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Home » External Drives and Enclosures » OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID (USB 3.1 Gen 1 + FW800)

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We recommend (*) NewerTech Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 [MIRROR] eSATA/FW800/400+USB 3.0 Enclosure Kit for 2 x HDD (Mfr P/N: NWTGM3QKIT0GB) from Newer Technology for $109.00 as a suitable alternative.

OWC Mercury Elite Pro RAID

0GB RAID "Add your own drives"
Enclosure Kit

Mac / PC / USB 3.0 & 2.0 / FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 Backwards Compatible)
  • Mac
  • PC
  • FireWire 800/400
  • USB
High-performance and reliability come standard with the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual Drive RAID Enclosure.
Time-Tested
The Elite Pro Dual is a customer favorite in the OWC external drive lineup and has provided professional and enthusiasts alike with reliable, time-tested, large capacity and high-performance storage for over 8 years.
High-Performance, Easy to Connect
The Elite Pro Dual combines high-speed Oxford chipsets with two SATA drive bays, allowing you to install two SATA drives up to 4.0TB. Once installed, you can set up both internal drives in RAID 0, RAID 1, or span drive modes.

The Elite Pro Dual comes with two FireWire 800 ports, which are FireWire 400 compatible and a USB 3.0 / 2.0 port. It's also plug-and-play easy to connect to any Mac or PC.
Runs Cool & Quiet
The Elite Pro Dual utilizes a vented front plate and whisper quiet fan to cool the two internal drives by moving air through the enclosure. In addition, its rugged 2mm thick aluminum enclosure acts as a heat sink. This tandem cooling action keeps the Elite Pro Dual running coolly, quietly, and reliably.
Built to Last
A rugged, shock-resistant aluminum enclosure coupled with high-quality internal components ensures the Elite Pro Dual RAID is built to last. It also comes backed by a 1 Year OWC Enclosure Limited Warranty.
Key Features:
  • Supports two 3.5" SATA hard disk drives
  • RAID Support: RAID 0, 1, and span
  • Up to 64MB data buffer
  • Up to 10,000RPM speeds
  • Up to 300MB/s performance with RAID-0
  • Oxford 946DSE and Oxford 3101 chipset
  • Whisper quiet operation
  • Shock resistant aluminum enclosure
  • Drive activity LED (blue)
  • Includes all interface cables
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual
  • Gallery
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  • Gallery Pic 1
  • Gallery Pic 2
  • Gallery Pic 3
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 Hard Drives in a
Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID Enclosure.
From day one, the OWC Mercury Elite Series has been designed to be everything you'd hope for and more!

Includes

Gallery

Gallery Pic 1 Gallery Pic 2 Gallery Pic 3

Product Specifications:

Chipset

  • Custom Oxford 946DSE and Oxford 3101 FW800 (1394B) / USB 3.0 (2.0 Backwards compatible) Chipset

Interfaces Supported

  • FireWire 800 (1394B)
  • USB 3.0 (2.0 Backwards compatible)

Supported Drive Type

  • Supports Two 3.5" Serial ATA Drives (1.5Gb/s, 3.0Gb/s, and 6.0Gb/s)

Drive Speed Support

  • Up to 10,000RPM

Recommended configurations supported

  • RAID 0 Performance Striping for maximum performance (requires two identical Hard Drives)
  • Non-RAID Span mode combines the capacity of two drives of the same size without any RAID data distribution scheme into one logical volume. Will also combine the capacity of varying size drives based on the lowest capacity drive in the set.
  • RAID 1 also supported, but we strongly recommend the NewerTech Guardian MAXimus for maximum RAID 1 performance requirements.

Port Configuration

  • FireWire 800 - (2) 9 pin ports
  • USB 3.0 - (1) Standard-B port

Max Data Transfer Rate

  • FireWire 800 - 100MB/s
  • FireWire 400 - 50MB/sec
  • USB 3.0 - 300MB/s
  • USB 2.0 - 60MB/s
  • USB 1.1 - 1.5MB/s

Port/Interface Bootability

Can I use this solution as an external startup drive?

