MAIWO 4 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure with USB-C & 10 Gbps Speed - 4 Bay DAS Design for 3.5” SATA HDDs with 2 Cooling Fans, USB3.1 4 Bay HDD Enclosure Daisy Chain Expansion, DAS(NO RAID)

This enclosure replaces an Akitio Thunder3 Quad enclosure that was not working with my mac. This Maiwo enclosure works with Windows and macOS. No additional drivers needed.

This case is extremely poor quality - the drives are packed in too tight and the fans are tiny and underpowered. My drives immediately ran 10-15c hotter in this than the prior enclosure.

This device is an absolute bargain. It features four hard drive bays and is an ideal enclosure for backup drives. The exterior is made of aluminum, while the interior is plastic. However, it’s not suitable for everyone. I’m using it with a 2024 Mac mini Pro. When connected to the Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back, it doesn’t function. It works perfectly with the USB ports on the front of the machine. I couldn’t get the HDMI port to work, but since I don’t need it, I’m not using it. CAUTION: all the pieces are slightly rough around the edges, and some of the edges are razor-sharp. You could easily get cut.

First off, the external drives system is very easy to set up and to get started. Comes with all tools needed except readable instructions unless you happen to have a microscope. That or a telephoto eyes! The instructions were useless they were made so small... 1 star dinged for that.Next, in the description it was stated you could use 'software raid' with this enclosure which was what I was interested in because I wanted to get away from the hardware raid that often becomes glitchy with the OS unless the drivers are updated regularly. Well... 1 star ding for no software raid support. Tried every which way possible other than basic disk type structures (single drives only, no spanned / stripped or anything of the sort in raid configuration)The fans are relatively quiet, though I wish there was a dust cover or an easy way to attach one to the front to keep dust out. Being the case is aluminum, magnetic won't stick and there are no screw slots. Still, a plus star here.When installing the drives, it was fairly easy. Loosely tighten the screws so the drives still slide then screw the tray in place. Nowslide the drive into place and hold it firmly in place to the sata port while you tighten down the screws. Repeat for the second drive on that tray if one is there. +1 star for ease.Lastly, the ease of using the window management window to format through... +1. Again, if only spandisk would work here or. Basic software raid like they claim.3 star total. I wish I could give more. It really is deserving of it. It is very sell made and solid! Well thought out and great construction. Even with the issues I am happy with it.

Extremely easy to setup. It also acts as a Usb c extension AND connects an additional monitor. Highly Recommend!

Case is solid aluminum which is great however Drive trays and SATA interface are plastic resulting in bad fit. HDMI output also not working. Instruction sheet unreadable. Power supply not working.

The one I ordered and the replacement after the first one didn't turn on didn't work at all.If you connected the device to the charger, it did nothing. I tried other chargers I own and the same thing.What happened is that the Power LED turn on for a second, and then it stopped working. The HDDs didn't run because there was no power.I sent a message to their customer service, but they were not able to help.

This MAIWO 4 bay drive enclosure might be corrupting existing partitions or writing over existing partitions without warning! It would be wise to BACKUP all your PERSONAL DATA (like videos and photos) on any drives BEFORE you connect them to this MAIWO 4 bay drive enclosure for the first time!I installed four (10TB, 5TB and two 3TB) WD drives into this MAIWO 4 bay enclosure and all 4 drives had personal data on them. After installing them (only physically, NO partitioning) and turning each drive on I was immediately prompted in Windows 11 to format three of the four drives! Three (5TB and two 3TB) drives somehow had their original partitions and files system overwritten, removed or corrupted! Their data was wiped out, GONE! For some reason the 10TB drive was the only drive that didn't lose it's data since it's partition and files system was untouched. It was in the number 4 bay of this MAIWO 4 bay drive enclosure, and was the first drive to be turned on (before the other 3 drives).I'm using Windows 11 pro OS and was NEVER prompted or warned about any partition or file system change warning. After turning on these drives Windows prompted me to perform a disk format for three of the affected drives since their file systems were either removed, deleted or corrupted. Either it's a built-in software feature in the circuit board of this MAIWO 4 bay drive enclosure that did this, or Windows does this whenever you plug in ANY USB 4 bay drive enclosure for the first time to install drives, or something happened that's defective in the device or software, I don't know at this point.I will update my review once I have time to run some tests on this MAIWO 4 bay drive enclosure to see if it's working correctly, and hopefully not the cause of this data loss.So I'm forewarning you to be CAREFULL AND BACKUP UP ALL DRIVES before installing them in this MAIWO 4 bay enclosure!On a lighter note, this MAIWO 4 bay drive enclosure will only power-on if you have a drive installed AND the usb cable is connected to a running computer. Otherwise it will seem like the AC power to this device is not working, I think it's a safety or drive standard feature and not an issue with this device. Also the fans ONLY turn on when the MAIWO 4 bay drive enclosure reaches a certain temperature (that's in the manual) which is another feature built-in to this device.I like the well designed and solid aluminum case shell/cover, even though the rest of this device is plastic there are these brass implanted threads in the plastic parts so screws can be tighter and more secure, without being strip and loosened over time. I do like that each bay has it's own power switch for turning on/off individual drive and has USB Type-C 10GB/s transfer speeds at a reasonable price, these two features are mainly why I purchased it.Fortunately I did a backup all my drives to a WD 20TB drive before installing them into this 4 bay enclosure. It was just sheer luck I did because I NEVER expected these drives to have their data and partition wiped clean!