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Home » External Drives and Enclosures » OWC Mercury Elite Pro (USB 3.0 + FW800 + eSATA)

OWC Mercury Elite Pro

0GB Enclosure Kit

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.
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.
Hard Drive Not Included – Needs 3.5" Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drive
2.5" sata hard drive
OWC NOTE: This drive enclosure requires a 3.5" Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive. Most computers produced since 2006 use Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives. Please make sure that the drive you wish to use with this enclosure is compatible. If you need an enclosure for an ATA/IDE hard drive, click here. This drive enclosure can also utilize a 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive via an AdapatDrive sold separately.
OWC Mercury Elite Pro
48 Hour Service

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.


Read additional information.

OWC's Step-by-Step Install Video

How to install a Hard Drive in a
Mercury Elite-AL Pro Enclosure.
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 Enclosure
  • 36" High Quality Double Shielded eSATA connecting cable (eSATA – eSATA)
  • 36" High Quality Double Shielded FireWire 800 connecting cable (9-9 Pin cable)
  • 36" High Quality Double Shielded USB 3.1 Gen 1 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:

Chipset

  • JMicron JMB355 (eSATA/Firewire)
  • JMicron JMS562 (USB)

Mechanisms Supported

Port Configuration

  • USB 3.1 Gen 1 – (1) B Standard-B port
  • FireWire 800 – (2) 9 pin ports
  • eSATA – 1 port

Max Data Transfer Rate

  • USB 3.1 Gen 1 – Up to 300MB/sec
  • USB 2.0 – Up to 60MB/sec
  • USB 1.1 – Up to 1.5MB/sec
  • FireWire 800 – Up to 100MB/sec
  • FireWire 400 – Up to 50MB/sec
  • eSATA – Up to 300 MB/sec

Port/Interface Bootability

  • Can I use this solution as an external startup drive?
  • eSATA*: Supported on Macs and PC's meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info
  • FireWire 800: Supported on Macs meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info
  • FireWire 400: Supported on Macs meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info
  • USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1: Supported on Macs and PCs meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info

UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) Compliant

  • Yes

Macintosh System Requirements

  • Mac OS 8.6 to 9.2.2 compatible, OS X 10.1.x and later. Including 'Mavericks' 10.9.x (10.2 or later required for FW800 and USB 2.0)
  • USB 3.1 Gen 1: Macintosh with USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface, either built in or via USB 3.1 Gen 1 expander card.
  • USB 2.0: Macintosh with USB 2.0 interface, either built in or via USB 2.0  expander card.
  • FireWire 800: Macintosh with FireWire 800 interface, either built in or via FireWire 800 expander card.
  • FireWire 400: Macintosh with FireWire 400 interface, either built in or via FireWire 400 expander card.
  • eSATA: Macintosh with eSATA interface, either built in or via eSATA  expander card.
  • Time Machine® Compatible: Mac OS X 10.5 (version introduced) and later.

Windows System Requirements

  • USB 3.1 Gen 1: Windows XP and later with USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface, either built in or via USB 3.1 Gen 1 expander card.
  • USB 2.0: Windows 2000 and later with USB 2.0 interface, either built in or via USB 2.0 expander card.
  • FireWire 800: Windows 2000 and later with FireWire 800 interface, either built in or via FireWire 800 expander card.
  • FireWire 400: Windows 2000 and late with FireWire 400 interface, either built in or via FireWire 400 expander card.
  • eSATA: Windows 2000 and later with eSATA interface, either built in or via eSATA expander card.

Linux Requirements

  • Linux compatible via supported USB and FireWire interfaces.

Power Supply

External Case Dimensions

  • 1.5 in (W) x 9 in (D) x 4.6 in (H)

Total Shipping Weight

  • Approximately 3.0 pounds (1.36kg)

Compatibility Notes

  • The Mercury Elite Pro is not compatible with following drives
    • 4K native drives (4Kn)
*With certain eSATA interfaces an improperly dismounted message may appear following sleep. This message can be ignored.

Operating Environment:

Temperature

  • Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

Relative Humidity

  • Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

Shock

  • Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

Vibration

  • Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

MTBF (hours)

  • Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n OWCME3QHKIT0GB UPC#: 736211773456

Reviews

Videos


Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4.8 / 5 114 out of 122 (93%) reviewers would recommend this product
1 2 3 4 5
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: PatGarrett
Rating: 5/5 Suits my Need May 28, 2021 Having been pleased with a similar item purchased for computer back up, I bought this one to transfer archived images from old backups in danger of malfunction.

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: BlushingSailfish-54689
Rating: 2/5 Noisy and unreliable May 8, 2021 I bought 2 6tb drives to backup/replace 2 that I bought a few months ago, hoping that the first two were unusually unreliable. Noisy, always "hunting", hot. Sometimes they appear, sometimes not. So I now have two paired drives and hope that only one of each pair will fail at a time.

