Looks like the NewerTech Voyager isn’t the only one getting the all the reviewers’ love. OWC’s Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 is pulling in the accolades, as well.
We haven’t really talked a whole lot about the Qx2 on the OWC Blog, and that’s kind of a shame, because it’s a product I really, really like. In short, it is an easy-to-use, multi-drive storage solution.
External storage is insanely useful, especially for backups. In most cases, your standard single drive external storage solution will serve you well. However, while single-drive options are inexpensive, they are limited in speed and redundancy.
For FireWire and USB 2.0, most drives will be bottlenecked by the connection bus. With eSATA, though, the drive mechanism itself becomes the limiting factor, relying on how fast the drive itself can access the data. While OWC Storage Solutions use high-quality drive mechanisms, we have yet to find a single drive that can take up the entire SATA bus’s bandwidth.
The other place where single drives are limited is in data redundancy. When a drive eventually fails (which, granted, can be years from now), all the data on the drive is lost. Regular backups and/or clones are ways of getting around this, but they also are limited to only being as up-to-date as the last time they were run.
Both these limitations can be addressed by the use of a RAID device, such as the Qx2.
A little bit about RAID
For those of you who don’t know the term, RAID stands for “Redundant Array of Independent Disks.” Effectively, multiple hard drives are connected together and appear as one large volume on your desktop. There are a number of different RAID types, each with different levels of redundancy and speed.
RAID 0 (Striped) – This addresses the speed limitations of a single drive, and is a great choice for instances where fast data access is needed, such as video and audio capture. Data is split into blocks over two or more drives at same time for high speed and large capacity. However, if one drive goes down, the whole RAID array is ruined. Technically, you could say that this is not a “RAID,” as it eliminates the “Redundant” part. But that would be nit-picky, and nobody likes people like that.
RAID 1 (Mirrored) - This addresses redundancy issues, and is best for when you have data you can’t afford to lose to hardware failure. In this mode, data is written simultaneously to to two different drives. If one drive goes down, you still have a second copy. The down side to this is that you effectively lose half your total drive capacity.
RAID 10 (1+0) - This RAID level combines both RAID 0 and RAID 1, effectively layering one over the other. While you still maintain the speed of a RAID 0 and gain the redundancy of RAID 1, you still have the loss in capacity mentioned of RAID 1, only now you have TWO drives you lose the capacity of.
RAID 5 (Striped with Redundancy) - This is a slight variation on RAID 10, which addresses the capacity loss. In RAID 5, data is striped between 3 or more disks, with only one drive’s worth of data being lost to redundancy. In effect, the more Disks the RAID array has, the more space-efficient the RAID’s redundancy function becomes. For a more detailed description of how RAID 5 works, check out this informational PDF.
There are, of course, other RAID levels, such as RAID 6, RAID 0+1 & RAID 53, but they’re mostly just variants or combinations of these major ones.
RAID-in-a-Box
The Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 makes adding RAID functionality and massive capacity up to 8TB to your system incredibly simple. All you need to do is put four identical drives into the Qx2 case (or select one of the pre-configured complete solutions), and select the type of RAID you want (it comes pre-set as RAID 5…which is my personal preference incidently). After a few moments, the Qx2 will configure itself and you can then attach it to your computer via the connection of your choice, where it will behave just like any other external device.
I won’t kid you, the Qx2 isn’t for everybody. In fact, for many, a simpler solution may be more useful. For those in a “small office” situation or power users with more advanced storage needs, though, this may be just what you’re looking for.
Wednesday, 22. July 2009
How do you think the Qx2 compares to the Drobo, and the Drobo Pro? What do you think of the Drobo Pro’s iSCSI ethernet connection vs esata?
Thanks,
Brooks
(happy owner of many OWC drives and parts)
Thursday, 23. July 2009
Opinion on the Drobo (or Drobo pro) versus the Qx2 really depends on what you’re using it for, and your level of expertise.
This is a discussion that would be an article in and of itself. Instead, I figured I’d list out some pros and cons of each. Depending on what you’re looking for, these would have different weights.
QX2:
Pros – fast eSATA connection; different types of drive configuration; inexpensive enclosure
Cons – no built-in networking; all drives must be same size.
Drobo:
Pros – inexpensive; can build arrays with different-sized drives; networking available with separate component
Cons – can only read drobo drives in a drobo; only one configuration; FireWire 800 is fastest connection.