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 3.0: Macintosh with USB 3.0 interface, either built in or via USB 3.0 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.
  • Time Machine® Compatible: Mac OS X 10.5 (version introduced) and later.

Windows System Requirements

  • USB 3.0: Windows XP and later with USB 3.0 interface, either built in or via USB 3.0 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.

Linux Requirements

  • Linux compatible via supported USB and FireWire interfaces.

Power Supply

External Case Dimensions

  • 2.8 in (W) x 9 in (D) x 5.25 in (H) (71.2mm x 228.6mm x 133.4mm)

Drive Weight (no accessories)

  • Approximately 5.5 pounds (2.5kg)

Product Manual

Operating Environment:

Temperature

  • (operating) 5°C - 42°C (41°F - 107°F)
  • (non-operating) -40°C - 65°C (-40°F - 149°F)

Relative Humidity

  • (operating) 8% - 90% RH (Non-condensing)
  • (non-operating) 5% - 95% RH (Non-condensing)

Shock

  • 65G 2mS; (non-operating) 175G 2mS

Vibration

  • (operating) 1.0G (5 - 300Hz)
  • (non-operating) 5.0G (5 - 500Hz)

MTBF (hours)

  • More than 300,000 power-on hours

Warranty

1 Year OWC Enclosure Limited Warranty

View more information about the 1 Year OWC Enclosure Limited Warranty

Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n MED3FH0GB UPC#: 794504326154

Videos


Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4.7 / 5 13 out of 18 (72%) reviewers would recommend this product
1 2
Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: albertringo Location: San Juan Puerto Rico Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 nice item March 29, 2019 fasst and durable, A++

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: MacArtist3 Location: Mentor, Ohio Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Great Product October 4, 2018 This enclosure is exactly what I needed. Good size and easy to install the two drives. Works great! Thanks.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: robohack Location: Kelowna, BC, Canada Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 well built and easy to use little RAID device August 1, 2018 I needed additional storage for my aging iMac, and I was looking for RAID-1 support in a FireWire enclosure with a decent chance it would have a future with a newer system (i.e. that it would also have some other high-speed and standard interface and that internally it would support modern drives).

This device met my needs exactly and is very reasonably priced compared to any competitors.

It was very easy to install the drives, plug it into my FireWire bus (moving older FW400 devices to the end of the chain), and macOS easily initialized and partitioned it as I wanted.

It can't take full advantage of the Toshiba MG03ACA (6.0 Gb/s SATA) drives I purchased with it, but neither could the iMac in any other way.

The external power supply is somewhat of an annoyance.

Unfortunately there is no way to monitor the status of the RAID-1 mirroring except by direct visual examination of the status LEDs on the front panel, but that's mostly Apple's fault for dumbing down macOS.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: ErikRichard Location: Aarhus, Denmark Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Mercury Dual FW Enclosures June 10, 2018 Have more of these enclosures and they are just working perfectly well! - Yes, these enclosures do indeed have great features and really high performance. I use them with both MacPros and an oldie of a Dual G5 and earlier also with a PowerBook G4 - all with FW400 & FW800. As a bootable backup they are also faster than other FW enclosures I've had.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: TheRetiredViking Location: Tri-Cities area TN Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Sturdy, proper power supply June 7, 2018 This is a sturdy product, installing the drives was straightforward with no having to tweak or pry or bend anything. The power supply is an in-line brick, not a "wall-wart", so full marks for that alone.