This review is from 6.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: mwmiller-63042
Rating: 5/5 Seamless integration. May 6, 2021 I had this drive up and running in minutes, to replace one that was showing signs of wear. The transfer of data took a bit longer, but all done by dinner!

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: RyanC123
Rating: 5/5 Consistently great product May 2, 2021 Well made, well functioning external hard drive. This line of product has consistently performed well over the years.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 12.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: khgriffith
Rating: 4/5 Solid, Reliable drives. April 30, 2021 This single drive replaced THREE older Mercury Drives used for archiving, now reaching end of life, with room to spare! OWC is my go to for kit for my pampered classic Mac Pro Workstations.

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: eldharma
Rating: 5/5 OWC 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro April 23, 2021 My go to back up drive for Time Machine, works flawlessly!

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: DaWeve Location: Missouri Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Trusty backup August 10, 2020 I use this for backing up my iMac.

It's fast and price is right.

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Mike64 Location: Kingman, AZ Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 A Very Nice Addition August 2, 2020 A great looking piece to enclose and operate a hard drive. The aluminum case is cool looking with the blue light shining when on. So far it works great and still looks great.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: byebyegtech Location: Calgary, AB, Canada Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Solid As A Rock October 17, 2019 I love these drives and own several. They're reliable, durable, and I'll move to their solid-state cousins with a wee nostalgic pang when the time comes.

Recommended.

Incidentally, I use these as my every day external audio drives in my Voiceover business and I've used previous generations of these drives for many years now.

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 Top 50 Contributor
Reviewer: philharve Location: Falmouth, Cornwall, UNITED KINGDOM Age: Over 65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB3.1 Gen 1 Storage October 21, 2018 I previously purchased a 5.0TB model and it has proven utterly reliable. This convinced me to buy another but I could not afford to go up in capacity so I dropped down to 4.0TB. I have yet to press this new HDD into service,

This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: 30YearMacUser Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 A robust storage solution for many Mac models! September 10, 2018 I have been purchasing these drives for many years to serve as individual Time Machine backup drives for each of our computers. I now have an external media hard drive for my own Mac to free up space on the internal hard drive. These drives are durable, reasonably quick, and very versatile. Given their modest price, you really get your money's worth!

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: MaxEh Location: Canada Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Bridges the past and future August 5, 2018 Still running an older iMac so no USB-C etc. best I can do is FW800. Have other peripherals at FW400. My philosophy is if it is not really broken make do. Planned upgrade this fall to new iMac. Still using an older Neptune drive from 2006 (the IDE drive finally died earlier this year and was replaced with a new one). I anticipate getting the same long life out of this unit! Time will tell - wait (or not) for my next product review.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: DickB405 Location: Hawthorne, CA Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 How Come Great Reviews are Boring? July 25, 2018 So...another Excellent review of the whole OWC PROCESS: * Shopping and ordering: clean and simple. Easy to find product that matches my specs. * Delivery: prompt and on time (packaging,too). * Installation and setup: 5 minutes. That's why I keep coming back to OWC.

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: ProPhoto Location: Chicago Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Elite external hard drives July 20, 2018 I'm running NINE Elite drives on my mac pro tower. Being a commercial photographer I have terabytes of RAW & JPEG files from the last 15 years I need immediate access to. None of these drives has ever disappointed me.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 10.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Markdavid Location: Olivia MN Experience Level: Power User
Rating: 5/5 I am now in year 2018 and this is still going great March 28, 2018 2 Terabyte hard drive I bought to match my new computer for Time machine backup. That is all it does and is running great still. Has done great for backups and especially reloads of the whole system on many occasions.

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: SirSquataLot Location: Los Angeles Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Mercury Elite Pro Backup March 26, 2018 I have a couple of Mercury Elite Pro disk drives to backup 2 iMacs. I have been very happy with their ease of setup, speed and quiet performance. Options are available for every system requirement.

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: stevedallas Location: Dallas, TX Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Excellent value and it does what it says it does. March 25, 2018 I needed an external disk enclosure for an 8TB drive and this fit the bill. It is well made and a great value.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Chacapamac Location: Quebec, Canada Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Just get it not to long ago but working perfectly? February 6, 2018 This is to replace a laCie 3TB Thunderbolt that became a brick when I upgrade Mountain Lion to El Capitan. This was not a disk failure, something in Apple update didn’t work well with my trusty LaCie enclosure. (You can see that type of problem with the lasts Apple updates ???) — The OWC disk came to my door in few days, network by firewire, No problems, fast and quiet. Important for me as this is my backup strategy with Carbon Copy Cloner. More, my main internal disk become corrupted after the last Apple Security fix (What’s wrong with Apple) and the backup on the OWC disk save my skin. I was able to reformat the internal apple disk and clone my OWC to it without a hitch. Great product

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: iCompute
Rating: 4/5 Good drive January 12, 2018 Good product. Good price. Quick delivery. Flawless performance - so far. Xfer speed to drive is excellent.

