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USB disk enclosure stuck in USB 2.0 mode...


kano

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I built a RAID-1 array in one of these. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392054&cm_re=nexstar_mx-_-17-392-054-_-Product Except I'm using the older model, without eSATA, only USB3. It used to work fine, but now it only connects at USB2 speeds. I tried different cables and different PCs and the problem persists. Since USB2 is already a bottleneck when transferring data to an HDD, and since there are two HDDs in there, meaning that everything needs to be sent down the wire twice, it makes performance even shittier than a USB2 enclosure would be.

 

I tried cycling between JBOD mode and spanned mode with extra disks and that didn't solve the problem. One observation I made is that the indicator LEDs flash to indicate the connection speed. They flash slow when on USB2, and they flash fast when in USB3 mode. When I cycled modes (an operation that takes place inside the enclosure itself), the lights flashed quickly as they do when on USB3 speed. So now I'm wondering if the female USB3 plug on the rear of the enclosure is damaged and only the leads for USB2 are making contact. If only I had a volt meter, I could test the solder points on the rear of the PCB in the enclosure against the other end of the USB cable and ensure that they are all working.

Edited by kano
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Sounds like you could have a faulty port or cable on either the enclosure or your PC, so firstly do you have a spare USB 3.0 cable you can use to rule out the cable..?

Also do you have a spare HDD so test the enclosure in non-raid mode to see if its some wierd firmware issue preventing it from working at USB 3.0 speeds..?

 

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Nope, there's no warranty. I found one which is made by a different brand, though it is extremely similar in design. I don't need RAID logic in the enclosure, because I use software RAID mirroring on Btrfs. https://www.amazon.com/HornetTek-X2-U3-Enclosure-Shielded-Included/dp/B00D05DIFQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524409919&sr=8-1&keywords=hornettek+enclosure

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Nope, there's no warranty. I found one which is made by a different brand, though it is extremely similar in design. I don't need RAID logic in the enclosure, because I use software RAID mirroring on Btrfs. https://www.amazon.com/HornetTek-X2-U3-Enclosure-Shielded-Included/dp/B00D05DIFQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524409919&sr=8-1&keywords=hornettek+enclosure

Seems ok, but before you buy another enclosure - can I ask what computer case you have what the make/model of your mother board is..?

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Currently using the Ryzen 7 1700 system with an Asrock AB350 Gaming K4 board in it.

And the case, I ask because your mobo supports raid -

 

- https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/Fatal1ty%20AB350%20Gaming%20K4/#Specification

 

So if you case has some spare 3.5" bays why not plonk the drives there and raid them of the mobo - faster and prolly more reliable.

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And the case, I ask because your mobo supports raid -

 

- https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/Fatal1ty%20AB350%20Gaming%20K4/#Specification

 

So if you case has some spare 3.5" bays why not plonk the drives there and raid them of the mobo - faster and prolly more reliable.

I like using an external solution because of portability. And the RAID is all done in software by the OS, so it'll work on anything with a USB port. Of course you need USB3 though or else it is extremely slow.

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I like using an external solution because of portability, and the RAID is all done in software by the OS.

I assume that you only use this one one machine, otherwise how would the raid work on different linux machines..?

 

Back to you mobo, I see it supports USB 3.1 so you could get the next one up - https://www.amazon.com/HornetTek-Gemini-Type-Dual-Enclosure/dp/B01HHHGP4I/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1524471087&sr=1-2&keywords=Dual+Bay+Hard+Drive+Enclosure+3.1&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A6528338011

 

But imho this is only work is if the through-put of the drives is faster than USB3.0 otherwise stick with 3.0 and not 3.1.

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The system does automatic discovery and assembly. You just plug the enclosure in, and it detects both drives and configures the mirror. If one drive fails, it will not mount until you explicitly use the "degraded" option (so there's no need to worry about a silent disk failure). Then, you add a new disk to the array and delete the missing one. As the data balances to the new drive in the background, the file system is still online and usable, albeit with slower performance since there is read contention on the first drive... and it only mirrors the occupied space.

 

Another advantage of this system is that it does data integrity checking on the fly across drives. Whenever you write files, it creates checksums of the data on each disk. And if one drive disagrees with the other about what the contents of a file are, it will automatically fix the problem, since it knows the correct checksum. Conventional RAID systems and file systems like ntfs don't do this.

Edited by kano
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