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OWC Mercury Elite Pro

18.0TB 7200 RPM Storage Solution

Mac / PC / USB 3.1 Gen 1 / FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 Backwards Compatible) / eSATA
Outstanding Features
High Performance
Next-gen high-speed chipsets combined with the fastest SATA drive mechanisms available allow Mercury Elite Pro Solutions to deliver the fastest single drive transfer rates possible, up to 300 Megabytes Per Second!
High Reliability
A top-notch design and the best components ensure the Mercury Elite Pro Series is built to last. The included 3 Year OWC Solution Limited Warranty backs this up!
High Portability
The compact and shock-resistant design has the Mercury Elite Pro Series going places! In addition, the Mercury Elite Pro offers (1) USB 3.1 Gen 1 (backward compatible with USB 2.0/1.1), (2) FireWire 800(1394B), and (1) eSATA ports for easy Plug and Play on virtually ANY system! Even the cables are included!
Style
Designed to complement any user's system, the Mercury Elite Pro was created in mind with the Mac Pro system as a starting point. As the pictures show, it's a fine storage solution for any computer.
OWC Mercury Elite Pro

If your OWC or NewerTech brand product should require service during the warranty coverage period, we are committed to delivering the fastest possible service.


Upon receipt of your unit, OWC will make every attempt to service it and arrange shipping back to you all within 48 weekday (Monday-Friday) business hours, excluding U.S. national holidays. This warranty service timeframe does not include data recovery attempts, out of stock items/components, or upgrade/product replacements.

Please allow up to seven additional business days if requesting optional OWC Level 1 Data Recovery services.


Read additional information.


The best warranty is one you never have to use, but should the need occur - OWC is proud to provide a superior level of support and warranty coverage to our customers.


OWC and NewerTech single drive storage solutions come fully backed by an Industry-leading 48-hour turnaround time, with the option of complimentary Level 1 Data Recovery service for the first year. Please note that Level 1 Data Recovery services add additional time, up to one week, to the 48-hour turnaround.


Read additional information.

From day one, the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Series has been designed to be everything you would hope for and more!

Includes

  • OWC Mercury Elite Pro External Drive
  • High Quality Double Shielded eSATA connecting cable (eSATA - eSATA)
  • High Quality Double Shielded FireWire 800 connecting cable (9-9 Pin cable)
  • High Quality Double Shielded USB 3.0 Standard-B to Standard-A (backward compatible with USB 2.0/1.1) connecting cable
  • UL Listed U.S./International Auto Switching 100 ~ 240v input, 50/60Hz input, 12 Volt 3 Amp output Power Supply (adapter plugs for International use sold separately). For replacement power supply, click here.
  • Vertical Stand
  • Mercury Elite Pro Assembly Manual & User Guide (1.3 MB)

Gallery

Gallery Pic 1 Gallery Pic 3

Product Specifications

Specifications
  • Total Storage Capacity
    • 18.0TB
  • Standard Mechanism
    • (1) Western Digital 18.0TB Ultrastar® DC HC550 7,200RPM Hard Disk Drive with 512 MB cache
    • *1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less). The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences.
    • **OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.
  • Chipset
    • JMicron JMB355 / JMicron JMS562
  • Drive Interface
    • SATA
  • Format
  • Rotational Speed
    • 7,200RPM
  • Certifications
    • RoHS
  • Plug and Play
    • Yes
Compatibility
  • Mac OS Compatibility
    • Mac OS 8.6
    • Mac OS 9.0
    • Mac OS 9.1
    • Mac OS 9.2
    • Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah
    • Mac OS X 10.1 Puma
    • Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
    • Mac OS X 10.3 Panther
    • Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
    • Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
    • Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
    • Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
    • Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
    • OS X 10.9 Mavericks
    • OS X 10.10 Yosemite
    • OS X 10.11 El Capitan
    • macOS 10.12 Sierra
  • PC OS Compatibility
    • Windows XP
    • Windows XP 64-bit Edition
    • Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
    • Windows Vista
    • Windows 7 32-bit Edition
    • Windows 7 64-bit Edition
    • Windows 8 32-bit Edition
    • Windows 8 64-bit Edition
    • Windows 8.1 32-bit Edition
    • Windows 8.1 64-bit Edition
    • Windows 10 32-bit Edition
    • Windows 10 64-bit Edition
  • Other OS Compatibility
    • Linux supported via USB and FireWire interfaces
  • Other Requirements
    • Mac OS X 10.2 or later required for FireWire 800 and USB 3.0
    • Windows 2000 or later required for FireWire 800 and eSATA
    • Time Machine Compatible: Mac OS X 10.5 (version introduced) and later
Power
  • Power Supply
    • External UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply
  • External Power Adapter
    • Yes
Physical
  • Number of Bays
    • 1
  • Device Ports
    • (1) USB 3.0 Port
    • (1) eSATA 6 Gb/s Port
    • (2) FireWire 800 Ports
  • Security Slot
    • Yes
  • Power Button
    • Yes
  • Power/Activity LED
    • Yes
  • Housing Color
    • Aluminum
  • Housing Material
    • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
    • Height: 11.7 cm (4.6 in)
    • Length: 22.9 cm (9.0 in)
    • Width: 3.8 cm (1.5 in)
  • Weight
    • 1.2 kg (2.65 lbs)
Environmental
  • Altitude
    • Operating: -304.8 m to 3,048.0 m (-1,000 ft to 10,000 ft)
    • Non-Operating: -304.8 m to 12,192.0 m (-1,000 ft to 40,000 ft)
  • Humidity
    • Operating: 8% to 90% non-condensing
    • Non-Operating: 5% to 95% non-condensing