This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: AzNative Location: Arizona Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Easy to Install and Use March 12, 2018 I would highly recommend using OWC. Their technical staff know their product, how to interconnect with mac, and its function. The question I had were answered to my understanding and satisfaction. The Elite Pro Dual installed quickly, quite operation with no issues. I have several other hard drives from OWC operational for over a year with no reliable issues.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1 + FireWire 800. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: chuckle Location: Paden, OK Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 easy to stash extra drives in March 5, 2018 Easy to stash extra drives in to clear up desk clutter. Sorta matches my older model OWC Mercury Elite Pro (that needs a new cooling fan to make wife happy due to noise). Personally I had problem with the tiny case screws because of carple tunnel/arthritis but was able to manage with a magnetic screw driver from the OWC 14 piece tool kit.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: MadisonMacSalesFan Location: Madison, WI Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Storage and Time Machine Backup...in one! February 5, 2018 I bought this enclosure to simplify my backup situation as well as to clean up some cable routing. I put two hard drives in and set it to Raid 0. Both drives connect via one cable (Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2, Thunderbolt 2 to FW 800, FW800 to device). There are 2 FW800 ports on the back, so I hang another FW 800 cable off it so that I can plug in other FW drives I use occasionally. Because I was able to do this, it freed up the other Thunderbolt 3 port for me to use as an additional UBB 3.1 port. The enclosure is much smaller than I thought it would be, which was a big plus. It appearance, it sort of reminds me of the old cheese grater Macs. It's a fast enclosure which has never failed to mount upon starting up my iMac. The only thing that may be considered is the fan noise. It's not loud, but since everything else I have has either no fans or ultra-quiet ones, I can hear it. I'm sure they need fans as the two 3.5 inch drives sit so close to one another in a small enclosure. I recommend this enclosure.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 50 Contributor
Reviewer: Kaner Location: Mokena Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Lots to love. December 21, 2017 Having FireWire 800 and USB 3 allows me past and future connectivity. Room for two 3.5in drives also gives me room to expand. Love this drive.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: CYR007 Location: KL, Malaysia Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 If you still use Firewire go for it. December 7, 2017 Using the housing with 2x4TB HD for update tasks. No problem to report, bought a second case... You still have a pre USB 3, but firewire connection Mac, go for it. Using is connected to a 2010 Mac mini.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: boatdog97439 Location: in the sicks on the Oregon Coast Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Very happy. November 21, 2017 I bought this enclosure to replace a fancy schmancy expensive dual drive who's board was going bad. This fancy schmancy drive was no longer supported since it was out of warranty and this company was bought out by a drive maker who is 2Big for their britches. I want a product that has support or in this case if it goes ka-put after warranty, I don't have to buy a whole new drive. I installed the 2 RAID drives from the old fancy schmancy drive, set the RAID switch to RAID 1, hooked it up and it was up and running. Everyone I spoke to and everything I read on the interweb said I would have to reformat the drives. Before doing that, I figured I would see if they would be recognized. Tah Dah... they were and I was good to go. Note this is a USB3 drive. Honestly, I can't justify the added expense for Thunderbolt since the speeds are pretty close and I don't have the need to "daisy chain". Highly recommended.

This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: jpmvdr Location: Salmon Arm BC Age: Over 65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Well designed product November 9, 2017 drive was easy to setup and is very quiet...

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: VideoDriveGuy Location: SoCal Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 4/5 Good value, but has had a few issues in past October 9, 2017 A little over a year ago, I had to replace a failed earlier model of this unit. A few weeks ago, last year's unit failed. The circuit board mounted Drive 1 connector likely failed. With the good help of tech support, we finally got it figured out (thought it was defective/failed HD's). However, ended up throwing away a perfectly good HD before figuring out it was the cabinet, not the HD's. So not too happy that the last new one only lasted a little over a year.

The new replacement is fine and does correct the HD connectors (no board mounted socket), likely avoiding the problem with the previous model. Likely will not have that same issue. Not thrilled with the R/W speed when in RAID1. With B/M Speed Test, can only get 110/146 W/R using USB-3. Really wish the Thunderbolt model was less money. We use this as one of our video production drives, so does limit what we can do with it. Overall, gave it a decent rating because it is a decent value for a RAID unit. Plus it looks like they may have resolved the prior vulnerability to failure. Keep my fingers crossed! Also would be nice to have some type of utility to check the status of the RAID drives, etc. Make it a lot easier to troubleshoot issues like I had.

