SABRENT 10 Bay 3.5” SATA Hard Drive Tray Less Docking Station
I purchased this a week ago with the intent to create one massive managed pool drive within Windows 11 Pro environment. I've purchased 10 Samsung QVO, 8 TB, with a total of 80 TB of SSD running.
The problem is this:
1) The 8TB Samsung SSD draws considerable more power than their smaller counterparts (e.g. 2TB, 4TB).
2) Some of the SSD seem to randomly disconnect and that messes up the managed pool.
3) It works again when I identify which one got disonnected and power that specific one again, for a little while (10-15 minutes) and then randomly disrupts again.
Obviously this is incredibly disruptive. My understanding is that this is related to some sort of power disruption. I've tried everything on the USB end to boost power (e.g. Y cables, Sabrent Powered HUB, down grading connection to a USB 2 port, etc) but the problem still remains.
My only theory now is that the Sabrent 10 bay's power supply is not sufficiente enough to handle TEN 8TB SSDs.
This is a huge problem given the sizeable investment I made.
Does anyone have a similar experience? I am extremely close to returning this monster for a refund.
Hello, @Chucky Kahng
Drive disconnections should not be happening. The 8TB QVO SSDs you have do not draw that much power (only up to 3.5W each), especially compared to the 20TB drives we have tested which draw >20W each. The power supply should not be a problem unless the unit is defective. Attempting to boost power over the USB port will not work at all as the 10-bay enclosure does not draw power over the USB cable. Additionally, using hubs can interrupt and degrade the connection.
What model 2.5" to 3.5" caddie did you adapt the 870 QVOs with to fit them in the unit? Can you track down which bay(s) are disconnecting or is it random? If it is only one or two drives consistently, it may be a defective drive(s). Additionally, QLC SSDs don't always do well in RAID-like arrays due to their slow write speeds, especially without TRIM. Does the issue persist when all drives are accessed as independent single volumes?
Your issue could be either:
- The drive caddies you are using are causing disconnections -> track down which bays are erroring
- Defective cable/USB port -> Try different cables and ports
- Issues with drive spin-down settings in OS for the drives in the managed array
- Defective SSDs
- Defective unit
@The Sabrent Informer I'm having the same issue except with 14TB 3.5 Hard Drives. Randomly all leds shut off, disconnects and a couple of minutes comes back online. Also running windows 11 pro. Are there any firmware updates?
@jgarcia1646 Yes, there have been firmware updates. One is available here.
Is there a new firmware since this last one?
I've updated from 41 to the one above, 81, and still having random disconnection issues with the 10 bay. The 5 bay has been great, so hoped the 10 would be just as good.
@gilbertson.jay This is often a host or hardware issue. The hardware issue could be as simple as a bad cable, or perhaps a different port or host system could be tested. Other possibilities include a specific HDD or bay disconnecting, or a filesystem issue.
I'll try some of those to see if I can pinpoint the issue.
81 is the latest firmware available then?
@gilbertson.jay As far as I'm aware.
The Sabrent 10-Bay docking station is a HUGE POS when it comes to "staying alive" during big transfers.
I've got mine setup in a software RAID and it's painfully slow when transferring files. Yeah, I used the powershell command lines for setup, and it doesn't improve transfer speeds. In JBOD mode it supposedly performs like a champ. That's a HUGE gamble though, because if 1 HDD fails... 💩
Anyway, I solved the disconnect problem with PowerToys "awake". I was able to transfer ~4TB of data without disruption. It just took 4 days... It's a HUGE backup drive, so...
