drives in a RAID array in this box as a DAS. Easy to set up and everything working well so far.

Nice to have Speedy USB C -Thunderbolt Enclosure

There are very few options currently on the market for a two-bay USB C, Thunderbolt compatible hard drive enclosure.This can be configured with several RAID options, and can be further connected to a NAS too. We use this as our iMac TimeMachine backup drive. We also like the option of being able to use either 2.5 SSDs or the 3.5 drives that are currently in the box.Easy to follow installation and RAID/Drive set up instructions.Hard polymer case, that remains cool to the touch, and the fan noise is barely detectable, one of the quieter multi-bay enclosures that we've owned.

Review of QNAP TR-002 2- Bay Desktop DAS (Direct Attached Storage) Enclosure

Good Points: Have upgraded the drives in my NAS and am using the old drives in a RAID array in this box as a DAS. Easy to set up and everything working well so far.

well its fast and cheap but...

I bought this when an existing enclosure failed to hold 2 drives for a new MacBook Pro running MacOS Catalina 10.15. As the MacBook was now usb-c I wanted to eliminate the Thunderbolt 2 adapter I was using previously. Construction is mostly plastic with plastic trays - not bad but not super sturdy feeling. Documentation included is minimal.It will not connect natively and requires a driver. This was not obvious from the documentation. The latest download of the QNAP raid software installs this. However I could not get the RAID manager software to ever run. It prompted repeatedly to add a security access rule, but even after adding the application it still complained and never recognized the device.Fortunately I just wanted to mount the two drives. But given the ... MoreI bought this when an existing enclosure failed to hold 2 drives for a new MacBook Pro running MacOS Catalina 10.15. As the MacBook was now usb-c I wanted to eliminate the Thunderbolt 2 adapter I was using previously. Construction is mostly plastic with plastic trays - not bad but not super sturdy feeling. Documentation included is minimal.It will not connect natively and requires a driver. This was not obvious from the documentation. The latest download of the QNAP raid software installs this. However I could not get the RAID manager software to ever run. It prompted repeatedly to add a security access rule, but even after adding the application it still complained and never recognized the device.Fortunately I just wanted to mount the two drives. But given the issues with the application not sure I'd want to trust the RAID functions anyway. But it does look like its the only way to apply the firmware updates.Performance is good, and for the price its reasonable value for my purposes I guess. But for most Mac users I'd say pass if you want a dependable RAID unit.