This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Response from MacSales.com, Call Center November 9, 2017 I'm very sorry to hear about any issues you had with your older Elite Pro Dual. We have had these lasting for years here, so it is very strange that yours would have had a drive bay go bad so soon. We also do try to keep improving our products over time, and I'm glad to hear that you appreciate the design change on the new Elite Pro Dual you received. If you do need help with anything, please contact us at 1-800-275-4576 and we'll be happy to help!
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: PaulDenver Location: Denver, CO Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Hobbiest Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Well made and works perfectly August 24, 2017 Constructed like a tank, this is doing exactly the job for which I bought it, and doing it very well indeed!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1 + FireWire 800. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: artphotodude Location: Spokane, WA Age: 35-44 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 THIS PRODUCT IS A MUST OWN!!!! May 23, 2017 Can't believe how fast, reliable and serviceable this item is (especially for under $100).

Don't walk - RUN OUT AND BUY ONE!!!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: IrishJim Location: Boise, ID Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 BackUp Or Die May 11, 2017 This is the solution for a local backup most ignore. Two disks in one case. Disk 1 is the original Data Drive, Disk 2 is the clone of Disk 1 using Carbon Copy Cloner. I feel safer knowing my files are in two places without interruption . Make sure the size hard drives that you add to this will handle the backups.

This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: KDMS Location: Ohio Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Love this Hard Drive, however. May 7, 2017 Upon receiving the hard drive, I made sure I was on the Mirror setting Raid 0, then I initialized the drive. But in checking it was still 12TB, but I had told it to mirror, so I am unsure what is going on but I can only assume it is seen as one 12TB drive instead of two 6TB drives mirrored. But it sped everything up an made it simpler to navigate our DVD collection. As has always been the case with OWC, a great system even with the hiccup.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 12.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1 + FireWire 800. Customer Videos:

Response from MacSales.com, Technical Support May 8, 2017 Actually, RAID 0 is the striped RAID option - for fastest speed. The mirrored option is RAID 1, which writes the same data to both drives for protected redundancy and would result in a 6.0TB total capacity.
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Digdug Location: CA Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 4/5 Great enclosure, need some update to make it work well February 21, 2017 I am using the dual enclosure with 2x WD Blue 4TB in RAID-1 for redundancy. The firewire 800 works well with my mid-2010 Mac Mini server. It's faster than the USB-2 on the mini. I have problem with the USB-3 interface getting stuck on my other PC (Gigabyte H170N MoBo with Intel USB-3). The drive mount but it is very slow in writing data. I found a solution by updating the JMicron controller firmware and now everything is flawless. The fan is a bit loud but it keeps the drives cool.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: mvignola Location: Seymour CT Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 The Drive Provides Flexible backup solutions January 31, 2017 This drive has flexible setups and I did setup in a Raid configuration that provide a mirror backup of all of the data I used as a backup of many photos and family info. I used the Mac ChronoSync application in doing the backup process which works very well. I used the firewire connections to my Imac. The speed of transfer was very good. The drive does permit various data connections either via firewire or USB3 Its a very quite drive and cool to the touch. It's a great choice for data backup.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 6.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1 + FireWire 800. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: JohnG5678 Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Great for backing up my Drobo January 28, 2017 Love my Drobo and it has saved me several times when a single hard drive failed. But what happens when the Drobo unit fails - Well, you better have a backup. Yes, you can buy another Drobo unit and put the current stack of drives into the new unit, but at that point you are out a lot of money and time and you better cross your fingers that the data is still intact. This is a simple solution for my on site data backup. My Drobo is my primary stack of drives and this unit serves as a reliable backup of that data. I'm currently using two 3TB WD Red drives for a total of 6TB backup space. The Drobo has much more room, but I am currently only using 4TB so I have some room to grow.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Magnus Location: Stockholm Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 3/5 whished the cooling fan could be more quite December 18, 2016 Seems to be a nice product but I would have liked it even more if the cooling fan and discs could stop when not in use. So please make this disc smarter by letting the discs and fan rest once in a while.