Drobo Pro:
Pros: all the pros of Drobo, plus can hold twice as many drives.
Cons: iSCSI uses your ethernet port and still isn’t as fast as eSATA; no built-in network sharing; expensive.
For my particular needs, price range, and setup the Qx2 is a great fit. Your mileage, however, may vary.
Friday, 2. October 2009
I’m having quite a problem with my Qx2: at first it was beeping like mad and i was told to plug it directly into the wall outlet and not into the UPS i had it plugged into before (makes ZERO sense, this is exactly the type of unit you’d want to have battery backed up outlet for). Buzzing stopped though. And then the icon was gone and i couldn’t mount it anymore. Turns out the “bridge board” went (RAID controller???). Sent it in and got that board replaced. Now i can’t see my data. I get a “disk you inserted cannot be read” dialog and it won’t mount. I was assured by tech support that the data is safe and once i get the device back – all will be well. Not so. I’m running the Data Rescue now to see if there’s anything that can be restored – but i doubt it. It shows up as unformatted in Disk Utility. So much for safety of RAID5 (i had it set to RAID5 with 4 drives, 1 TB each).
Lost so much data, i don’t even want to think about starting from scratch.
Looks like i need to get a backup for this backup.
I’m just not sure if i will trust OWC solutions again…
Friday, 2. October 2009
Slava:
We’re sorry to hear of your experience.
While you might have an individual and isolated problem, the product is solid and has been well reviewed.
We did post your comment so all can see that we’re about transparency. As well as that we will go to extreme lengths to resolve issues
and earn our customer’s trust and satisfaction.
Please go thru the regular routes of our Technical Support and Customer Service departments here and I’m confident they will get this solved for you.
OWC Grant
Saturday, 17. October 2009
I had the same thing happen to my Qx2 that Slava did. This product has a substandard power supply, and isn’t usable in old houses, even connected to a voltage regulator. I’d rather return this unit and get something a little more robust, possibly somewhere else.
Sunday, 18. October 2009
Mine failed too!
My Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 has also been extremely troublesome. I’ve had mine for less than three months, and all seemed well until last Tuesday. As I was shutting down for the night, I had an amber blinking “Rebuild” light and a red flashing light over the A drive. I shut down the drive, thinking I would take care of it the next day.
The next morning, the drive would not mount. Rebuild light was now steady, with no blinking red lights. I called OWC tech support. First tech I spoke to told me to leave the unit on for 48 hours and see if it would rebuild. I let it sit. No drives were moving at all. This seemed strange that it would rebuild without any drive motion, so I called back and was told I needed to talk to Josh — apparently the top expert on the Qx2.
After exchanging a couple of emails, Josh shipped me a replacement enclosure overnight (cool!). But when I put the drives in, it had exactly the same problem. I called again. Josh was unavailable, but the person I spoke to told me to leave it on and let it rebuild. I left it on for 24 hours, still no drive motion, no mounting. So I called back and after a few exchanged emails, Josh called and told me that even if it was rebuilding, it should mount. That would have been good to know THREE DAYS before.
At this point, Josh suggested that I download Data Rescue III (a $100 program) and try that. After nearly 48 hours of scanning and recovering data, about 20% of my files are usable, and I have nearly 2TB of utter garbage.
This all happened using RAID 5, which is supposed to protect data. That absolutely failed.
I will never be able to trust this drive again.
Tuesday, 20. October 2009
Hi Pete and Eric and sorry to hear of your situation. We actually were able to help Slava…he had set his Qx2 for striping instead of RAID 5 and he did not change the dial when he inserted his drives. He was able to recover all of his data with Data Rescue, so there was a good outcome in this case. I believe our service department is reaching out to you both to discuss your situations further. Sometimes it’s settings, other times, despite all our commitment to quality (including a 8.4 amp power supply to definitely handle up to four drives), there is a hardware component involved. And yes, even with a voltage regulator, the unit might not be liking any power dips.
So rest assured, we want to regain your trust in this unit and will work with you to do so.
Tuesday, 20. October 2009
Hi Grant — Josh and I have traded emails this morning and he’s agreed to ship me a new enclosure and new drives. I don’t think I could have asked for anything more. Hopefully the new unit will live up to its reputation.
I totally understand that sometimes complex tech can fail. What really matters is how a supplier deals with that issue, and you guys have done everything you can to resolve this.