This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB3.1 Gen 1 + eSATA + FW800/400.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Mdwycyoff Location: Indiana Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Outstanding value for older Macs with FireWire, still speedy with newer USB3 devices January 9, 2018 "You can never be to rich or have too many backups." Part 2 (Part 1 is my review of the 6TB hard drive now installed in this enclosure.)

So why use this FireWire and USB enclosure? Why not a Thunderbolt enclosure? Price! I'm thrifty. (My spouse says 'Admit it, you're a cheapskate!') This older FireWire and USB3 enclosure was much more cost effective for my backup needs than a Thunderbolt enclosure. This enclosure also has USB3 for the newer, speedier Macs in my family. Because the primary purpose for this drive is Time Machine backups, not active storage, a difference is throughput is not significant. It only becomes relevant when restoring data. As part of my backup strategy, I also make a weekly Clone of my primary storage device to another external drive, so I'd likely never need to restore the entire machine in the event that the primary storage drive fails.

Why not just use Network-Attached-Storage? It's part of my total backup strategy, but no longer the PRIMARY backup means. Several years ago, I began using a major brand of Ethernet-ready NAS (but NON-Apple) network-attached-storage enclosures using RAID1 for multiple Time Machine backups for all of the 6 Macs in my home network.

Over time I encountered enough 'For reliability, Time Machine needs to begin a new backup' messages that I began to doubt the wisdom of Ethernet-connected NAS drives as a primary strategy. My Time Machine backups performed over Wifi seem especially prone to 'New Backup' messages. So I moved back to directly attached Time Machine backup drives for each of our family of Macs, using portable USB drives for the laptops, Firewire drives for my iMac, and Thunderbolt-connected enclosures for my Mac mini media server.

So what and I doing with the Ethernet NAS enclosures? Because you can add both direct-connect and network devices to a Time Machine backup rotation, as part of my total backup strategy, the laptops, the Mac mini, and my iMac still continue to do Time Machine backups to the NAS drives, using wired Ethernet for the best reliability.

I've only had this enclosure in operation for a week, so I haven't checked 'durability' as a Pro for this product. With no fan, I don't expect any problems with durability of this enclosure, and the drive runs very cool in operation, so lack of a fan is not a shortcoming in this case.

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.

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor
Reviewer: vgs42 Location: Houston, TX Age: Over 65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 4/5 Mercury Elite Pro Enclosure - to reuse old HHD December 19, 2017 Purchased May, 2017 to reuse Replacement of HHD with SSD. 1st Unit was DOA, so had to RMA unit back. Within 10 days I had my enclosure back and working; so the enclosure helps give new life to excess HD's.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: SirSquataLot Location: Los Angeles Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Works Great and It Is Fast December 15, 2017 I copied 692 GB onto this drive with the USB 3.1 connection and the job was completed much faster than I expected. I did not time it but it was quick. I am now loading data up to Carbonite and the Mercury Elite Pro is quiet and hanging in there. I have another Mercury Elite Pro for backup and it also works great. Highly recommend this drive.

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: HikerDavid Location: Vancouver, BC area Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Excellent performance and value October 29, 2017 These two drives are, I think, the sixth and seventh Firewire-capable external drives I have bought from OWC. All of them have served well, except for one which was about 10 years old and whose Firewire port died recently. (Its USB port still works!) I partition these things and use them for storage of downloads, for multiple sparse bundle format backups, and as startup drives to repair our three Macs when they need to be booted up from something other than their internal drives. I've recommended these drives to lots of people.

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.

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: TechDaddy Location: Westmont, IL Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Hobbiest
Rating: 4/5 Enclosure Kit October 24, 2017 Great product. Within a couple minutes I had installed the new hard drive installed, formatted and ready for running backups.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: twichma Location: Decatur, GA Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 4/5 Uncomplicated HD October 22, 2017 This drive is easy to use, and relatively fast, using FW800. It literally needed to be simply plugged into the appropriate port on my Mac Pro and was ready to go. The only downside (and the reason why I did not give 5 stars) is that this drive is fairly noisy in operation. My the drive is attached to a computer that is used in music applications, so extra noise is not particularly appreciated. Service by MacSales was fast and efficient.

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.

OWC 0GB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mfr P/N: OWCME3QHKIT0GB OWC SKU: OWCME3QHKIT0GB Enclosure Kit 1 Year OWC Limited Warranty Ships: Same Day
Reviews (122)
Only $99.95OWC Price $84.99
Add to CartOther World Computing OWCME3QHKIT0GB In Stock, Click to Buy Now
Additional Capacities: DIY Enclosure
  • 0TB
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