This review is from 6.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1 + FireWire 800. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: JayBee Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 2/5 Depends on how you'll use it December 14, 2016 This product is advertised as having a "variable speed fan," but this actually is only true if you're using the enclosure in RAID mode. Otherwise, the fan will run constantly and be fairly audible and annoying in so doing. The fan will even run while the drives or the computer are asleep -- you actually have to hit the power switch on the back if you ever want to turn the fan off. Not very good if you plan on, say, connecting this enclosure to a media server and waking up the drives remotely from time to time.

Bottom line, if you plan on using this enclosure to house two independent drives, the constant running of the fan might be a deal breaker.

This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Response from MacSales.com, Tech Support January 2, 2017 We greatly appreciate your feedback and are sorry for the confusion surrounding the fan. The fan in is a fixed speed low decibel fan not a variable speed fan.
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: gfchew Location: Portland, Oregon Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Flawless Out of the Box Experience December 13, 2016 I purchased the 6.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID as a back-up in addition to my Time Capsule as well as just extra storage for photographs, music, . . . I had a bit of trouble booting it up (i.e., operator error), but after two minutes with tech support it works flawlessly. It's super quiet.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 6.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1 + FireWire 800. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: EeeVee Location: Cuyahoga Falls OH Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Great enclosure. Easy set-up. December 12, 2016 Used this product because it supports USB 3. I had a dual drive enclosure which supported USB 2 and Firewire 800, but USB 3 is faster than either one. Plus, my drives were a bit old. Thus, I purchased this product and installed two new 3 1/2 in drives in it.

Everything worked well right out of the box. I would recommend this enclosure to others.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: MountainMan Location: Woodland Park, CO Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Reliable and a bargain, too December 11, 2016 I had been using an OWC Mercury Elite QX2 four-bay drive enclosure for my backups, but a couple of months ago it started misbehaving badly and destroyed a couple of my drives. Several hours spent on tech support with OWC could not diagnose the problem, so now I have an expensive paperweight. I liked the concept of being able to replace drives when full that the QX2 offered, but since it almost cost me my entire video/photo archive, I couldn't trust it any more. Subsequent Internet research seems to indicate the four-bay drives of any make are not that reliable. That's the bad news.

The good news is that the Mercury Elite Pro Dual enclosure seems to be utterly reliable. I have three of them, and so far, have had zero problems. Swapping drives is not quite as convenient as with the QX2, but it is not difficult and only takes five minutes or so. Thus, when I fill up the drives in the Dual, I'll simply remove them, store them, and install two new ones. I was having way too many backup drive enclosures taking up large amounts of space, so the ability to easily remove the hard drives and store them "naked" is a great appeal. These drives will rarely, if ever, need to be accessed, and I can retrieve the occasional file if necessary with an inexpensive OWC Voyager 2.

Of particular benefit on the Elite Pro Dual is that it can be manually configured as a RAID or as two independent drives. I can tell you from experience that RAID systems are not infallible, either; yes, if one drive fails and you catch it in time you can rebuild a new drive from the remaining good one. Maybe. If the electronics controlling the entire RAID fail, it can destroy the data on both disks. I've had it happen. So, taking no chances, I run my backup drives as independent disks. Yes, this takes longer to run a backup (twice instead of once), or to copy files to two separate drives, but it is as foolproof a system as I've found.

My only complaint is that I wish the OWC Thunderbolt version of the Elite Pro Dual were not over twice as expensive as the USB/Firewire version, but USB 3.0 is fast enough for any of my needs at a much lower cost.

I now back up my photos/videos to no fewer than four separate hard drives. Excessive? Perhaps. It beats committing suicide, though, if I were to lose a lifetime of irreplaceable images and memories.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.0 / FireWire 800 Enclosure Kit. Customer Videos:

OWC 0GB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Performance RAID External Enclosures Mfr P/N: MED3FH0GB OWC SKU: OWCMED3FH0GB Multi-Interface Storage Solution 1 Year OWC Limited Warranty
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