Reviews

Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4.8 / 5 144 out of 152 (95%) reviewers would recommend this product
1 2 3 4 5
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Blondie Location: Minneapolis Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Great product! June 7, 2017 As advertised- I have a 2T OWC Mercury Elite Pro drive which I purchased 4 or 5 years ago- no issues- still running great! Want to especially praise the customer service staff and tech support provided by OWC- best in the business!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) 5.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: MrScreens Location: Santa Rosa, CA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Keep the FireWire Alive June 6, 2017 I'm grateful that MacSales still offers FW 800 interfaces on its drives. Not the latest greatest fastest, but it's what I need to keep my old Mac Pro backed up.

This review is from 2.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Griploc Location: Langley, BC Canada Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Mercury Elite May 26, 2017 After 6 years I had to get a new 2tb external hd from OWC. Runs quieter than the previous one and works great!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 2.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Kamana Location: New York Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 3-4 months
Rating: 5/5 The best of all spinning Hard Drives March 12, 2017 I am so happy that I am considering buying a second one for my Pro Tools HD System.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 6.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: BierMeister Location: Willow Springs, MO Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Easy to install a HD and looks great. February 6, 2017 Product was well packaged and arrived quickly. Easy instructions to install the HD. Quality of this enclosure is next to none. Would recommend this kit to anyone.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB3.1 Gen 1/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: RichInDC Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 4/5 So far, so good February 1, 2017 I've hooked up the box using the Excelsior card eSATA port and am happy with the speed. Only had it a couple of months, but seems fine. The one con is that I just got hearing aides and the operating noise is much louder than I anticipated. Aside from that, and assuming the reliability of the disks is as specified, I'm very happy.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: graytech Location: Bellevue, Wa Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Replaced failing Lacie enclosure January 26, 2017 I am very impressed with all my OWC purchases and this is no exception. I have used OWC drive enclosures on 2.5 and 3.5 drives. Always work, last, and exceed my expectations.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB3.1 Gen 1/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: fergrjls Location: Aguascalientes, México. Age: 25-34 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 My "to go" drive for audio. January 16, 2017 I really enjoy this drive, actually a Full Sail University's teacher recomended me this particular drive to record with Pro Tools and it works great.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 3.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: DBChas Location: Los Angeles, CA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 4/5 Pretty good, I must say January 6, 2017 In fact, just got it set up today to use for a rather unique purpose. It could hardly have been easier to set up, and I bought both enclosure and Toshiiba drive that comes inside. It was already mounted, so didn't need to mess with screws a whole lot.

The software that comes built-in actually does make it simple to partition--as you like, as well as to make those to the sizes you want or need. The drive is 2 TB, so lots to work with, though things went wrong in my case thanks to misinformation provided directly by Apple. Another story...

So long as this holds up, I can't see why it should't last a long while.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 2.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: KentOSan Location: Norfolk, VA Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 As always, completly satisfied December 13, 2016 Have been dealing with OWC for several years. Although I don't buy a lot, every item that I have purchased (including this one) has been right on the money.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB3.1 Gen 1/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: PatrickR Location: Los Angeles, CA Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 A workhorse November 30, 2016 I use this drive in my profession (audio production) and it is being used 12-16 hours a day, every day, for over 3 years now! It has never faulted, it always mounts perfectly to my Mac Pro via USB 3 and gives me a solid and consistent read/write. I rely heavily on this drive and it can be relied heavily upon. Quality build and quality performance, worth every penny.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 2.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: jonb Location: NY NY
Rating: 5/5 great company great product November 28, 2016 I love to order product from this company. They provide excellent tech support, customer service, and returns when necessary. Recently we had a failure on a ocw drive that was replaced without question. Great Stuff

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Tachyon Location: Eagle River, AK Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Very elegant external enclosure November 16, 2016 This is my second enclosure of this type. The first one I had populated with a 4TB drive, and this one I wanted to use my own 8TB drive, as that capacity is not yet available pre-populated. Very sleek, and well designed. Very simple to add and secure the drive in the enclosure. The all aluminum chassis works well to dissipate heat from the drive, and it looks really nice. For users of older Macs, the Firewire 800 interface is efficiently fast.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB3.1 Gen 1/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: RPG6621
Rating: 5/5 Flawless November 14, 2016 Actually, I ordered this product and it arrived with a bad drive and I called MacSales and told them about it. It was amazing how fast another one was sent to me. I'm a long time customer of Mac Sales so I'm biased but I'm biased because the service is impeccable and the shipping is superb. I will always buy my Mac products here.

