Metal Gear Box Raid 3500MGB-Raid Pro - NAS - Serial ATA-300 - RAID 0, 1 - Hi-Speed USB / Gigabit Ethernet
From Galaxy Metal Gear
A SATA enclosure like no other, the 3500MGB-Raid Pro offers the advanced in network attached storage technology. Workstations connected to the same network have access to the 3500MGB-Raid Pro's massive dual bay storage space. Plus, with 2 available USB host ports, any attached USB device is also accessible on the network. Used in conjunction with BitTorrent, the 3500MGB-Raid Pro can be set to download media files from the Internet and save it onto its internal SATA hard drives. With powerful RAID technology, all your downloaded media and data files can be safely backed up.
- Brand: Galaxy Metal Gear
- Model: 3500MGB-Raid Pro
- Dimensions: 4.95 pounds
Do Not Buy this NAS
Cheap and looks cool, that's about it.
This NAS is slow, locks up constantly on large files.
The only plus I can give this device is that it has a large community following from other manufactures, Taurus and Icy Box, of these Icy Box seems to have the best firmware.
So, If you like to hack and try to get crapware to work then this is for you.
However, if you want a reliable NAS for data storage, backup, or media STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS AS YOU CAN.
I spent weeks hacking my own firmware to get this thing somewhat reliable, during my testing I found many HDD can not be used with this NAS namely any Samsung or Western Digital drives, some Seagate (750GB - 1.5TB) and some Maxtor Drives.
Only Drive that I have yet to get any consistency out of in this NAS is the 1TB Hitachi.
If you want a great NAS with Many features and Excellent performance I recommend Synology.
Do not buy this enclosure
I have two of the MGB Raid Pro Enclosures and both have failed. I am not sure why, but I can tell you what I have learned about the experience:
-If you are buying this drive enclosure because it is cheap and looks cool, then save your money and buy a better enclosure like a Drobo. It is not worth loosing your data. I had set up my drives as a RAID 1 Mirror for the redundancy, but this is worthless when the enclosure fails.
-You can not just remove the drives (this is the same for all RAID drive manufacturers) and put them in another enclosure. The RAID does not work like that. They are usually proprietary. You will need to rebuild it using software ($400+) or a company.
-Remember, backup your setup file (so you can at least transfer the drives to another matching enclosure).
-Backup your data to a non-RAID drive, so that you can access it, if the main drive fails.
I tried to contact Galaxy a two separate occasions (they said to use email because it is faster and they respond in 24-36 hours), but I never received a response from them. I have tried to call the tech support, but had to leave a message and have not heard back from them. I did finally reach someone through their direct line. He just recommended buying another enclosure from them, so that I could recover the data from the hard drives. Stay away from this drive and company. I took all (4) 500g drives out and put them in a Drobo, but did save one of the drives to try and rebuild it.
DO NOT BUY, PLEASE!
This is quite possibly the biggest piece of garbage I have ever bought.
It does not work with: Mac OS 10.5.current, Windows Vista, Windows 2000. It will lose connection almost everytime you use it.
It is the slowest thing I have used in like a decade.
GMG is unresponsive to the defectiveness of the product. They will only replace the item.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.