Jim

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 3.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Cletus
Rating: 5/5 After 3 years, still going strong November 12, 2016 I use this to clone a backup of the internal hd on my iMac. This creates a bootable external drive as well as backup. The Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM eSATA/FW800 has worked perfectly and dependably. I recently bought an additional 2tb drive as well,

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Xercos Location: Spanish Fork, UT Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Nice product, easy to use November 1, 2016 Easy to set up and easy to use.

Easy to install a hard drive into; almost too easy. I had a couple of 1 TB hard drives from retired PCs and needed an external drive to use as a Time Machine backup. Adding the hard drive was a piece of cake, though sliding the foot onto the extruded aluminum case took a bit of force. You can swap drives out without moving the foot, anyway (I had to do the swap when the first drive I tried failed soon after I installed it).

Using the drive is, of course, dead easy. I use the FireWire 800 connection. The drive has been faithfully keeping me backed up at work ever since. I have another OWC drive at home doing likewise.

The enclosure is also beautiful, which I suppose isn't supposed to count, but there it is.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB 3.0/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Hotdog Location: Central OH Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 The TB Mercury Elite Pro has function verywell October 17, 2016 I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: drglenn Location: Central VA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 4/5 OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB 3.0/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit September 30, 2016 Solid, well-made, but not NOT inexpensive, drive enclosure. I would make an improvement or two - like having the power supply internal, and using a standard computer power cable. (I favor this design because if you have multiple OWC enclosures, it's too easy to confuse which power supply goes with which unit. THIS time, I'm going to label both the power supply and the drive enclosure. The one star drop is for the price and the power supply "feature/short-coming," depending on your point of view. I would have only docked it a half-star if that choice were available, because this single enclosure has one attribute that none of the muti-drive units have - NO FAN! An excellent improvement over the loud, squeaky, easy-to-fail fans in the larger models.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB3.1 Gen 1/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Response from MacSales.com, Marketing September 30, 2016 Thank you for the feedback - you raise an interesting point and it’s a solid suggestion for us to look at additional information on our power adapters to note just which solutions a power adapter is supporting for our many customers utilizing multiple solutions from OWC. With respect to the fanless benefit of our single - while there is no beating a fanless in terms of a point of issue just completely eliminated from the equation, we would like to note our continuing obsession with reducing the audibility of all of our solutions and the fans utilized now on our Dual-Bay and Quad Bay solutions are exceptionally high end for nearly silent operation and further selected for high high longevity. With the fans quieted on these multi-drive enclosures we’ve been focused on design to reduce the noise audible from the drives themselves. SSDs of course are silent, so baffling and dampening noise from the spinning discs is something we’ve been successfully improving as well. As a further note, solutions like our OWC Drive Dock and the Thunderbay do avoid the power adapter labeling altogether with their built in power supplies vs. the external adapter. Thank you very kindly!
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: John0 Location: Nashville Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Hobbiest Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 As advertized August 23, 2016 Arrived on time; easy to set up and even easier to use. Works flawlessly with my gear. The finish goes well with my iMac.

Would have liked it even better if it was smaller.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 3.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Love2cycle Location: Silicon Valley Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Best Quality you can get August 14, 2016 OWC makes the best quality enclosures period. Once you have one you will get more and they look great on my desktop next to my iMac.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB3.1 Gen 1/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: murtle
Rating: 4/5 great except for the blue light August 5, 2016 The drive works as it should and was easy to instal. However, I do wish the manufacturer had made the LED that tells you it's alive less bright. You could use it as a night light it's so bright!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 3.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Durham NC Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 4/5 sturdy and dependable drive July 17, 2016 Great drive. I had a problem with the power cable and the OWC staff were really helpful. The drive is fast and portable and really dependable.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 3.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Roseburg, OR Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Great product! June 13, 2016 As all of MacSales branded products it has performed flawlessly.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) 5.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Ohio Age: 25-34 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Works great June 10, 2016 Easy to assemble. Good build quality. I put a fast disk in this to store older photos on when my laptop's internal drive is full (I have just under 50,000 in my Lightroom catalog), but I still want speedy access to the images when I want to edit them.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA, FireWire 400/800 & USB3.1 Gen 1/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous Location: New York Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Seems like a workhorse June 6, 2016 Haven't owned this baby very long yet - just a couple months - but it's handling everything I throw at it just fine.

This review is from (*) 5.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

OWC 18.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mfr P/N: ME3QH7T18.0 OWC SKU: OWCME3QH7T18.0 Storage Solution 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty Ships: Pending
Reviews (152)
Only $769.99OWC Price $679.00
Add to CartOther World Computing ME3QH7T18.0, Click to Buy Now
Additional Capacities: Enclosure Only
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Cable NewerTech NewerTech FireWire 800 36" 9 Pin to 9 Pin Cable Only $8.99
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